Melbourne to Sydney

[pharmadave]

Before we get carried away, no I’m not attempting this in my Leaf.

I am doing it in my Model S next weekend 23rd/24th Feb.

I bought a set of spare alloy wheels for my Tesla and will be going to Sydney to collect them.

I’ve never driven to Sydney, I’ll be sharing the driving duties with a mate of mine (Johnson from the Leaf retrieval adventure).

I’ll be exclusively relying on the Tesla network of superchargers and destination chargers.

The Tesla navigation plotted the route and estimates it will take just over 9 hours including superchargers stops.

We’ll see how we go... a picture of the prize at the end of the journey is below.

[Feng]

Enjoy the trip! Maybe we can have a meetup?

[brunohill]

 They look like a extra 0.1 kW/km, but I guess that is not really a issue for a Tesla.

Give me a wave as you pass a big white manufacturing plant, on your left (west), on the north side of Benalla. That is where I will be that weekend.

[pharmadave]

Feb 15, 2019 14:49:03 GMT 11 brunohill said:

 They look like a extra 0.1 kW/km, but I guess that is not really a issue for a Tesla.

Give me a wave as you pass a big white manufacturing plant, on your left (west), on the north side of Benalla. That is where I will be that weekend.

I currently have 21" turbine alloys on mine which do cut down on the range compared with the 19". So in some ways, it's actually a range extending option I'm going for.
I believe the smallest alloys that fit on the Model S are 19" due to the large sized brake rotors (being a 2.5 ton car, the brakes would need to be pretty big)

The main reason I am getting them is due to the prohibitive cost of replacing 21" tyres (cheapest I can find it around $500 per corner) and being high grip sports tyres, they barely last 20,000 Kms before needing to be replaced.

[pharmadave]

Feb 15, 2019 13:03:48 GMT 11 Feng said:

Enjoy the trip! Maybe we can have a meetup?

Would love to try and have a meet up. 
The plan at the moment is to pick the wheels early Sunday morning in the St Ives area.

I don't know Sydney geography, so perhaps some breakfast/coffee before we head back down to Melbourne?

Please PM me and see what we can organise

[Feng]

Hey Dave, I had the best intentions and would have liked to meet another keen EV owner but plans have come up for tomorrow so it won't happen. Sorry! If I'm ever in Melbourne maybe I'll look you up then.

[pharmadave]

Sounds good. Look forward to catching up at some stage.

[Feng]

How was your drive up?

[pharmadave]

Oh, it’s actually next weekend we are doing the drive. I had to work today, am trying to get my Saturday off so we have more time to drive up.

[Feng]

It must be my short attention span, I missed the dates you mentioned and thought it was last Sunday. See where we find ourselves this weekend, my partner is itching for a road trip. Haven't decided on testing our patience with the Leaf or just conceding to her peppy Fiesta Sport.

[pharmadave]

The trip was a complete success. 
We drove up to Sydney on Saturday and returned to Melbourne on Sunday.

Quick Summary:
Total distance covered 1902Kms, total energy consumed 371.1kWh, average consumption 195Wh/km.

Car specs: 2015 Tesla Model S 90 (90kWh, rear wheel drive), 21" wheels.

Out of pocked cost for charging: $0.00

Supercharger stops:
Melbourne -> Sydney
Eurora
Wodonga
Gundagai
Goulburn

Sydney ->Melbourne
St Leonards
Goulburn
Gundagai
Wodonga
Euroa

Below are some pics of our supercharger stops:
Euroa


Wodonga:


Gundagai:


Goulburn:


St Leonards:



The treasure at the end of the journey:


Bonus:
Had dinner at the Wishbone Restaurant which is partly owned by the MightyCarMods guys on youtube.


The Oliver's Restaurant next to the Gundagai Supercharger is fully Solar Powered:


Finally, saw a line of spinning wind turbines on our way home from Sydney, amazing sight to behold:


twitter.com/i/status/1099798433307648000

Overall it was a wonderful trip, even though we were under a lot of pressure with time, we made it to Sydney refreshed due to the rests at the supercharger sites.
The car was faultless, the autopilot feature assisted to reduce driver fatigue.

