Superchargers in Australia

[Vostok]

@fobo - charging during school holidays could be a bit of a lottery with such a growing number of EVs on the road. The busiest times for most chargers seems to be from around 11am to 3pm. Are you planning to do the drive in one day? I would stop at least 3 times on a drive that long, maybe four.

The Heatherbrae Supercharger can get busy. The servo next door has servo type food options with tables and a toilet. It’s OK. I wouldn’t walk up the road to the highway food area next to the roundabout - too far there and back. BP Pulse now have a 75 kW charger there so if you preferred to eat there I would also charge there (if its available - feeling lucky? ).

If both were busy I’d continue on to Chargefox Karuah. There’s a reasonable cafe 5 minute walk down the road. The 350 kW units there have rarely failed although the screens seem perpetually busted but charging still works with the RFID card or App.

I like Evie Taree. Two 350 kW chargers at the highway service centre with a number of food options. The units were offline over Christmas but are working again.

The Supercharger at Cassegrain Wineries is good but can also get busy and foodwise it’s the restaurant there or nothing.

The Supercharger at Coffs is at a large shopping centre so lots of options for eating or shopping.

There’s a 75 kW charger near the Coolangatta Surf Club which I’ve used a couple of times and is a good option if charging late in the afternoon/early evening and you feel like dinner at the (massive) club.

Plugshare is your friend to check out all the charging options and whether chargers have recent checkins indicating they are working.

Enjoy the trip - road-tripping in a Tesla is an absolute joy!

 

[fobo]

@fobo

Heatherbrae SC is just north of Newcastle. A bit of a walk to the fast food places.

Port Macquarie supercharger is before the Maclean SC. It is in the Cassegrain winery and needs a small detour when coming from the south. 24 hours clean toilets. The restaurant does coffee from 10am, lunch 11 Wed-Fri and brunch 9am, 11:30 lunch Sat-Sun.

Coffs Harbour SC is in one of the shopping centres. Needs a little bit of car park navigation to get to, but not horrible. There is a Jamaica Blue coffee shop inside the centre and some fast food chains nearby.

The Heatherbrae and Coffs Superchargers are both easy to get to going north without much of a detour, so you could drop in there if they're free as you go past and you feel like a break.

Evie at Taree South Service Centre is also a good potential stop, particularly if your co-driver tells you Port is looking busy.

If you're there at lunch, the Cassegrain restaurant at the Port Macquarie Supercharger is well worth stopping for a meal.

Thank you! Will see what traffic is like and see what the queues are. Just don’t want to end up in an hour long queue with the family

 

[fobo]

The busiest times for most chargers seems to be from around 11am to 3pm. Are you planning to do the drive in one day? I would stop at least 3 times on a drive that long, maybe four.

Got a young kid so most likely will stay at Coffs on the way up, and see how we go on the way back

First big trip in an EV so should be fun

Does the in car nav show how many free stalls there are?

 

[Vostok]

Does the in car nav show how many free stalls there are?

It does for Superchargers, including an estimate of wait times if the site is fully occupied (tap the icon on the screen), but Tesla nav does not show any third party fast chargers (yet). Tesla says they will add third party chargers that meet their ”quality” criteria but haven’t done so yet.

 

[rx80]

Tesla says they will add third party chargers that meet their ”quality” criteria but haven’t done so yet.

I wonder if that could be because none of our third party chargers meet the SLA criteria

 

[cafz]

Got a young kid so most likely will stay at Coffs on the way up, and see how we go on the way back

Ahh, then ideally stay at somewhere you can charge (Plugshare seems to show a couple of accomodation options with charging in Coffs) and just route to there for the first day. From Canberra to Coffs I typically stop at Seven Hills and Taree to charge so depending on where in Sydney you're coming from you should be able to do that in one long or two quick stops.

 

[Vostok]

I wonder if that could be because none of our third party chargers meet the SLA criteria

Evie would. But they’d be the only ones.

 

[RichardV]

I wonder if that could be because none of our third party chargers meet the SLA criteria

Evie would. But they’d be the only ones.

I suspect the original comments was being facetious but I don't think the criteria is that onerous.

"The following standards will first roll out across Europe and Israel.
Qualified Charging Station Requirements
For a charging station to be included in Tesla’s navigation system, it must meet these conditions over a 60-day period:

1. At least one compatible charging connector
2. Frequently used by Tesla drivers at least once every four days
3. Average charge success rate is 90% or higher

To detect inoperable chargers quickly and provide the best experience for our customers, stations will be removed from Tesla’s navigation system if any of the following conditions are met over a 14-day period:

1. No charge sessions detected
2. Average charge success rate falls below 70%"

Most of the NRMA network and Chargefox and other sites would meet this criteria. There are some at times that go faultly at times but plenty more that just keep ticking over.

