Did we drive 1,800km across Australia in an Electric Vehicle without range/charge anxiety or breaking down and catching fire?

This was the challenge we were faced with on a recent journey.

Objective

The goal is to drive 1800km in 3 days with no dramas. This post is for new or future EV owners to learn from our experience.

Before we left, we planned a rough route based on known chargers (in PlugShare.com), and then I created a rough route in the ABRP app. ABRP is great for automatically planning trips with an EV.

We used ABRP to check possible routes and see if chargers were available.

Tesla’s Reliable SuperCharger locations in Australia are well-known. They are my first preference for charging as they have the highest UpTime.

Queensland has a good Electric Charger network; thank you, Queensland Government.

Evie has reliable chargers along the coast of eastern Australia. There are not many Evie Charge Stations in Regional or Rural Australia.

NRMA chargers are also reliable. We have never used a ChargeFox charger.

The NSW Government will roll out Fast Chargers across NSW by the end of 2024.

Car

We have a Tesla Model Y (Long Range) 2023 Model with an NCM battery. The car can do 533km range on a single charge.

Here is the Blog post I did to research the car. Electric Car Research (Australia, Tesla Model Y)

The 20″ Induction wheels do lower the range by 7% to 12% so do not choose this configuration if you want maximum range. Also, the range is based on perfect conditions, not driving like a cut snake and overloading the car with luggage and people.

Range Deep Dive

Based on EV Database, they advise that the Model Y Long Range total battery capacity is 78.1 kWh (78100 Wh). The average factory-rated consumption is about 145 Wh used per kilometre (in perfect conditions). I know based on car stats from every drive for my driving style: I consume 170 Wh per km (in the city), so in the worst case, I would match that on the highway with 4 people and luggage.

Would we only get 450km range per charge?

I knew our battery has a slightly higher capacity based on stats from Tessie: The Tesla management app so that is a benefit..

Use this link to get the Tessie App to track your Tesla’s battery health in the Tessie app.

Car Preparation

We prepared the car by doing the following at home the week before.

• I pre-charged the car’s battery at home to 100% (from 75%) the night before (this cost us $3.4)
• We had the tyres air-checked. A few weeks earlier, we replaced the air with Pure Nitrogen at JAX Tyres, as it helps lower the PSI Range swings between hot and cold temperatures. I checked the Tire pressure the day before.
• I topped up the Windshield washer fluid.
• No engine oil or radiator water checks. No power steering or transmission fluid checks. No Services are required.
• The night before, I set the car to pre-heat the cabin and battery while it was connected to mains power to finish charging while on off-peak power to maximize savings.

Expectations

• Best case: We have Zero Issues.
• Expected: We have recharging issues or cannot recharge.
• Worst case: We hit a huge pothole, hit a kangaroo, we crash the car, hit road debris and we need a tow.

I was now very excited

Planning

Before we left we simulated the route using the A Better Route Planner (ABRP) app on our phone to get a rough recommendation of the route to take. We then added other waypoints to change the default route and plan where we wanted to go. We used the app PlugShare app to zoom in on our rough route to verify that local chargers were reported as working and are reliable by EV owners.

I looked at Plugshare and screen-grabbed a photo of the charging stations and user-reported information just in case.

Some Plugshare user entities warned of nasty curbs to avoid.

Given that Tesla can regenerate some battery charge on downhill portions of the drive, I was curious about when the battery would charge while driving downhill. I looked at https://www.flattestroute.com/ and graphed the elevation on the drive up

And the drive back home

This information was not needed as the car already factors in Wind, weather, elevation and regenerative braking, driver speed etc, to estimate the range left.

The Journey

The day before, I set the charge level to 100%. Normally, I charge 75% for local driving.

FYI, An empty battery and a full battery virtually weigh the same.

The morning of the departure, I sent the route from my Tesla phone to the car to heat the cabin and battery.

Cabin Pre Heat On

Packing while charging

Great Dividing Range (Home to Coffs Harbour)

The first leg of the drive started at 4 AM, it was very cold and foggy. We were glad that the Tesla lights (and fog lights) were very good.

Here is a Timelapse of part of the trip to Armidale.

