Just got back from a week-long road trip to the Fully Charged Live EV Expo in Sydney. I'm putting together an article for Rolling Mag, but you can read it here first (in draft version).
Road Tripping in an EV
Pilgrimage to Fully Charged Live EV Expo 11-12 March 2023
In early March, Wayne and I took a road trip up to Sydney to attend the Fully Charged Live EV Expo. For those of you who have never heard of Fully Charged Live, it originally started out as a YouTube channel run by actor Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf (Kryton) and Scrapheap Challenge (Host) fame. In the past decade, FCL has become an international sensation, with events held in major cities every year. This year’s event was the first to be held in Australia, and likely it won’t be the last as there was huge interest with about 15,000 attendees for the 2-day event.
As EV enthusiasts, the inaugural event was not to be missed! Instead of flying, we decided to make a getaway and road trip out of it and take the XC40 Recharge Twin. The simple (and boring) option would have been to drive straight up the Hume Freeway to Sydney in a day, and back via same. We decided that would be no fun, so I plotted out a more interesting route that would take us via less-travelled roads and through some scenic countryside.
With the current state of Australia’s EV charging network, taking the “back roads” requires a bit of forward planning, as you can’t usually expect small towns to have EV chargers on the ready. Using a combination of Google Maps and Plugshare (an EV charger location and check-in app) I plotted our route: Home (Daylesford), Ballan, Wodonga, Thredbo, Bermagui, Sydney, Holbrook, Ballan, Home. I was confident range and charging wouldn’t be an issue, with the exception of the Wodonga to Thredbo segment.
We left home on Monday evening and stayed with Wayne’s mum in Ballan, as she watched our dog for us. On Tuesday we drove some nice back roads up through Blackwood, Trentham, Lancefield, Kilmore and Broadford where we got on the Hume Freeway heading to Wodonga, We stopped at the Avenel Roadhouse for a quick charge (EVIE Network ultra-fast chargers), pit stop and lunch break.
From there we travelled up the Hume and stopped at Barnawartha North intending to do another quick charge, but one charger was broken and the other 3 were in use (2 Kona EVs and an EV tour bus with QLD plates – must have been being delivered to Melbourne?) As we had plans for a coffee with Wayne’s relations in Albury, we pushed on to the free NRMA charger there, but it was in use (BYD Atto 3) and waiting would have made us late for coffee. After coffee, we went back to the Barnawartha chargers, and all were vacant. The car was down to 11%, and we charged there for about 25 minutes, which bumped us back up to 71%. From there we visited more relations for dinner, then crashed at our motel in Wodonga. The motel was happy for us to plug in and top up overnight, so we departed the next morning with 90% for our trip to Thredbo.
Our first stop along what’s now called the “Great River Road” was at the Hume Dam to check out the dam and hydro station. With the dam being full, the outflow from the turbines was pretty spectacular to see. I love the look of the 1950s technology with all the coloured lights and switches on the turbine control panels (difficult to see in the photo).
I mentioned previously that this was the trip leg that concerned me the most with respect to range and charging, so we decided not to “push it” and we planned a stop in Walwa for lunch. Walwa is a tiny but picturesque town along the tourist drive. The Walwa Community Garage installed 2 public EV chargers a couple years ago to cater for people driving the River Road. I don’t think they get used much as they were covered in cobwebs.
We plugged in and after one false start with the app, the car started charging and we headed off to the local store/café for lunch. Immediately a couple people sitting outside started asking us about the EV: how much does it cost to charge, how far can you drive, how long does it take, etc. One of the women we talked to had retired from a long career at Snowy Hydro. Everyone seemed genuinely interested if not a bit sceptical of EVs for rural driving.
After lunch we took a quick walk up and down the town’s main street, then headed back to the car where we were greeted by a couple employees from the garage. They were excited to see the car charging (probably because it’s so rare to have any EVs in town) and asked whether they could put pics on their Facebook page. Sure, why not? We thanked them as this lunchtime top-up meant we would have ample charge at arrival in Thredbo later in the day.
