Moderators note, 12 posts moved from Supercharger Gundagai to this thread.
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Superchargers in Australia
- Thread starter JOH
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- Australia Supercharging
Read the last few posts. Infill going in everywhere on the Hume and Pacific Hwys in NSW.
Marulan, Gundagai and Albury would top my most needed list though
The two superchargers would be about 7 km apart. They might keep both, or close Heatherbrae since it’s not a great location and the Raymond Terrace one will be much better.
Taree is also getting a supercharger - 12 stalls.
The address given for this one (46 Wynter St, Taree) in the middle of town a fair way off the highway, a 10-15 minute detour round trip.
In town is not a surprise.
Having dealt with far smaller power requirements in previous roles, you often move to meet the power, because moving power is ridiculously expensive.
I'd hate to know the quotes to get a few MW of power 10km from the nearest grid connection, particularly if it's only going to be loaded a few hours on a few days per year.
Having dealt with far smaller power requirements in previous roles, you often move to meet the power, because moving power is ridiculously expensive.
I'd hate to know the quotes to get a few MW of power 10km from the nearest grid connection, particularly if it's only going to be loaded a few hours on a few days per year.
Chuq
Active Member
Typically when this has happened overseas they haven't closed the old one (unless either Tesla or the site owner were particularly unhappy about the arrangement and chose not to renew).
In the case of these two sites, Heatherbrae is next to a 24-hour servo and Raymond Terrace next to a number of businesses, but none of which are 24-hours - so there are times when people may prefer one over the other.
Model S/Xs without the CCS upgrade can't use V3 sites (not that there would be all that many of those vehicles left, but it's something they should consider.. they didn't at Horsham..).
Each site could act as backup for the other in case of localised grid power outage.
And of course for the really busy periods (like what we've just seen) they'd want to have as many stalls as possible available.
Chuq
Active Member
Not necessarily a bad thing - there will be over a dozen different supercharger locations on the Sydney-Brisbane route, and about ten on the Sydney-Melbourne route. If people prefer the on-highway sites over towns, or prefer servos over wineries, or restaurants over 24-hour toilets, or any number of things - there will be enough options that people can pick and choose.
Ditto. Personally, if I'm going northbound from Syd I'd prefer Heatherbrae, and coming back southbound I think Raymond Terrace is much more convenient. Just thinking of driving flow wise.
Chargefox Karuah is a minor detour off the M1 since it’s with the “flow”. Going to Chargefox Karuah adds only 300m to your trip compared to continuing on the M1. We generally use Heatherbrae heading north and Karuah heading south. There are times we have used Karuah in both directions, but I think we’ve used Heatherbrae heading south only once. Karuah is one of the few third party DCFCs currently still working between Newcastle and Port Macquarie
.The servo next to Heatherbrae SC is OK, they have servo food, toilets and chairs/tables. But to go anywhere else is quite a walk.
Raymond Terrace SC will be a detour from/to the same on/off ramps from the M1, adding 2.6 km (1.3 km there and back). Not a huge deal for the comfort of knowing the odds of a 15-stall SC being fully occupied is pretty small and there are a number of businesses there.
Taree SC will be a bigger detour, adding 5.7km compared to staying on the M1. I suspect people using it will treat it as their major stop for the day, and have a sit-down lunch or do shopping for supplies.
Plus Campbeltown and maybe Bowral.
And arguably Wagga Wagga and Shepparton are options for some slower trippers, or alternatives to the highway chargers for those only partially using it.
Tesla Tom just put out a YouTube video of Atto3 from Sydney to Melbourne on the Hume highway, and he took a very conservative approach of rarely going below 50%, and charged up to 100% every time he stopped.
Its not going to bode well, if the EV evangelists are advocating charging to 100%.
I would do exactly the same in this situation. It's a non Tesla, therefore dependent on the 3rd party sites.
Given the time of year and the state of the non Tesla charging sites on the route, I'd be charging an Atto3 to 100% too.
Gundagai has all stalls out of action
Mittagong down
Evie Sutton forest - partly down
Goulburn one stall down...
Chuq
Active Member
He made a point at the end that this was due to reliability, uncertainty and low capacity at public DCFCs (probably a wise move if you are unfamiliar with the vehicle and it's real world range) and emphasised that more numerous, more reliable sites would mean this wasn't necessary. (He also had his family including young kids in the car so didn't want to risk getting stuck anywhere.)
