Round Australia Electric Highway

[chuq]

This might not be that helpful for those of us with "classic" Leafs but more for when the new ones arrive ... and it may be worth discussing in the meantime...

Tesla Owners Club of Australia (TOCA) and the Australian Electric Vehicle Association (AEVA) have launched the “Round Australia Electric Highway”.
  This is a no frills, club-funded, network of 32 amp 3-phase outlets at strategic locations across remote Australian Highways – including the Nullarbor, through the Red Centre and across the Top End.
  This has been in progress for a couple of years so many of you may have heard about parts of it.


Before and after:



These outlets are spaced at 200 km intervals (a few at 300 km) and will charge a car at up to 110 km of range per hour (*if the car supports it - not an old Leaf, unless you have a portable Chademo unit!)

15A outlets are not included on the route (officially) although there are some sites which have both, and a few other sites along the way which are 15A only.

This route is getting a fair bit of online media coverage (not always with the most accurate content, but they are trying!):
reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-owners-roll-out-australia-wide-charging-network-for-all-evs-87935/
www.electrive.com/2018/06/04/aussie-tesla-owners-built-their-own-charging-network/
www.autoevolution.com/news/aussie-tesla-owners-build-open-to-all-round-australia-charging-network-126077.html
cleantechnica.com/2018/06/04/toca-aeva-complete-private-electric-car-charging-network-for-australia/

[rusdy]

Jun 5, 2018 14:41:50 GMT 11 chuq said:

This might not be that helpful for those of us with "classic" Leafs but more for when the new ones arrive ... and it may be worth discussing in the meantime...

Since the 'fast' charge capability only works up to 80% battery capacity, my "classic" Leaf usable capacity works out to be 10kWh at most (12 ~ 13kWh usable to 100% charge). Travelling at 110kph with head wind (at 0.18kWh/km) translates to 50-ish km range. I had to slow down last time to make the 70km journey between fast charger (worst case, in WA).

The "classic" Leaf definitely shines in the city. Beyond that, careful planning definitely required. 

[markrmarkr]

Chuq,
sure there are some big gaps in the AEVA/TOCA highway, but don't let that stop you from using it. The gaps are mainly on the parts most of us are unlikely to need anyway. I went from Sydney to Devonport and back in November last year, and it was no stop fun. It was a great adventure, and the amount of education/public relations we did was just huge. Not to mention the number of new discoveries we put on plugshare. By the time I went to bed each night my face was aching, from all the smiling I did that day.

The trip down was via the coast with a group of AEVA members. The trip back was by myself on the inland route. On the first day we travelled more than 500 km - respectable even for a petrol car. I had my Setec portable Chademo to use on the 3-phase sites, and Tesla destination chargers, but a fair proportion were at caravan parks using 10 Amps too. I always tried to time it so that the 10 amp charging happened over night, but it didn't always work that way.

And just for the record I was, and still am, driving an old style Leaf.

Cheers

Mark

[chuq]

markrmarkr, absolutely, they'll still be very useful, I was just pre-empting the expected replies when posting this on a Leaf forum (where 99% of people are driving 100 km range vehicles!)

I did the same as you to Devonport... except it was only 320 km ... but no DC, no Setec, and I was on 15A power points the entire way!

[pharmadave]

Amazing story of where passion and a can-do attitude working where government policy is lacking.
This just got included in the latest Now You Know segment on youtube.

Fast forward to 13:46 for the story in particular.

[caroline]

The Plug Me In guy is Oz and looking for regional charging options - if anyone has any tips he has a FB page - look up ‘Plug Me In’ ...he’s starting in NT/WA... I expect Jeff the Walker will have some good tips

[Phoebe]

Jun 6, 2018 18:19:30 GMT 11 caroline said:

The Plug Me In guy is Oz and looking for regional charging options - if anyone has any tips he has a FB page - look up ‘Plug Me In’ ...he’s starting in NT/WA... I expect Jeff the Walker will have some good tips

You can find him on Twitter too.  I offered him Maitland, but that's way off, yet.

[pharmadave]

The story is also featured on the Electrek website.
electrek.co/2018/06/05/tesla-owners-team-up-create-charging-network-australia/

Although in the main article it makes no mention of the role that AEVA played in the roll out process and mainly focuses on TOCA. (That said, electrek is generally seen as pro-tesla)

A couple of commenters do mention that it was a collaboration between TOCA and AEVA.