Supercharger - Maclean , NSW (Prev. Harwood)

[Chuq]

Another location that's not entirely useful for traveling, coffee from a pub at 2am?

This supercharger is just providing another option to those travelling the Sydney-Brisbane route. If you're travelling at 2am, by all means stop at one of the other nearby superchargers instead. But the majority of people aren't, and so this provides another option which will spread out charging across multiple locations, and will allow stops to be dictated by the driver, rather than having to stop where the superchargers are.

On the other hand if you *were* travelling southbound at 2am, planning to stop at Knockrow and on arriving found that the site was down.. and only had another 100 km of range left... you'd be pretty happy about the Harwood site existing, coffee or not!

 

[aegidius]

if you *were* travelling southbound at 2am, planning to stop at Knockrow and on arriving found that the site was down

They need one around Taree too, to break up those long legs.

 

[tragic]

Anyone been through in the last couple of months given Macquarie and Campberwell popped up very quickly

I had a look a couple of days ago and site looks unchanged compared to pics.

For us North Coasters it’s a useful site as It will be in range of Tamworth via Ebor road. Bit of a stretch from Knockrow.

 

[perryco]

Does anyone have an update for the Harwood supercharger? I'd love to try it out!

 

[tragic]

Does anyone have an update for the Harwood supercharger? I'd love to try it out!

Strangely I happened to look on the day you asked. Unfortunately no change. Temporary fence, long grass and orange conduit sticking out of the ground.

 

[Chuq]

Really weird that there's been no change for so long. Unless it's a Covid related thing?

 

[cafz]

I checked in on the Harwood site on July 16th and there's been no change since the last update. I didn't bother taking any photos because there's clearly been no work done since the last photos were posted.

 

[Vostok]

Really weird that there's been no change for so long. Unless it's a Covid related thing?

Possibly.

Or Tesla is thinking “NRMA, Chargefox, Evie buildouts... most Teslas on the road now are Model 3, S/X can have a CCS2 conversion... our job is done here”.

I assume Tesla will finish the SCs they’ve started (although even that is not guaranteed) but I would not be surprised if SC buildouts from here slow to a trickle if they expect the third party DCFC networks to keep expanding.

 

[rohan_aus]

Possibly.

Or Tesla is thinking “NRMA, Chargefox, Evie buildouts... most Teslas on the road now are Model 3, S/X can have a CCS2 conversion... our job is done here”.

I assume Tesla will finish the SCs they’ve started (although even that is not guaranteed) but I would not be surprised if SC buildouts from here slow to a trickle if they expect the third party DCFC networks to keep expanding.

This still upsets me, the non-testa DCFC networks are problematic at best, I regularly check recent activity on plugshare and the amount of times NRMA and chargefox chargers have faults is unacceptable. Not to mention many sites have a single charger, so a fault means people get stranded. Superchargers are just easier to deal with, more reliable and have more stalls at each location.

 

[cafz]

This still upsets me, the non-testa DCFC networks are problematic at best, I regularly check recent activity on plugshare and the amount of times NRMA and chargefox chargers have faults is unacceptable. Not to mention many sites have a single charger, so a fault means people get stranded. Superchargers are just easier to deal with, more reliable and have more stalls at each location.

Yes, as a perfect example the single NRMA charger at Mittagong went out of service yesterday and is apparently still down. Can't complain about free of course, but you wouldn't want to have to rely on it.

 

[aegidius]

I would never rely on a single station charger, unless I could always get to the next one. That means they have to be built <=200km apart for Teslas, and even closer for cars with smaller batteries. I'd be very jittery going outside the SC network today in NSW. At least the QESH stations have a backup AC charger.

 

[Chuq]

Or Tesla is thinking “NRMA, Chargefox, Evie buildouts... most Teslas on the road now are Model 3, S/X can have a CCS2 conversion... our job is done here”.

While I can only guess, I would find this very unlikely. A single NRMA 50 kW unit is nowhere near the same thing as a 4 bay supercharger site, even V2. I guess Tesla agrees since their expansion in 2019 was predominantly within NSW, which was getting covered with NRMA sites at the same time.

Chargefox and Evie 350 kW sites don't have that problem and Tesla may be thankful that there are such companies who have built these sites in areas they don't cover (so far Great Ocean Road, Gippsland, Tasmania, North Queensland). But when the number of EVs increases to the point where these sites are congested, it would make sense for Tesla to duplicate their infrastructure along those routes, effectively removing most of the Tesla owners from the pool of users clamouring to use the Chargefox/Evie sites.

