Supercharger - Yass, NSW

[moa999]

Yass Council has supported a Tesla site

Electric vehicle charging stations
Councillors supported the Tesla Supercharger proposal for six car parks in Yass Park and Ride. The chargers will be fitted with universal connections.

News | Yass Valley Council

www.yassvalley.nsw.gov.au

Park and Ride seems to refer to a council carpark on Lead St, which is only a block away from the NRMA site and the main cluster of shops on Comur St.

Looks like 6 V3s propsed
At about 275km from Sydney CBD it should be reachable as the first charging site for most Tesla cars heading south.

 

[Chuq]

The universal connections does sound odd. Unless another provider will also be installing a unit there?

Or the "opening up superchargers to all vehicles" thing might be sooner than we think...

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Seriously? Yass P&R is a very long way away from both highways. It really should be at the Yass Junction service centre.

 

[moa999]

Seriously? Yass P&R is a very long way away from both highways. It really should be at the Yass Junction service centre.

Suspect once again it comes down to power.
The service centre is about 4km from town with almost nothing in between.

Likely very expensive to get what I assume would be a 1MW connection.

 

[Chuq]

So this is the proposal in the agenda:

https://yass.infocouncil.biz/Open/2021/09/CO_22092021_AGN_606_AT.PDF

And this is what was resolved in the minutes:

https://yass.infocouncil.biz/RedirectToDoc.aspx?URL=Open/2021/09/CO_22092021_MIN_606.PDF

Is it just me, or does it look like "The Tesla Superchargers be fitted with universal connections" was adding by the councillors during discussion at the meeting?

I'll check the YouTube recording (if there is one) later on tonight, it might provide more detail.

 

[moa999]

From 1.06.20 on the YT video, about a 10min discussion.

Council added that recommendation after discussions that the Business Manager had with Tesla.
But they just seemed comfortable that CCS2 was a universal connector.

So it doesn't really add much.

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Suspect once again it comes down to power.
The service centre is about 4km from town with almost nothing in between.

Likely very expensive to get what I assume would be a 1MW connection.

It’s already got KFC, McDonalds and a very large servo. Hardly remote. Besides, it’s closer to Yass than the pioneers memorial is to Gundagai.

 

[cafz]

At about 275km from Sydney CBD it should be reachable as the first charging site for most Tesla cars heading south.

It's fair way uphill though - the SR+ (at least, the 2019 one) will be more comfortable stopping at Goulburn, depending on where it starts in Sydney.

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

It's fair way uphill though - the SR+ (at least, the 2019 one) will be more comfortable stopping at Goulburn, depending on where it starts in Sydney.

Indeed. It's disturbing how much altitude you gain between Pheasant's Nest and Bargo. It's practically imperceptible as the freeway follows the Bargo Ramp, a weird route that climbs the range at a consistently easy gradient with negligible earthworks.

The other consideration is how much heavy wind you get across the tablelands. Crosswinds are worse than headwinds. The daytime prevailing winds are NW. Evenings and nights are roughly E. It's usually only calm very late at night.

• Yass to Shell Cove (Wollongong) would be easy.
• Yass to Sydney is a stretch, but doable.
• Wollongong (Shell Cove) to Yass would be a stretch, but doable.
• Sydney to Yass - no - just no.

 

[moa999]

Interesting.
ABRP for my 2020 SR+ says 90 to 13% from Sydney CBD. But obviously headwinds could play an issue.

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Last Sunday night my 2020 Fremont SR+ left Sutho on 90% and reached Goulburn on 14%. Normally it's a little over 20%, but I was carrying a surprisingly heavy new Ikea desk & some other luggage. No way would I have made it through to Yass at 110km/h.

Though my preferred route using the F6 and Picton Road (to skip the M5) burns a couple of extra percent. Either way I'm backtracking, but I prefer to get out of suburbia ASAP so that my backtrack is at 100km/h.

 

[cafz]

Crosswinds are worse than headwinds.

Not according to the data collected by ABRP.

