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What's going on at the Canberra Superchargers

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Hi all, I'm planning an upcoming trip and was looking to recharge at the Canberra supercharger site.

Looking at recent Plugshare checkins, most of the recent reports are saying they are only getting a 20-30kw charge rate. This seems to be occurring even when there's only 1 or 2 other vehicles at the chargers.

Has anyone got any recent experience that might shed some light on what's going on there?
 
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Looking at recent Plugshare checkins, most of the recent reports are saying they are only getting a 20-30kw charge rate.
What if they didn't navigate to the Supercharger (so the battery didn't pre-heat), or didn't have a long enough drive for the battery to pre-heat? I am supposed to be doing a day-trip to Cooma (ie Sydney-Cooma-Sydney) this coming Tuesday so I will be charging at the Canberra supercharger in at least one of the directions.

When I have charged there in the past (most recently a month ago) I got the normal expected charging curve (2021 MiC Model 3 LR), so if I do make the trip I will definitely post an update here and on Plugshare.
 
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Ok, I charged this morning at the Canberra Supercharger (second bay from the north). My car (2021 MiC LR) started pre-heating the battery 40 minutes out from the charger. Air temperature was about 6C. Peak charge rate was 129kW. Charging curve below (from the Nikola app):

7832C62F-62DB-44D3-8BA3-938229F2220E.png


I noticed when I was checking in to PlugShare (which - blush - I usually don’t bother with for Superchargers unless there is something wrong) that @QBN_PC had charged earlier today and got a disappointing charge rate. Will be very interesting if he can comment here as to any idea he has as to why he got such a poor rate and I got a normal/good one only an hour or two later. He knows a lot more about Model 3s than I do, so his advice will be good, but I thought I would post my results as a datapoint anyway.
 
I wasn't especially low (55%-ish) & mostly just wanted to confirm the car would even charge. The charge speed is disappointing but not especially bad.

Prior to trying the Supercharger (the northernmost one, closest to Bunnings), I was repeatedly trying to get the ACTEW AGL (Evie Networks) charger at the Vibe Hotel to actually deliver some charge to the car. I was bored & ubering & in the area, and thought I'd plug in during a quieter moment.

After supercharging for a few minutes & doing a bit of driving, I tried the Vibe charger again, and it worked just fine. There's apparently some ongoing glitch with the current software version and Tritium chargers glitching out & delivering barely above 0kW charge. I've had it happen to me at NRMA Mittagong (a few weeks ago) & Chargefox Shell Cove (on Sunday), and I've seen it happen to another Model 3 driver at NRMA Batemans Bay (a week ago).
 
Ok, I charged this morning at the Canberra Supercharger (second bay from the north). My car (2021 MiC LR) started pre-heating the battery 40 minutes out from the charger. Air temperature was about 6C. Peak charge rate was 129kW. Charging curve below (from the Nikola app):

Thanks both for the informative posts. I'm planning to drive from Sydney starting at 100% so should be quite low on arrival. Let's see if I can get a decent rate.
After supercharging for a few minutes & doing a bit of driving, I tried the Vibe charger again, and it worked just fine. There's apparently some ongoing glitch with the current software version and Tritium chargers glitching out & delivering barely above 0kW charge. I've had it happen to me at NRMA Mittagong (a few weeks ago) & Chargefox Shell Cove (on Sunday), and I've seen it happen to another Model 3 driver at NRMA Batemans Bay (a week ago).

I had this issue the NRMA charger at Berry recently. The charger said it was "charging" but sat at a rate of 0. However looking at the display in the car, it was actually DISCHARGING the car - quite rapidly. Probably lost 20km in just a few minutes.

I noticed another driver has reported the same problem recently at the Jindabyne site. Needs to be fixed asap!
 
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@Ted H how do you find the Nikola app?
I like it. I use its Apple Watch extension to lock/unlock my car for surfing most days (carry an RFID card on me as a backup just in case too) and the drive and charge history is good. Also doesn’t wake the car up as soon as you open the phone app to check something (as the official app does).

The developer is a one-man-band - so the couple of bug report and feature suggestion emails I have sent have either not been replied to, or quite a few weeks lag - but I am happy overall.

BTW here are my other two charging sessions yesterday on the same Sydney-snowy mountains return trip - the Cooma one was after a short drive back from Berridale (20 minutes) so the battery hadn’t finished pre-heating - but the charge rate still seemed ok - and the Goulburn one was just a quick top-up (but I had to share an A/B pair with another car as it was surprisingly busy:

5D4CD245-FD8C-4DC6-9B3F-331F890FB00E.png

BA19227E-EB38-4FD4-92A6-1012C807654C.png
 
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and the Goulburn one was just a quick top-up (but I had to share an A/B pair with another car as it was surprisingly busy:
Goulburn is one of the busiest Supercharger sites - I've been looking at the sites across the southeast and from what I can see, only Broadway, Macquarie and Richmond are more used. It's roughly on par with Canberra and Camberwell.
 
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I know I drive at odd hours, but every time I visit the Goulburn supercharger, I'm the only one there. But then, I'm headed to Sydney. Most people are headed from Sydney. If there's a PM rush fleeing Sydney headed south, I'd arrive over an hour before they do.

Still, even though I pass through twice a week, I avoid the supercharger. The Chargefox site in North Goulburn has toilets. And it's substantially cheaper (32c vs 51c per kWh).

