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NRMA fast charging network

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#221
Candleflame said:
i personally think coverage is more important but the unfortunate reality is that as electric cars will become more common (even in Australia without incentives) more chargers are needed and Albury is perfect for those driving around Melbourne/ACT/Sydney.
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My comment was somewhat tongue-in-cheek :D Yes coverage is important and somewhat being addressed by the third party networks (NRMA, various “electric highways”, Chargefox) which is great for us Model 3 drivers with CCS2 - best of both worlds. In fact I wonder whether these networks are reducing Tesla’s imperative (and business case) for expanding the Supercharger network. Especially when NRMA is currently free, and may stay that way for members.

Some of the Chargefox locations look brilliant (for my travel patterns anyway) and fill the gaps left by Tesla. Third party locations with just one stall are a little concerning (no redundancy), there should be two minimum. NRMA Nabiac seems to get a lot of check-ins, but if you were absolutely relying on it and it was occupied or in a fault condition upon arrival it wouldn’t be good.
 
#222
Vostok said:
My comment was somewhat tongue-in-cheek :D Yes coverage is important and somewhat being addressed by the third party networks (NRMA, various “electric highways”, Chargefox) which is great for us Model 3 drivers with CCS2 - best of both worlds. In fact I wonder whether these networks are reducing Tesla’s imperative (and business case) for expanding the Supercharger network. Especially when NRMA is currently free, and may stay that way for members.

Some of the Chargefox locations look brilliant (for my travel patterns anyway) and fill the gaps left by Tesla. Third party locations with just one stall are a little concerning (no redundancy), there should be two minimum. NRMA Nabiac seems to get a lot of check-ins, but if you were absolutely relying on it and it was occupied or in a fault condition upon arrival it wouldn’t be good.
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NRMA is free for their insurance members? depends if they give you a good deal on insurance i guess. you have to drive a lot to make it worth it.

chargefox is great because their midspeed 50kw chargers are very cheap (0.2aud/kwh) and their fast chargers are at least somewhat cheaper than tesla (0.4aud/kwh).

Evies pricing is rediculous.
 
#224
Candleflame said:
NRMA is free for their insurance members? depends if they give you a good deal on insurance i guess. you have to drive a lot to make it worth it.
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At the moment, the NRMA DCFCs are free for everyone. Don’t even need to wave a card of any kind, just plug in and push the start button. So you don’t need a good deal on insurance to make it worthwhile :p

NRMA have not decided what will happen longer term. They may start charging (ho ho), but keep it free for NRMA roadside assist members. Or everyone might need to pay, but NRMA members get a discount. I guess we’ll wait and see.

FYI, NRMA insurance is a totally different company to NRMA road services. NRMA Insurance is IAG (Insurance Australia Group) but use the NRMA name under an agreement when the insurance group was split from the motoring organisation and listed on the stock exchange in 2000.
 
#225
Vostok said:
At the moment, the NRMA DCFCs are free for everyone. Don’t even need to wave a card of any kind, just plug in and push the start button. So you don’t need a good deal on insurance to make it worthwhile :p

NRMA have not decided what will happen longer term. They may start charging (ho ho), but keep it free for NRMA roadside assist members. Or everyone might need to pay, but NRMA members get a discount. I guess we’ll wait and see.

FYI, NRMA insurance is a totally different company to NRMA road services. NRMA Insurance is IAG (Insurance Australia Group) but use the NRMA name under an agreement when the insurance group was split from the motoring organisation and listed on the stock exchange in 2000.
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i dont have an issue paying as long as its fair with reasonable profit for the company. but when they start charging 0.4cents/kwh + time while charging it is just unfair. The industrial electricity cant cost them more than a few cents at the most.
 
#234
Vostok said:
The Nullabor SuperCharger could be powered 24x7 with about 250 grid-quality solar panels and a Tesla PowerPack. C’mon Elon, do it! :)
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The government has even done calculations which have shown that it is more efficient to have people drive electric cars throug hthe nullabor with diesel generators charging them than it is to drive with a petrol powered vehicle.

I think people are unlikely to drive from 2300ish to 0500ish and even in the far future personal travel will be limited between WA and SA. There is plenty of sun to generate solar energy to charge at 40kw in the desert and in between there can be 10-20kw AC chargers for topup over night. It is just a question of how to bridge 1700 - 2300. I think it's unlikely to see more than 2 cars charge at the same time at any stop. I base that on driving extensively on busy outback roads and the amount of cars you see.
If I look at those shitty small portable solar panels and how much power they generate it really doesnt take much.

