NRMA fast charging network

[Shock-On-T]

In my view, it's a big risk to arrive at a single stall site with a very low charge state.

It is a big risk, but sometimes it's the only option if you want to take that trip.
I went around Tasmania a few weeks ago, and on two separate occasions I arrived at a lone CCS2 charger with low SoC and had issues starting the charging session. Both times I was able to eventually get it to work, but it certainly gets the heart pumping...

 

[cafz]

Here's hoping that Evie Marulan morphs into Ampol Pheasant's Nest. That'd fix a lot of things, especially for people traveling from Wollongong via Picton Road, who wouldn't be helped by a site at Crossroads.

Agreed, Pheasant's Nest is a better site for now given the proximity of Marulan to the existing fast chargers at Goulburn. Most EVs would be able to comfortably do a round trip from Pheasant's Nest to the Airport and back as well.

It may happen - after all, the Macksville site is still called "Nambucca Heads" on Evie's network map!

 

[lennier]

Other than monitoring for posts here, is there any live information available on the status of NRMA chargers? I'm more concerned with out of order situations than whether they're free or not.

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Check for PlugShare comments. If someone has charged same-day, it's almost certainly working. If there's no recent info (good or bad), it's probably good. But if it's broken, you'll be incredibly unlucky to be the first person to notice. Someone will have left something there complaining about it! And then NRMA are fairly good at leaving PlugShare comments with status updates as repairs are scheduled & eventually completed.

Always have some sort of backup in mind if you're stretching the limits of your car's range.

 

[lennier]

Check for PlugShare comments. If someone has charged same-day, it's almost certainly working. If there's no recent info (good or bad), it's probably good. But if it's broken, you'll be incredibly unlucky to be the first person to notice. Someone will have left something there complaining about it! And then NRMA are fairly good at leaving PlugShare comments with status updates as repairs are scheduled & eventually completed.

Always have some sort of backup in mind if you're stretching the limits of your car's range.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I figured. Certainly looking to have backups of course but for some of the towns I'm looking at there's literally nothing other than perhaps a caravan park 15A! Hopefully if we can see a problem ahead we can potentially change route and avoid really slow charges.

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Are you an NRMA (or RACV) member? Their tow trucks are also an option, particularly for stranded members.

 

[cafz]

The NRMA website has a network map that shows site status: Electric vehicle fast charging network

However it seems to be manually updated rather than based on a data feed from the sites. As previously mentioned, there's an official NRMA account on Plugshare that posts when sites are confirmed broken and when they're back running again (eg. Batemans Bay has just been fixed after a lengthy outage).

 

[lennier]

Are you an NRMA (or RACV) member? Their tow trucks are also an option, particularly for stranded members.

Are they carrying top-up batteries these days to do VtV charges for EVs?

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Are they carrying top-up batteries these days to do VtV charges for EVs?

I doubt that'd happen. If they were set up to run on AC, it'd take hours to put in a meaningful charge. It'd be cheaper to pay for a tow truck than have a patrolman stand around waiting to unplug it and bring it back. If they were set up to run on DC, they'd surely disappear and never be seen again.

 

[lennier]

I doubt that'd happen. If they were set up to run on AC, it'd take hours to put in a meaningful charge. It'd be cheaper to pay for a tow truck than have a patrolman stand around waiting to unplug it and bring it back. If they were set up to run on DC, they'd surely disappear and never be seen again.

I would have been surprised. However high power DC to DC would be perfectly feasible at decent kW ratings if they really wanted to.
Just didn't think you wouldn't have been suggesting a tow truck for the obvious reason of getting towed. Haven't done that in 6 years and don't intend to start now

 

[lennier]

Case in point here. Someone was coming down the Hume last night and diverted to the Holbrook NRMA because of the inclement weather making it dodgy to reach Wodonga. Plugshare had someone charging on it earlier in the day but when they got there it had an Error 22 on it and that was that. No indication on plugshare yet of whether NRMA have resolved or are even aware. Seems to me that unless a given location has decent fallback options (at least a DC or 32A 3ph) nearby that you simply couldn't rely on these single stall NRMA chargers for any trip where you had forward accommodation bookings. It's a shame as I was looking forward to going through some smaller towns and doing my small bit for their local economy but that's looking increasingly impractical for many of them :-(