The scenery was spectacular and the roads were great to drive, with virtually no traffic. We took our time and stopped at the various viewpoints to take photos of the sculptures, scenery and Murray 1 Hydro Station. As we wound our way up through the mountains, the temperature started dropping and we ran into some rain and fog.
When we arrived at Thredbo, the temperature had dropped to 8 C and the wind and rain had picked up. We checked into the hotel and asked where the charger was located, only to be told “it’s only for Tesla cars”. I told them I had seen a couple non-Tesla cars checked into it via the Plugshare app, and they said give it a go.
We proceeded to the charger and Wayne had to get out in the driving rain and get it plugged in. We waited – “initialising charging” – and waited – “ERROR”. Tried again. No luck. So either the charger (which was a Tesla Destination charger) was out of order, or indeed configured to only charge Teslas. Not to worry, we still had 30% battery remaining and our next fast-charging station was 37 km down the road in Jindabyne.
Before sunset, the rain stopped so we took a brief walk around the ski village. Turns out Thredbo was hosting a schools mountain bike competition, so the town was packed with mountain bikes, and almost every SUV in the car park had a multi-bike carrier hanging off the tow bar. The temperature was dropping quickly, so we retreated to our room and had snacks for dinner.
Before bed, I decided to check the Plugshare app for our next day’s travels, and that’s when I saw a note against the Jindabyne chargers saying “NRMA regrets to inform you that, as of yesterday, this charger is offline for repairs. Please seek other chargers on your route”. Uh oh! The next fast chargers are in Cooma, which would have put us at about 5% battery remaining, which is cutting it too close IMHO. Immediately the “charge anxiety” started to set in! I did another quick look at Plugshare, and discovered the nearby Lake Crackenback Resort had two Tesla Destination chargers plus a heap of power points available for charging, but nobody answered the phone.
First thing in the morning, I called the Resort and asked about the chargers, and they said “yes, they’re open to the public”. Whew! I knew we had Plan A (Tesla Destination charger) and Plan B (power point). Given it was about 1 C and I knew we’d be able to charge just down the road, I hit the “preheat” function in the Volvo Cars app prior to our departure, and the car was toasty warm and the windows were clear when we departed.
When we arrived at Lake Crackenback, we had no trouble charging on the Tesla Destination charger. It was a glorious sunny morning, so we decided to take a walk around the lake and up along the creek while the car was charging. We walked under the Perisher Ski Tube rail line and got some great views of the surrounding mountains, and took in the fresh mountain air. I had a snake strike at the puffer jacket I was carrying beside me – glad the jacket was there as otherwise it might have hit my leg? Yikes!
In the time we were walking, the car charged from 25% to 48%, which gave us more than enough charge to make it to our planned charging stop in Cooma at the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre. If you haven’t been there before, it details the fascinating history of the Snowy Hydro Scheme through a variety of media formats – well worth a visit, and great café too. Incidentally, we arrived at Cooma with 28% battery, which meant if we hadn’t stopped at Crackenback, we would have only had 4% battery…but not zero, so we would have made it! The Google Maps estimate of battery remaining at destination is very reliable, but I still don’t like to see a number less than 10% at destination. Maybe I’ll get more adventurous one day.
From Cooma, we travelled to Bermagui for an overnight stop. Beautiful area but sadly we didn’t have time to see much of anything! From there, we travelled up the coast towards Sydney. We did a quick stop at one of the 5 Tesla Supercharger stations open to non-Tesla EVs – located at Narooma. We got the obligatory pic of the Volvo charging at a Tesla charger, then drove on. Had a delicious fresh fish lunch in Batemans Bay.
We topped up the car at two NRMA free chargers enroute to Sydney, where we had an Air B&B house booked in the southern suburb of Jannali. I specifically found a place with off-street parking and a carport, and the host was happy for us to plug into an external 10-amp power point during the day while we were at the FCL Expo. She said they had just installed solar power, so most (if not all) the power we used would have been from the solar system.