I am not really a fan of batterybanks, would probably be cheaper to just connect the DC chargers to the grid after sunset where they can generate less power. How to the coastal villages get their power? do they have generators? If they are connected to the grid that could just be extended.
 
#235
Candleflame said:
There is plenty of sun to generate solar energy to charge at 40kw in the desert and in between there can be 10-20kw AC chargers for topup over night. It is just a question of how to bridge 1700 - 2300.
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Yes, there is plenty of sun out there, my estimate was based on building a fully-capable 120 kW SC. Destination or top-up chargers would require much smaller solar arrays. But the smiley was the giveaway that I’m not seriously suggesting this is a priority, there are far more urgent locations requiring SCs.

Candleflame said:
I am not really a fan of batterybanks, would probably be cheaper to just connect the DC chargers to the grid after sunset where they can generate less power. How to the coastal villages get their power? do they have generators? If they are connected to the grid that could just be extended.
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Many places in the outback don’t have the grid. I’ve never driven the Nullabor section of the highway so I can’t comment on whether there is a transmission line next the road or elsewhere. WA power grid is not interconnected with the rest of the country so perhaps not.

Even if there is a grid transmission line somewhere, extending it to a location you want isn’t cheap - probably tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars per km. So you wouldn’t need to be far from the grid before a battery bank wins the business case hands down.
 
#236
An Engineer from Perth built a 'portable' EV charger with a diesel generator and alternator and then tested half a dozen cars on it to check its effectiveness. He determined that the EV's got better mileage from the diesel used for charging than most ICE vehicles could achieve. His motivation for the test was a desire to drive his EV across the Nullarbor.
Using diesel to charge EVs in the outback is greener than you think | The Driven
If AEVA could raise interest in projects like that then EV travel anywhere in OZ could become a reality.
 
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#237
Candleflame said:
These chargers look like rebranded yurkia chargers which I think first popped up in QLD for their electric highway. They have a switch when you start charging to switch between the lower limit (80% in QLD) and 100%.
Every charger seems to have some sort of internal timer where it stops charging and once it does so you are unable to start charging again until you have less than the lower limit charge.
In Tully it seems to switch off after 1 hour of charging. Hence I interupt the charge at 70% and then restart the charger.
Tbh I never charged to 100% on them, but in Townsville i charged to 96% before.
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Just to let everyone know that chargefox has fixed the issue. The charger won't stop charging automatically anymore, you now have to press start first which means you can start charging if above 80%.
 
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#238
Recent council meeting agendas suggest NRMA chargers...

In Walgett: https://www.walgett.nsw.gov.au/wp-c...nary-Meeting-25-February-2020-Public-Copy.pdf (particularly interesting as it is well out of the existing coverage areas)

Also one in Inverell:
https://inverell.nsw.gov.au/wp-cont...sinessPaper_CouncilMeeting_18December2019.pdf

And Walcha:
http://www.walcha.nsw.gov.au/f.ashx/February-2020-Ordinary-Meeting-Business-Paper.pdf

These last two are in relatively small towns, not at major highway junctions are you would expect.

UPDATE: More found!

Bourke: https://bourke.nsw.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/bp200120.pdf (looks like a "maybe" - is referred to as "an expansion", not sure if that means current deployment or a further round post the 40 sites planned)
Jerilderie: 404 Not Found (yes, the link works!)

UPDATE #2: (I should have spent more time hunting before starting this post)
Tenterfield: https://www.tenterfield.nsw.gov.au/content/uploads/2020/02/Agenda-_-Feb-26-2020.pdf
Brewarrina: http://www.brewarrina.nsw.gov.au/f.ashx/February-Business-Paper-OPEN.pdf

upload_2020-3-13_0-36-50.png
 
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#239
RareEarth said:
Charging stations on long distance interstate routes like the Sturt Highway must have backup especially in the more far flung locations,
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Last Thursday morning when I was in Hay looking at a dead NRMA charger (it had emitted a loud 'pop' when I pressed the start button - not a nice feeling when it is 100's of km to anywhere) I remembered writing this. The car had 9% left, we had driven from Adelaide the day before, charging at Kapunda (awesome cornish pasties at the bakery) and Mildura NRMA. Fortunately there was 3 phase at the showgrounds and fortunately I had my Juice Booster.
Thanks to the owner of the motel we were staying at for the lift back out to the showgrounds after around 4.5 hours of charging. He is keen to get a destination charger installed at his motel, would have been very handy to be able to charge overnight!
According to Plugshare, two other EV drivers after us have got to Hay to find the broken charger, not sure how they coped. I advised NRMA of the problem, they said they needed to send someone out. They can't do remote diagnostics so were not sure of the problem, although in this case the noise the charger made when it failed was fairly definitive.
 
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