Unlike Goulburn and Cooma, Canberra doesn't have a decent Chargefox charger (one 25kW DC charger in Fyshwick that's locked at night). But Canberra has got three 50kW Evie chargers, all with CCS Type 2 plugs, which are currently (very temporarily) free. They're at the Airport Vibe Hotel (often ICEd - but I managed to reverse right up to the ICEr's drivers door and charge anyway last night), the Knowles Place West car park in Civic, opposite the Melbourne Building (pay parking daytimes), and the Jemena/ACTEWAGL depot at Tuggeranong (opposite Bunnings - hopefully sausage sizzles are back!).

I've heard Evie are going to charge 50c/kWh once things settle down, so there's no advantage in detouring and using them. And the Canberra Supercharger is oddly convenient to food, coffee and a bathroom. So even if it's slow, it's a good site.
 
Yes, looks like ActewAGL/Evie will charge a similar price to Tesla.

Agreed Chargefox Goulburn is better positioned, particularly if heading North.
Less so if heading South as you have to go through Goulburn anyway.

And depending on time of day the Goulburn Supercharger has better less fast food choices, being a block from supermarkets and some Goulburn cafes.

Much like the proposed V3 at Holbrook I expect Tesla will eventually get a better sight in the Highway near Goulburn or maybe Marulan.
 
One thing I forgot to mention - the Chargefox site in Canberra is literally next door to the Capital Brewing Company. If you have a designated driver handy, it's a fantastic spot to stop for a two hour charge (at 30c/kWh). If Brodburger lives up to its reputation, you might even have your food served by the time your car has finished charging!
 
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I like it. I use its Apple Watch extension to lock/unlock my car for surfing most days (carry an RFID card on me as a backup just in case too) and the drive and charge history is good. Also doesn’t wake the car up as soon as you open the phone app to check something (as the official app does).

The developer is a one-man-band - so the couple of bug report and feature suggestion emails I have sent have either not been replied to, or quite a few weeks lag - but I am happy overall.

BTW here are my other two charging sessions yesterday on the same Sydney-snowy mountains return trip - the Cooma one was after a short drive back from Berridale (20 minutes) so the battery hadn’t finished pre-heating - but the charge rate still seemed ok - and the Goulburn one was just a quick top-up (but I had to share an A/B pair with another car as it was surprisingly busy:

View attachment 673775
View attachment 673776
Ta
 
I know I drive at odd hours, but every time I visit the Goulburn supercharger, I'm the only one there.
Every other time I have been there it has been either only me or one other car. Last night (6:30pm on a Tuesday) I think I was car #6 in the 8 possible bays. Startled me when I turned into the carpark. Most of the cars unattended, so the cars were either having a big drink or some idle charges happening for at least some of them…

I only needed to pick up about 10% more charge to get home with a bit of a buffer (having left from Cooma with 95% BUT diverting via Old Cooma Rd to avoid Canberra evening traffic and using more juice than I had expected accordingly), so I went with the charger in Goulburn I was more certain of being able to charge at immediately rather than possibly waiting at ChargeFox at North Goulburn.
 
Every other time I have been there it has been either only me or one other car. Last night (6:30pm on a Tuesday) I think I was car #6 in the 8 possible bays. Startled me when I turned into the carpark. Most of the cars unattended, so the cars were either having a big drink

Ski Season has started. This photo has been doing the rounds showing the crowds at perisher last weekend. I reckon that's probably adding to the numbers!

1623823348506.jpeg
 
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This photo has been doing the rounds showing the crowds at perisher last weekend.
That’s not a crowd… THIS is a crowd (also from Perisher on the weekend):

A176DE75-4F1B-42A9-B5CA-C68CAEF9C9B3.jpeg


I think this season (far more than any previous year) is going to be a real test for the EV charging infrastructure between Sydney and the snowfields. My Goulburn charge yesterday evening was the only charger I saw that was busy though. At the Canberra supercharger yesterday morning there was one other Tesla (Queensland plates and no obvious ski gear), in Cooma there was nobody at all at the ChargeFox charger (when I passed it in the morning and the afternoon), and I was the only one at the supercharger.

To loop back to the question that started this thread, any congestion at Superchargers from people going to/from the snow is going to be made a LOT worse if people are getting slow charging rates (not navigating to the supercharger - or going to a fast charger that is NOT a supercharger - and not travelling long enough for the pre-heating to get the battery nice and hot). Having a line of cars with cold batteries charging slowly is not going to make for happy EV owners.
 
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I think this season (far more than any previous year) is going to be a real test for the EV charging infrastructure between Sydney and the snowfields. My

Yeah Friday and Sunday nights will be the acid test. Midweek probably less affected.

In ski season, sometimes on Sunday nights at Sutton Forest you can see ICE cars queueing to get into the servo (and Macdonalds for that matter)
 
Just as a heads-up, it looks to me that currently if you have been (anywhere) in greater Sydney in the last 14 days you cannot exit your car in the ACT without having a completed declaration form or an exemption. Meaning you cannot stop at the Canberra Supercharger.

See Standing Exemptions (including transiting)
And anyone who lives in the Sydney metro area (like me) is not allowed to leave at all (a.k.a. the Claytons lockdown). The Police say they will enforce it and fine people they catch. But as far as I know, no ‘ring of steel’ type checkpoints on the major routes out of Sydney.