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Superchargers in Australia
- Thread starter JOH
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- Australia Supercharging
Chuq
Active Member
Call to make caravan parks EV hotspots - Australian Associated Press
Australia's caravan parks could become electric car hotspots, with an industry body proposing their use as a fast-charging network.
www.aap.com.au
About caravan parks willing to install fast chargers.
Also noticed this line:
I can't think of any existing supercharger sites which are located at caravan parks. This must be in relation to upcoming sites? I'm not aware of the nature of all of the funded NSW sites, are any of them caravan parks? Or do we have some more rural/regional locations to look forward to?
RichardV
Member
I had previously speculated that the Parkes Supercharger would be at the Henry Parkes Centre which includes the local visitor centre. This may well be wrong.
The location listed in the approved locations list/map is merely,
"Peak Hill Rd, Parkes NSW 2870, Australia"
The "Parkes Country Cabins - Caravan Park" also matches this address at
"21 Peak Hill Rd, Parkes NSW 2870"
The location listed in the approved locations list/map is merely,
"Peak Hill Rd, Parkes NSW 2870, Australia"
The "Parkes Country Cabins - Caravan Park" also matches this address at
"21 Peak Hill Rd, Parkes NSW 2870"
I suspect the article is confusing Superchargers with “destination chargers”. Anyway, I don’t see the point. Caravan parks already provide 15 amp sockets which are perfect for an overnight charge.Call to make caravan parks EV hotspots - Australian Associated Press
Australia's caravan parks could become electric car hotspots, with an industry body proposing their use as a fast-charging network.
About caravan parks willing to install fast chargers.
Also noticed this line:
I can't think of any existing supercharger sites which are located at caravan parks. This must be in relation to upcoming sites? I'm not aware of the nature of all of the funded NSW sites, are any of them caravan parks? Or do we have some more rural/regional locations to look forward to?
RichardV
Member
The new Bathurst NRMA site, well Kelso, is also in a NRMA holiday park. It will be a 4 stall CCS/Chademo site.
Chuq
Active Member
I think the point is that they want to expand from overnight charging to en-route "fast charging". Hopefully they've been properly informed as to the differences.
It's also the case that a lot of caravan parks don't actually provide any convenient power outlets to cabin sites. We don't have a caravan (and I imagine most EV drivers aren't towing a caravan either) but stay at Big 4 style parks often.
We always book the "cabin with a car space next to it" style.
So far I've only been able to plug the car in easily once. Most would require an extension lead or finding an unused powered site and hoping they don't mind.
So some dedicated, easily accessible destination chargers near the entrance would be much appreciated. But it would be just as easy, and probably cheaper just to supply a 10A socket to each cabin car space. The cabins already have power.
I've heard that in the UK, caravan parks are cutting down on using site plugs to charge EV's.
They probably don't have the gigantuan caravans we have that regularly suck down the full 15 amps running the fridge, plasma tv and air conditioning, so maybe the parks over there don't have the supply.
They probably don't have the gigantuan caravans we have that regularly suck down the full 15 amps running the fridge, plasma tv and air conditioning, so maybe the parks over there don't have the supply.
I have a 10 metre industrial-rated extension lead for my UMC in my box of tricks. I have always been able to plug in to a suitable socket in a cabin/holiday house using that. I also check with the property owner/operator if they are OK with me doing it.
Yep, and 15A would be even better, and not that hard or expensive compared to a dedicated destination charger. A 6pm to 9am charge on a 15A socket (with Gen 3 UMC taking the full 15A) would add about 300 km of range overnight which in most case would be more than enough.
I once stayed at a cabin for a week and trickle charged at 8A off a 10A socket (Gen 2 UMC) and could recharge enough for each day-trip. The longest I charged for was about 12 hours.
Which again comes back to a billing issue (similar to apartment blocks).
Historically Aus caravan parks have charged a $10-20 premium for powered sites, which averages out to a decent profit.. even if there are some big a/c vans that probably do come close to consuming 80kWh over a 24hr period.
But that whole mix changes if you suddenly have a heap of EVs who will definitely be pulling big kWh.
Ideally someone will come up with some cheap 10/15A plug sockets that could be retrofitted easily using existing wiring and report usage via the power lines back to a centralised billing box.
Historically Aus caravan parks have charged a $10-20 premium for powered sites, which averages out to a decent profit.. even if there are some big a/c vans that probably do come close to consuming 80kWh over a 24hr period.
But that whole mix changes if you suddenly have a heap of EVs who will definitely be pulling big kWh.
Ideally someone will come up with some cheap 10/15A plug sockets that could be retrofitted easily using existing wiring and report usage via the power lines back to a centralised billing box.
Chuq
Active Member
Hmm a bit weird.
I looked at Tesla Superchargers in Australia | Tesla and noticed…
Hobart is listed there.
All names have been changed to include the state (with one or two exceptions)
Some (Box Hill was one that I noticed) are missing from that list (but are on the map).
Probably the usual website issues when they are updating things.
I looked at Tesla Superchargers in Australia | Tesla and noticed…
Hobart is listed there.
All names have been changed to include the state (with one or two exceptions)
Some (Box Hill was one that I noticed) are missing from that list (but are on the map).
Probably the usual website issues when they are updating things.
EVs wouldn’t be pulling 80 kWh per day - that’s a complete fill for every EV. It would be interesting to know what the average daily consumption is of a caravan or trailer at a holiday park, because an EV might not be much different.
I don’t know if it is normal for cabins and sites to be individually metered when built or if there are low-cost retrofit options. It might not be cost effective (depending on how much it costs to install) and they’d never get their money back.
If a park operator said “$10/day to plug you car in” regardless of usage, I’d probably pay it.
There are quite cost-effective options for metering individual circuits, for example this DIN rail mount meter.
To use Aussie vernacular.
Yeh Nah.
That would require every individual point to have its own fuse/RCBO at the distribution board that could be replaced with a meter.. and even then it's someone manually reading the meter.
Suspect most caravan parks will have multiple 15A points going back to one 32/40A breaker.
It's the detail that hurts.
(It's a similar meter, although theirs is a double that a 2018 S owner has in my apartment building.. but there are only another 8 spare space in a box that covers 120 car spaces.. do you see the issue)
The only times I charged at a caravan site, I rented both a cabin and a powered site. i don’t think the caravan park owners ever include the cost of electricity to recharge your EV in the Cabin rental and I think it’s fair enough to pay for it through the cost of the powered site.
I just rent a cabin and offer to pay extra for the electricity I use to plug my EV in.
Once I kept a record of my kWh use and offered to pay $25 based on 30c/kWh - when I checked out they said don’t worry. Another place nominated a figure ($10/day) and then when I checked out, said it was fine and I didn’t need to pay it!
Individually metered outlets with a wireless connection and software backend to track usage and calculate fees would be needed in legacy apartment blocks and caravan parks. I don‘t know if such a thing exists at a feasible price.
But at a caravan park, there is an upper limit as to how much electricity someone can feasibly use per day during their stay, which is why I think a fixed daily charge (and no infrastructure costs) is a good and simpler alternative.
Hi a short video on charging etiquette V2 and V3 superchargers and also a list of agreed locations in NSW for new superchargers. This is based on funding from the NSW government. The list was sourced from here - Tesla gets state funding for 260 new Supercharger bays at more than 30 NSW addresses in Australia
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