You only need one functioning stall to remain active. Sites would be quickly be removed for a completely failed charger though the 70% figure does not specify across how many of the last charges. And will take a while to be re-added, 2 months, once fixed. Multi-stall sites with a completely faulty charger might be more hit and miss on meeting the criteria depending on how obvious it is that the failing charger is not even worth trying as it would affect whether the success rate hits 70%.

User error might also be an interesting side effect here and I have contributed to this, being only even a slightly ingrained supercharger user where you just plug in and it works, when using the free NRMA chargers more often that not, probably just feels that frequent, the user will plug in and expect it to work, its free right and there is no app, then it will error out. Then you need to retry and remember to hit the start button in the right magic sequence. Even the paid chargers could be more flexible in there connection methods as the few times I have used those getting the sequence just right might take a couple of tries.

Some of the remote NRMA sites might fall foul of the idle requirement though plugshare does not record all usage so they might be a few more usages then some of the checkins suggest that would keep them ticking on.

 

[miata2005]

The Heatherbrae and Coffs Superchargers are both easy to get to going north without much of a detour, so you could drop in there if they're free as you go past and you feel like a break.

Evie at Taree South Service Centre is also a good potential stop, particularly if your co-driver tells you Port is looking busy.

If you're there at lunch, the Cassegrain restaurant at the Port Macquarie Supercharger is well worth stopping for a meal.

The Taree South Evie is not that reliable, I have used a few times over the past weeks and spend more time getting it to activate than I do charging, very average service by Evie.

 

[Vostok]

Topical article:

EV owners warned to plan ahead to avoid Easter charging queues

Electric vehicle infrastructure has failed to keep up with soaring sales, which could mean a repeat of the long queues seen at Christmas.

www.smh.com.au

 

[cafz]

The Taree South Evie is not that reliable, I have used a few times over the past weeks and spend more time getting it to activate than I do charging, very average service by Evie.

I've used it quite a few times over the years since it was installed, never had a problem getting it to activate. I use the app rather than the RFID card fwiw.

 

[rx80]

The winners have been announced. Does this mean we'll get these?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643409559283994624

 

[Chuq]

Yep - yellow dots!

Apollo Bay - Target opening in 2024
Port Augusta - Target opening in 2024
Southern Cross - Target opening in 2025

 

[Chuq]

Interesting for the next round of voting, they haven't added any new options (I don't think) and they've actually taken Coober Pedy off the map!

Supercharger Voting | Tesla

Vote on the next Supercharger location.

www.tesla.com

The most beneficial would be:

• Port Wakefield, SA
• Campbell Town, Tas
• Braidwood, NSW

Note Batemans Bay and Orange are already getting installed (NSW govt funding) so don't waste your vote!

I might save my final two votes to see if they add any extra sites in the near future.

 

[Hairyman]

Interesting for the next round of voting, they haven't added any new options (I don't think) and they've actually taken Coober Pedy off the map!

The most beneficial would be:

• Port Wakefield, SA
• Campbell Town, Tas
• Braidwood, NSW

Note Batemans Bay and Orange are already getting installed (NSW govt funding) so don't waste your vote!

I might save my final two votes to see if they add any extra sites in the near future.

Link? Soz, I’m being lazy.

 

[Chuq]

Link? Soz, I’m being lazy.

Supercharger Voting | Tesla

Vote on the next Supercharger location.

www.tesla.com

(Edited to add to previous comment too)

 

[Hairyman]

All done.

 

[Vostok]

Interesting for the next round of voting, they haven't added any new options (I don't think) and they've actually taken Coober Pedy off the map!

BOOOO!

(I assume some fundamental power constraint. It’s a long way from anywhere and not on the SAPN grid!)

 

[Chuq]

Looks like the South Koreans are really orchestrating things this time...

We are all the way down here...

 

[RichardV]

Looks like the South Koreans are really orchestrating things this time...

When I looked before one of the Taiwan entries had 800 odd votes and none of the other Taiwan entries had any, should have taken a screen shot. Now there are just a handful of votes on the Taiwan entries. I wonder if Tesla have already had to do some vote filtering based on suspicious voting patterns maybe from new accounts.