 

[Chuq]

(sorry for dragging off-topic)

I had similar nervousness recently - driving someones 40 kWh Leaf on a 280 km trip at 110 km/h almost the whole way (realistic range at this speed about 200 km). There was a 2-stall 350 kW station about 140 km in which would have been perfect - but had I been unable to use it for any reason I would have been in trouble (there are additional stations closer to the end of the trip but would have had to slow down a bit to make it).

Instead I topped up at an earlier 2-stall 350 kW station (about 90 km in to the trip). It was a 20 km detour but at least I had peace of mind.

Perhaps I was over paranoid - they are 2 stall sites so more likely to be available, but issues that affect both units (localised grid power outage) can still happen.

I know the driver @lennier is talking about - he is often a bit of a gambler with rolling in to superchargers on 0% though

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Case in point here. Someone was coming down the Hume last night and diverted to the Holbrook NRMA because of the inclement weather making it dodgy to reach Wodonga. Plugshare had someone charging on it earlier in the day but when they got there it had an Error 22 on it and that was that. No indication on plugshare yet of whether NRMA have resolved or are even aware.

Almost anywhere on the Hume is a bad example. It's the best-served highway in the country.

(EDIT: OK, the second-best. The Midland highway in Tasmania has 4-5 sites (Launceston, Campbell Town, Kempton (soon), Brighton and Hobart) in 176km - an average of 35-44km separation)

(EDIT 2: OK, the third-best. The Great Western Highway has 4-5 sites (Broadway/Olympic Park (take your pick), Kingswood, Blaxland (soon), Lithgow and Bathurst) in 201km - not counting Seven Hills - so an average of 40-50km separation)

The Hume Highway is 840km and has 13 sets of chargers, an average of 65km separation:
* Broadway/Zetland (highway/freeway - take your pick)
* Picton NRMA (arguably too far off the highway, but whatever)
* Mittagong NRMA
* Goulburn (Chargefox & Supercharger)
* Yass NRMA (arguably also too far off the highway, but whatever)
* Jugiong NRMA
* Gundagai (Chargefox & Supercharger)
* Tarcutta Evie
* Holbrook NRMA
* Albury/Wodonga/Barnawartha North (NRMA, Supercharger & Chargefox)
* Euroa Chargefox
* Avenel Evie
* Moreland Council/Moonee Ponds Supercharger/Airport West Chargefox (take your pick)

It's 153km between Evie's 350kW chargers at Tarcutta and Chargefox's 350kW chargers at Barnawartha North. And for a Tesla, it's 137km between Evie Tarcutta and Wodonga Supercharger.

Holbrook is half way between the two. If you can't manage 137-153km without stopping at the NRMA freebie half-way, well...

Oh, and most errors on NRMA chargers can be cleared by rebooting them with the E-Stop button.

 

[lennier]

Almost anywhere on the Hume is a bad example. It's the best-served highway in the country.

(EDIT: OK, the second-best. The Midland highway in Tasmania has 4-5 sites (Launceston, Campbell Town, Kempton (soon), Brighton and Hobart) in 176km - an average of 35-44km separation)

(EDIT 2: OK, the third-best. The Great Western Highway has 4-5 sites (Broadway/Olympic Park (take your pick), Kingswood, Blaxland (soon), Lithgow and Bathurst) in 201km - not counting Seven Hills - so an average of 40-50km separation)

The Hume Highway is 840km and has 13 sets of chargers, an average of 65km separation:
* Broadway/Zetland (highway/freeway - take your pick)
* Picton NRMA (arguably too far off the highway, but whatever)
* Mittagong NRMA
* Goulburn (Chargefox & Supercharger)
* Yass NRMA (arguably also too far off the highway, but whatever)
* Jugiong NRMA
* Gundagai (Chargefox & Supercharger)
* Tarcutta Evie
* Holbrook NRMA
* Albury/Wodonga/Barnawartha North (NRMA, Supercharger & Chargefox)
* Euroa Chargefox
* Avenel Evie
* Moreland Council/Moonee Ponds Supercharger/Airport West Chargefox (take your pick)

It's 153km between Evie's 350kW chargers at Tarcutta and Chargefox's 350kW chargers at Barnawartha North. And for a Tesla, it's 137km between Evie Tarcutta and Wodonga Supercharger.