Overall we did the journey in 11hrs each way, which definitely isn't a record time by any means but we were not fatigued when we arrived. 

Really goes to show what a decent range electric car paired with well thought out charging infrastructure is capable of.

[Phoebe]

Well done and lovely pics.

[ThirdRonnie]

Feb 25, 2019 11:43:38 GMT 11 pharmadave said:

Really goes to show what a decent range electric car paired with well thought out charging infrastructure is capable of.

It's what the EV experience should be!

A bit of pro-active effort on the part of the makers (I'm looking at you, Nissan, and now you, Hyundai) might have made all the difference to the EV scenario in Australia. As it stands, we still have dealers in denial, fearing that they'll lose out on their high-revenue servicing schedules, so EVs are not marketed at all.

I walk around the streets of towns in Norway and feel I'm on a different planet, with umpteen brands of EV everywhere, many connected to chargers in the street.

[foggy]

Clicked on this to see how someone could go from sydney to melbourne in a leaf not on a trailer?
My zero leaf needs a long extension lead in the back for comfort to go to the shops over the hill.

[chuq]

May 10, 2020 18:18:31 GMT 11 foggy said:

Clicked on this to see how someone could go from sydney to melbourne in a leaf not on a trailer?
My zero leaf needs a long extension lead in the back for comfort to go to the shops over the hill.

While Pharmadave's original post wasn't in a Leaf, it certainly isn't impossible!

In November 2017, a contingent of AEVA members from Sydney drove to the AEVA National Conference in Devonport, Tasmania.

I can't remember exactly but I believe there were at least two Leafs in this group.  (Another Leaf was driven by a couple from their home in Salamander Bay, just north of Sydney, and there was also a contingent from Adelaide with a Leaf and a couple of i-MieVs.  I also drove to the same conference from Hobart, did it in one day - 297 km, four stops, 3.3kW AC charging only, 15 hours start to finish!)

This trip was completed before the era of any public fast chargers on the route.  The main Sydney group decided to take the coastal road via Bega, Lakes Entrance etc. - less traffic, so able to drive slower.  Arguably more scenic!  Long story short, they made it there and back, no problems.  I think it was a 5 day trip from Sydney to Melbourne followed by an overnight trip on the ferry.  Quite a few caravan parks (used for overnight charging).  Their slowest charge was (I think) from a 10 amp power point on the toilet block at Cann River.  Remember there were more than one of them so they had to take it in turns!  I'm sure the full story is written up and published somewhere, possibly in an EV News.

Jump forward to November 2019, it was Sydney's turn to host and Clive from Hobart drove his 40 kWh Leaf from Hobart to Sydney.  As well as the longer range of the new model, there were also now several fast chargers on the route - Kempton and Launceston for the 300 km Tassie leg, as well as 5 between Melbourne and Sydney: Euroa, Barnawartha North (both Chargefox), Holbrook, Jugiong and Mittagong (all NRMA).  I think those are the five - I'm actually guessing because since then (only 6 months ago) there have been several more added - Albury (NRMA), Tarcutta (Evie), Gundagai, Goulburn (both Chargefox).  There are two more under construction at the moment - Avenel (Evie) and Yass (NRMA).

Sydney to Albury will be particularly well served - 553 km with 8 gaps between chargers, so in theory that part of it *would* be doable in an old Leaf (getting over the hills near the Great Dividing Range being the main issue, I'm guessing).  I'm not sure how good 7 DC charges in a row would be for your battery though.

[rusdy]

May 11, 2020 12:15:23 GMT 11 chuq said:

...
  I'm not sure how good 7 DC charges in a row would be for your battery though.

My record so far was 4 fast charges for 200ish km drive. At the end of the drive, according to leafspy, my hottest sensor recorded 49 Celsius. If I recall correctly, I had 8 bar on the temperature bar (on the dash). Ambient temperature wasn't too bad, high 20s.