On Saturday morning, we took the S-L-O-W train into Sydney. A scheduled 40-minute trip took about 2.5 hours. There had been a train network meltdown earlier in the week, and some unrelated (?) signal fault on this day. Oh joy! At least it meant we missed the km-long queue to enter the Expo at the opening!
The Expo was quite interesting. It was held at the Sydney ICC, with both indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces, plus test-drives available of some new EVs and E-bikes. Exhibitors onsite included home and public charging station sellers, EV manufacturers (Polestar, BYD, MG, LDV), the Tesla owner’s club, the Australian EV Association (EV owner’s club – mostly converted classic cars), EV conversion companies, power companies, etc. Outdoors, EV owners were invited to display their cars if they were willing to leave the car there from Friday to Sunday PM. There was one Volvo – a 2-week old Fjord Blue XC40 Recharge Twin. The owner Evan fielded questions for hours and the Volvo seemed to get a lot of attention. The other owner car there that caught my attention was a Kia EV6. I like the exterior styling as it sort of reminds me of a modern-day SAAB. Sadly, many EV manufacturers (including Volvo) were not present at a corporate level, but I suspect after they saw the crowds this year, more will be onboard next year.
In addition to the displays, there were panel discussions and Q&A sessions in several theatres during the day. We especially enjoyed the Q&A with Polestar Australia MD Samantha Johnson, as well as an entertaining talk by Robert Llewellyn about his days on the set of Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, and his YouTube and EV exploits. He’s quite the storyteller!
On Sunday we again enjoyed the Expo, and lunch with Gavin Janson (1800/120 Club, Volvo and Polestar 2 owner) and his mechanic mate Brad. Brad was keen to check out the EV conversion bits as he’s considering getting into that space. Gavin had driven his Polestar 2 down from Brisbane for the event, stopping one night on the way down and going back in one day (about 1800 km all up – so you can do long distances in an EV every day if the infrastructure is available).
We departed on Monday morning with 90% charge (thanks to our accommodation provider), and headed back down the coast towards Wollongong. We headed inland over the spectacular Macquarie Pass road, then back down the Hume Freeway.
We did run into some busy chargers on the freeway and had to bypass one that was fully occupied after waiting about 10 minutes, then being unable to charge due to an unknown error. Instead, we tried a new BP fast charger 10 km down the road that worked brilliantly – I guess the petrol companies can see the light? Our overnight stop was in Holbrook – home of the Submarine Park and display. We enjoyed a home-cooked room service meal at the motel, then drove over to check out the submarine display and top up at the free NRMA charger on-site. It was also in high demand, and we had to wait about 25 minutes for a Tesla to complete charging. A BYD Atto 3 and a Kia E-Niro drove up while we were charging and were in the queue after us.
The final day down the Hume was uneventful. We stopped again at Barnawartha and grabbed a coffee while we charged, then stopped for a pit stop and quick charge at Avenel. We timed our lunch break with a charge at Broadford at one of the new community chargers that have been popping up in many small towns in Victoria. At ~25 kW they’re not super-fast, but more than enough to give you a decent top-up over a lunch break. I guess the point is they want you to stop, shop, eat and spend some time and money in the community.
All up, we did about 2250 km at a cost of $168 at the paid chargers. Not bad. It’s definitely more inconvenient than driving a fossil-fuelled car with the “unlimited” refuelling options and ability to drive farther without stops. It does require some planning, and there are some places you just can’t easily go with an EV due to the lack of charging infrastructure.
With the number of EVs in Australia growing exponentially, I think road trips MAY become more difficult as the charging network lags. This may result in queues at the chargers at busy times, so we would probably not plan a road trip on a holiday weekend for example. I’m sure at some point in the future things will balance out, but it’s hard to predict. Overall, we’ve been happy with our experience, and the car is quiet, comfortable, great to drive, and has more than enough power for any circumstance. Maybe not for everyone, but we’re converts!