Holbrook is half way between the two. If you can't manage 137-153km without stopping at the NRMA freebie half-way, well...

Oh, and most errors on NRMA chargers can be cleared by rebooting them with the E-Stop button.

I wasn't using the Hume as an example, I was pointing out if this sort of problem occurred in the regional towns I was considering that have no backup options then you'd be in trouble. Clearly as you point out on the Hume you have a lot of options and ending up relying on an NRMA charger is a choice, but that is not the case elsewhere. For those with 100kWh batteries it's a lot less of an issue in the regional towns since they can probably skip on to the next town/charger, but we don't all have that option
I'm aware of the ability to clear some types of errors, but the individual involved yesterday is just as experienced in EV travel as I am (over 5 years) and would have tried such things I'm sure.

 

[cafz]

I think it's worth pointing out that in this case the plan wasn't to rely on Holbrook - it was the already the backup option.

 

[lennier]

I think it's worth pointing out that in this case the plan wasn't to rely on Holbrook - it was the already the backup option.

Yep. Just wanted to make it clear that the reasons for them using the NRMA charger were irrelevant, it was the circumstance of the charger failure (seemed ok from plugshare, no resolution possible etc) that were relevant and problematic in terms of planning a trip that would have to rely on them.

I'm contacting the shire councils for some of the towns that are solely reliant on the NRMA chargers at present and seeing if they can provide pointers to businesses that might be able to offer 32A 3ph backup options (including local showgrounds etc like the good old days!) so I'll see how that goes and update plugshare if appropriate. Otherwise we'll probably have no choice but to route around those towns and spend more time on the Hume, which will be a shame.

 

[Chuq]

I'm contacting the shire councils for some of the towns that are solely reliant on the NRMA chargers at present and seeing if they can provide pointers to businesses that might be able to offer 32A 3ph backup options (including local showgrounds etc like the good old days!) so I'll see how that goes and update plugshare if appropriate. Otherwise we'll probably have no choice but to route around those towns and spend more time on the Hume, which will be a shame.

I suggest get the stats from NRMA on which sites are busiest and pass these numbers on to Chargefox/Evie. NRMA acts as a good indicator of where the demand is. Evie, for example, would do well to quickly progress it's proposed location not far from Mittagong (I constantly see photos of cars queued there).

 

[lennier]

I suggest get the stats from NRMA on which sites are busiest and pass these numbers on to Chargefox/Evie. NRMA acts as a good indicator of where the demand is. Evie, for example, would do well to quickly progress it's proposed location not far from Mittagong (I constantly see photos of cars queued there).

I don't think congestion will be an issue at any of the sites I'm interested in, it's just the circumstance of unresolvable charger faults that I'm trying to hedge against (in the relatively short term).

 

[moa999]

Possibly also a question of return for Chargefox/Evie in mimicking popular NRMA sites whilst NRMA is still in free mode.
They might think they are off putting them somewhere else without the free competition.

Plenty of Tesla Model3 drivers using the NRMA units in Berry and Bathurst over the close by/metres away Tesla units.

On the NRMA faults side, it's one thing that Yurika/QESH has seemingly done better as they typically include an AC unit, and 10v plug socket at their sites for some additional redundancy.

 

[lennier]

On the NRMA faults side, it's one thing that Yurika/QESH has seemingly done better as they typically include an AC unit, and 10v plug socket at their sites for some additional redundancy.

Yes the simplest and cheapest approach any network operator could take to mitigating risk with single stall chargers would be to add a type 2 or 32A 3ph (preferably both) as part of the installation. Minimal additional site cost for a whole lot of benefit.