We had breakfast at McDonald’s Armidale. The car predicted we would arrive at Coffs Harbour at 9:03 a.m. with 19% battery left.

Dorrigo at 8 AM is stunning.

Dorrigo also has a charger that we did not need to use. We used the Public Toilets, though.

Dorrigo to Coffs Harbour Time Lapse

As we approached Coffs Harbour, the car suggested a faster route and showed that it was Preconditioning the battery for faster charging.

Coffs Harbour Supercharger was very nice.

Many shops are nearby.

Although we set a 90% charge limit, the car knew we only needed 15 more minutes of charging to continue the trip.

We can stop more and charge less or charge more and stop less on long journeys.

We charged from 224km to 471km range to allow us to check out the Station Creek Campground and get the Maclean Supercharger.

We had 12x 1.5-litre bottles in the trunk, a spare 240W mobile charger and a spare Type 2 Charge Cable (usually needed at untethered EV charge stations in the bush).

Part 2: Coffs Harbour to Knockrow

We wanted to get to the Station Creek Campground but failed (the road was too rough, 10 km in), so we pushed on North.

We missed the old bridge at the Clarence River that takes you to the Hardwood/Maclean Supercharger.

We had spare range so we pressed on to Knockrow South West of Byron Bay (Macadamia Castle) as our next charge stop. We stopped at Woodburn for some food and a loo break.

Snack time while charging at the Macadamia Castle.

Part 3: Knockrow to Caloundra

We pushed onto Calundra from the Knockrow charger. Queensland has terrible traffic for almost 3 hours straight.

We made it to our Motel.

We charged up at the local Coles Evie Charger that night to save charging time the next day, as we still had to drive a few hours north.

It was great to charge while I was shopping for groceries.

The Evie charger worked fine

Evie Charging Done

The only issue I had was once I had to manually unlock the charge port when I was done charging from inside the car (Tesla Superchargers have a button on the handle and know that it can be activated if the driver is near).

This was my first 1 minute of confusion on the whole trip.

Part 4: Caloundra to Maryborough (via Gympie)

We drove straight to Maryborough (no charge stops)

Part 4: Maryborough to Caloundra (via Gympie)

However, we stopped at the Goldfields Plaza shopping centre to recharge, use the toilet, and get lunch.

We had no issues charging at Gympie. The bakery above is good.

Once again, the car disliked my 90% charge limit, so we stopped charging early and trusted the car.

Part 5: Caloundra to Home (via Brisbane and Tenterfield)

Indooroopilly Supercharger was a bit hard to find, but we found it at the end and left notes on the plugshare.com app location for this charger.

The route the car wanted to take would have left 12% (55km range) for a home arrival charge level, but we spent an extra 10 minutes charging along the way to leave a 20% (100km range) buffer by the time we got home.

Cunningham Highway (Steep and fast climb)

Home End of Trip Stats

Home End of Trip Charge (We recharged from 20% to 75% while we slept on the main power.

Charge Costs Summary

Below are the charge stops we made on the 1800+ journey. We did not drive like miss daisy, quite the opposite.

The day before travel, we charged the car to 98% at home. A full battery charge at home costs us $13+.

Charge Stop 1: Coffs Harbour after driving from Tamworth to Coffs Harbour via Armidale McDonald’s, Dorrigo and being lost at Coffs Harbour (from taking an early turn). Charged to 90%.

74% Battery refill (58kWh) or 395 kilometres extra range. The distance travelled was approx 350 kilometres.

Charge Stop 2: Knockrow (Near Byron Bay) via Station Creek attempt and Woodburn on the freeway at high speed (110 klm/h). Charged to 90%.

60% Battery refill (47kWh) or 320 kilometres extra range. The distance travelled was approx 260 kilometres On the highway doing 100 km/h, the freeway doing 110 km/h and traffic jams.

Charge Stop 3: Caloundra Shopping Center while shopping after day trips. Charged to 90%.

56% Battery refill (44.5kWh) or 303 kilometres extra range. The distance travelled was approx 265 kilometres.

Charge Stop 4: Gympie is driving from Caloundra on the freeway at 110 km/h. Charged to 90%.

56% Battery refill (44kWh) or 300 kilometres extra range. The distance travelled was approx 270 Kilometres.