 

[Chuq]

I only got around to watching the video (thanks for the link @moa999). I'm a little bit concerned that the council asked if they were universal connectors, Tesla said yes, all our sites use universal connectors (technically correct), but intentionally didn't point out that that doesn't necessarily mean that all EVs can use the chargers. Hopefully it doesn't mean that Tesla installs them, they open, and then there is confusion from the council when it doesn't work with other EVs. Conversely, there was some discussion a bit later where one of the councillors said regarding the economic argument "people will be driving into Yass with their pockets full of money, people who don't have money don't drive Teslas" suggesting the understanding that it would be a Tesla only site.

Second observation/rant: What a useless luddite Geoff Frost is. He made similar statements against the proposal at the meeting a couple of months ago. And it seems unmuting his mic before talking is a constant challenge for him.

 

[Zoltrix77]

I only got around to watching the video (thanks for the link @moa999). I'm a little bit concerned that the council asked if they were universal connectors, Tesla said yes, all our sites use universal connectors (technically correct), but intentionally didn't point out that that doesn't necessarily mean that all EVs can use the chargers. Hopefully it doesn't mean that Tesla installs them, they open, and then there is confusion from the council when it doesn't work with other EVs. Conversely, there was some discussion a bit later where one of the councillors said regarding the economic argument "people will be driving into Yass with their pockets full of money, people who don't have money don't drive Teslas" suggesting the understanding that it would be a Tesla only site.

Second observation/rant: What a useless luddite Geoff Frost is. He made similar statements against the proposal at the meeting a couple of months ago. And it seems unmuting his mic before talking is a constant challenge for him.

Second that, what a knob. Must be helluva shortage of parking in the town of Yass, he doesn't want to give them up! Yass are basically giving a free lease to Tesla in exchange for people stopping in the town. Apparently the stock market cap = the amount of money Tesla has on hand! He expects in these early stages that Tesla build a Kettleman City facility in every 2 horse town! Seriously, even if they did that, people will likely not directly engage Yass businesses.

I agree they have no idea about the connector issue; I'm sure they are expecting any EV to be able to use it! Oh well, if they don't do their research. Anyway, with Tesla opening up their network, it might be a non issue.

 

[stphw]

Tesla electric vehicle charging stations plugged into Yass | Yass Valley Times

www.yassvalleytimes.com.au

And on a slightly related topic in the same newspaper: Is Elon Musk’s Starlink internet the new favourite in Yass? | Yass Valley Times

 

[Chuq]

“Council did not believe that it should provide the additional space in a Council car park to a commercial company that did not provide a service to the whole market,” he said.

By the same token, by supporting the NRMA EV charger, they're not providing a service to the PHEV and Renault Zoe market.

And by having a car park at all, they're not providing a service to the pedestrian market.

Even if/when they open it up, it still won't serve the whole market, since Chademo vehicles would be excluded.

Another angle: Installing a supercharger would ensure that Tesla owners would stop there instead of the NRMA charger. Wouldn't a typical non-Tesla EV owner benefit from the significantly lower chance of the single stall NRMA charger being in use?

 

[RareEarth]

Perhaps it could be the Australian trial for opening up SC's to non Teslas? Would that keep the council happy?
Or Tesla could just say no and move it out to where it probably should be - at the service centre on the highway (probably run into the same objections though).

And on a slightly related topic in the same newspaper: Is Elon Musk’s Starlink internet the new favourite in Yass? | Yass Valley Times

Going down to the coast tomorrow to set up our Starlink, only problem I can see is the inability to set up a permanent VPN which I use at the moment over NBN (for cameras and weather station). Hopefully there is a way around this so that we can ditch the NBN satellite service.

 

[Maximillan]

A mate got starlink running for his house in the southern highlands, and he's getting around 150mb/s down on average. It's fairly stable compared to his old 4G setup with booster, but he has around 10 short (2-15 sec) outages per day.

 

[Chuq]

A photo on social media of packed Goulburn stations made me wonder what was happening with this one. I might stir Yass Valley Council a bit using the "Wouldn't it be good if all these cars waiting in Goulburn were instead stopping in Yass and spending money at local businesses?" angle. Unless anyone here has any further insight?

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Someone at Goulburn yesterday told me he regrets bypassing the Canberra Supercharger on his way north!