I can only imagine the customer experience is worse (cost, accounts, apps, locating sites, etc) which is not something Tesla would want. Not an issue for most people here, but imagine a Tesla owner who doesn't hang out in this forum, TOCA, social media, Plugshare etc. - and only charges as and when the car says to. In the long run this type of owner will account for a higher and higher percentage of their customers.

 

[RareEarth]

Or Tesla is thinking “NRMA, Chargefox, Evie buildouts... most Teslas on the road now are Model 3, S/X can have a CCS2 conversion... our job is done here”.

Perhaps Tesla is waiting on some sort of nationwide coherent policy supporting EV adoption, as per the article on Robyn Denholm's recent comments:
https://thedriven.io/2020/07/02/tesla-chair-robyn-denholm-laments-politics-of-evs-in-australia/
Alas they might be waiting a while. In the meantime they could adopt a 'build it and they will come' philosophy. Or sit back for a while and see what is going to happen which I think would be a mistake as EV adoption will continue to accelerate and Tesla should be at the forefront.

 

[aegidius]

Alas they might be waiting a while. In the meantime they could adopt a 'build it and they will come' philosophy. Or sit back for a while and see what is going to happen which I think would be a mistake

Tesla are not stupid. They know the present govt is absymal in its attitude to EV's, and the alternative will not be not much better. There is no point waiting. They need to build.

 

[Vostok]

A single NRMA 50 kW unit is nowhere near the same thing as a 4 bay supercharger site, even V2.

I agree, that’s the biggest weakness in the NRMA network for example. But has Tesla increased its rate of building SCs, kept it the same, or reduced it? It’s be interesting to see the numbers, I might be wrong. How many SCs came online in 2018, 2019 and so far in 2020? I can see 7 SCs on the Tesla map showing as planned for opening this year, most in VIC, will they all be completed?

 

[Vostok]

This still upsets me, the non-testa DCFC networks are problematic at best, I regularly check recent activity on plugshare and the amount of times NRMA and chargefox chargers have faults is unacceptable. Not to mention many sites have a single charger, so a fault means people get stranded. Superchargers are just easier to deal with, more reliable and have more stalls at each location.

Not arguing with you on the redundancy angle. I’ve used the NRMA charger at Nabiac, which is a solo one, and if it was offline you could be in a lot of trouble, although I knew I had enough to get to Heatherbrae if required.

Having said that, there are lots of checkins on this charger, the most recent one reporting a problem was on 1 December 2019. It seems to be getting a lot of use. Since my visit in January there, Evie has opened up at Taree and Chargefox at Karuah.

 

[RareEarth]

They need to build

Maybe upgrade the busiest SC's to V3 and then relocate the V2 hardware to the 'coming soon' sites.

I would never rely on a single station charger, unless I could always get to the next one.

Lobbing into Hay with 9% charge to have the only charger in town go bang when I pressed the start button is not a nice feeling. However at least NRMA complete a promised charge location within a reasonable amount of time.

 

[alexeiw123]

I checked in on the Harwood site on July 16th and there's been no change since the last update. I didn't bother taking any photos because there's clearly been no work done since the last photos were posted.

Very curious, I can only guess it's covid related. Maybe someone could ask the pub what's happening?

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

I'd still charge at Chargefox (or even Evie) over a Supercharger any day of the week. Tesla seems to have abandoned NSW with zero supercharger builds, and it really irks me. I want the privates to have a solid revenue stream to justify building more.

Alas Chargefox Shell Cove was offline all weekend. And I would have loved to use it maybe 5-6 times between Friday night and Sunday afternoon while driving Uber. The first time was justifiable given all of Shellharbour and Shell Cove was without power, including many sets of traffic lights, and centre management had blocked off the underground car park anyway. But the rest of the weekend? The app just said it's offline (and still does).

And when I got to Zetland on Sunday afternoon, both the 350s were showing as offline. Fortunately the 50 was fine, so I just charged there instead. Fingers crossed nobody with CHAdeMO drove past unhappy.

 

[Vostok]

Alas Chargefox Shell Cove was offline all weekend. And I would have loved to use it maybe 5-6 times between Friday night and Sunday afternoon while driving Uber. The first time was justifiable given all of Shellharbour and Shell Cove was without power, including many sets of traffic lights, and centre management had blocked off the underground car park anyway. But the rest of the weekend? The app just said it's offline (and still does).

Have you pinged Chargefox to ask them why this particular charger seems to go offline an awful lot?