Charge Stop 5: Caloundra Shopping Center – Day 2 before the drive home, Charged to 90%.

43% Battery refill (33.6kWh) or 229 kilometres extra range. The distance travelled was approx 200km Kilometres.

Charge Stop 6 Indooroopilly (Brisbane) – Drive from Caloundra on the freeway at 110 km/h. Charged to 90%.

25% Battery refill (20kWh) or 136 kilometres extra range. The distance travelled was approximately 110 km.

Charge Stop 7 Tenterfield – from Brisbane (Indooroopilly) – Driving on the Freeway doing 110 km/h and Highway doing 100 km/h up the Cunningham gap. Charged to 90%.

75% Battery refill (59kWh) or 400 kilometres extra range. The distance travelled was approximately 280 km.

When we got home, We charged the car back to my daily 75% charge level overnight for approximately $10

Total on-road costs were $179.91; ABRP’s app prediction for this route is within $1 at the start of the journey.

What Worked

The built-in navigation software was awesome. Re-routing around delays ahead, range predictions

Enhanced Auto Pilot was amazing. We let the car drive 1,000 klms on Enhanced Auto Pilot. Obviously, we had to touch the steering wheel every 30 seconds, but this freed us up to watch out for potholes and kangaroos ahead

Our Tesla kept hinting that we should stop charging and drive on as we did not need to charge more to reach the destination. We no longer panic and charge 90% or more.

We did not need as many charge stops (4 Major, 2 Minor), so we skipped most of the originally planned charge stops.  We usually drove 400klms before we looked for a charger (but in the back of our head we knew the next rough charger).

Challenges

We failed to drive into Station Creek Campground; The road became too rough for the Tesla. 4×4 owners can laugh at me now 🙂

I had to unlock the charge port manually once at an EVIE charger.

In 1000 km of auto driving (the car steering, braking, accelerating and turning the wheel) we only had three manual interventions (taking control). Taking control back is as simple as pressing the brake, turning the wheel or disengaging it via a steering wheel stalk press.

The car saw dangers outside our vision or possible merging traffic. In these events, the car slowed down 7km from 100 km because it saw something ahead that we could not see. We disengaged the autopilot, manually drove for a few minutes, and re-engaged.

If it were peak holiday time, we would need to plan charge stops to avoid charger lines.

Practical Information

Check PlugShare in advance and read the directions to each charge stop (and look for backup charge stations). Trust the car’s range predictions, as they were 99% accurate. It was only wrong 2 times. First, it was out 1% when we drove up Cunningham cap quite fast, and the second time, we gained 2% battery range coming down the Moonbies range (regenerative braking)

Download these apps (ABRP, PlugShare, Elevation) and charging strategies (more stops, less time, less stops, more charging). Charge at lunch or while shopping.  

Post Trip Maintenance

I cleaned the car, refilled the washer fluid, and rotated the tyres.

Petrol vs. Electricity costs

If our Ford Kuga had been on the same trip, we would have spent nearly $495 on fuel, so $179 is good for an EV.

Charging an EV at Motels for free or at family/friends’ residences would be cheaper. Public charging is great. It is fast and costs about half the price of petrol for the range. 

Charging an EV is like eating food; cooking at home is cheaper than eating out at restaurants every day.

Conclusion

Yes, we drove 1,800km across Australia in an electric vehicle without range/charge anxiety and without breaking down or catching fire.

We got well over 80km range between charges carrying 4 people and a Trunk and a trunk full of heavy stuff.  More importantly, we had fun driving most of the time on freeways at 110 km/h.

We will drive a lot longer trips with the EV in future.

Thank You for reading my boring blog post.

Other Posts

Recent Tesla Blog Posts

• Electric Car Research (Australia, Tesla Model Y)
• Automated Tesla charging at home for 8c per kWh via Origin Energy

Live Australia Grid Supply and Demand Chart

View the live Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) live Electricity Price per MW here: https://aemo.com.au/

Version: 1.2

Change Log: 

• v1.0 30/5 – Initial Post
• v1.1 31/5 – Slowed Down Time Lapse Videos and some sentence edits.
• v1.2 Added the AEMO link and link to my 3rd post about Origin