My First 3,000 km Australian EV Roadtrip in a Polestar 2
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2024
- Head over to the livestream once the video finishes to talk about EV charging problems and solutions with EV experts! • Problems and Solutions...
I got a loan of a Polestar 2, and took it on a 3,000km EV roadtrip through Australia. From Sydney to Canberra to Melbourne and back again with some rural detours along the way. In this video I'll talk about what it was like driving and charging an EV car using Australia's charging infrastructure, and I'll share lessons learned and tips and tricks for beginner EV drivers!
Immediately after the video premieres, join me over at a livestream where I'll be joined by EV expert James Carter (Canada) and long-time EV owner Nick Gaudern (UK/ Denmark) to talk about all the mistakes I made and what solutions are available.
Bookmarks:
00:00 Intro
01:19 Trip Itinerary
01:55 Buying cars, the EV market and the Polestar 2
03:26 Trip Rundown
03:51 Leg 1 - Sydney to Canberra
04:45 Leg 2 - Canberra to Melbourne
07:33 Leg 3 - Melbourne to Canberra
07:39 Charger problems
11:02 Other Trips in the Polestar 2
12:00 Summary and comparison to IC cars
12:59 Rosie’s thoughts and opinions on the future of EV adoption
17:16 Outro
Sources:
Mies, Helmus and van den Hoed - Estimating the Charging Profile of Individual Charge Sessions of Electric Vehicles in The Netherlands
www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/9/2/17
P3 - Charging Index 2021
www.p3-group.com/en/p3-chargi...
Transport & Environmment and BNEF - EVs will be cheaper than petrol cars in all segments by 2027
www.transportenvironment.org/...
Electric Vehicle Council - State of Electric Vehicles 2022
electricvehiclecouncil.com.au...
If you would like to help develop the Engineering with Rosie channel, you could consider joining the Patreon community, where there is a chat community (and Patreon-only Discord server) about topics covered in the videos and suggestions for future videos and production quality improvements. / engineeringwithrosie
Engineering with Rosie is on @buymeacoffee!
You can support by buying a coffee ☕️ here -
www.buymeacoffee.com/engwithr... - Наука та технологія
Head over to the livestream once the video finishes to talk about EV charging problems and solutions with EV experts! ua-cam.com/video/AicknFtL5-4/v-deo.html
I see, this makes sense
Yes managed to catch the last part.
All valuable insights.
My old friend, now a nuclear engineer loves nuclear and thinks we should charge EV batteries with nuclear power.
He is lost in his expertise.
He can't answer renewable matters just like he can not answer my medical question. Hahaha 😊
The sunniest country on the planet and we all live close to windy coasts.
8million billion m2 of sunshine 365 days a year and the huge national grid to receive the dispersed renewable energy.
20million vehicles and 20million buildings and all connected to the grid !
(20million EV huge batteries I mean.)
Let's show the world how to do it properly.
@@jondoe5536 20million buildings x 33kwh = 660Gwh Every day
Our existing power plants, fossil fueled, are 25GW x 24 hrs = 600Gwh Every day if not flooded mines, or not shut down for scheduled repairs, or emergency repairs and full power 24/7/365 will break anything and we don't need 100% except for peaks.
6.6kw rooftop solar for 5 hours = 33kwh daily.
Big batteries and eventually EV batteries make all the difference.
This is all new, the old technology see nothing but 'red ink'.
As the customers stop using the grid the government will be blackmailed into even more subsidies, tax money.
This is simplified but true.
The last customer would have to pay the entire grid costs as they will be the only customer who wants the old electricity.
@@jondoe5536 excellent to hear.
There is all sorts of battery technologies coming.
@@stephenbrickwood1602 Nuclear or other Renewable- they both don't emit carbon, and both are sustainable. There are even newer designs that are inherently safer than current presurized light water reactors- and even these older designs have a very good safety record, despite the misleading FUD from anti-nuclear groups.
I think that one of the solutions to the charger blocking issue is charging for blocking. At the office I used to be based at in the SF Bay area, charging was at a normal rate, but once you hit a threshold, and stopped charging/started to trickle, the cost went up prohibitively. It meant people kept a very close eye on their charge and moved out of the way real fast!
Thanks, really enjoying your content.
👍
Tesla already does this - if you don't unplug within 5 minutes of completing charging you will be billed for the time you are blocking the charger. Also, when a supercharger site is congested, Tesla may limit how much you can charge (e.g. no more than 80% charge).
Another great video. Many of the public chargers you used would have received some level of government subsidy. I believe the key factor in any future government assistance that is given to EV charger companies has to be depending on operational uptime. The Tesla charging network has a world wide up time of better than 99.5%. Chargers that are operational less than 90% of the time shouldn't receive government funding or if it is an up front subsidy, should have a penalty clause for downtime. If there is an issue with a particular EV charger manufacturer not being able to supply spare parts, then charging networks using that type of charger should either find a better one or not compete for the tender.
In addition, the minimum charge rate for a future charger to receive government assistance should be 150kW, with a higher subsidy for 250kW chargers. I am not sure that there is that much benefit for encouraging even higher rate chargers as very few vehicles can take advantage of this and those that can don't charge for long at that rate.
Why should taxpayers subsidise EVs? Not a good thing in my view
@@kevinwortz8301 I was referring to taxpayer assistance for charging networks, not EV directly. There is a major difference.
More chargers! Hear hear! We take the fueling infrastructure for granted -- if charging infrastructure were half as good, EV range would be a nonissue. Also, road signage for chargers like there is for fueling, so people know what's out there!
Describes the situation in regard to charging infrastructure as it was 3 years ago in Europe. This has changed dramatically, fast charging hubs pop up everywhere. It will still take a couple of years until we have the same network as for petrol
Population density in Europe makes it economically feasible to have more charging locations per sq kilometer.
What if each charger had two plugs, and could automatically switch between them when one car reached 80%? This might set a clear social expectation that it's okay to take that second plug when you're next in line, and it would give that second driver confidence they'd get a charge as soon as possible without having to wait around. It would also give the first driver flexibility to come back late, after their charge is done, and the charger is still busy with the second car. Obviously not as good as simply having more chargers, and no match for *long* queues. But maybe a way to smooth transitions and keep utilization higher for a given charger?
Simpler: Just have the charger release the cable when charging is finished, then the next customer can just unplug it.
Some chargers do have 2 plugs
On busy Tesla Superchargers this is exactly what happens. When plugging in they send you a text that charging is limited to 80%. You get charged an idle fee of $2/10mins if you don't move your car after charging has been completed.
@@Tore_Lund In most cases the cable would not reach to a vehicle parked next to it.
@@jdillon8360 They are stupidly one CCS2 connector (99.9% of all EV) and one Chademo connector (0.01% of all EV). Also currently most are 50kW chargers which can power one plug at a time only.
Congratulations on your expected new baby.
I have 3 children and 2 grandchildren and energy in the future is critical to them.
Love your work.
EXCELLENT presentation. "Veteran" EV drivers always gloss over the rough spots, and anti-EV commenters balloon the rough spots into horror stories. Thank you for an enthusiastic newbie perspective.
Yup! I did a 4,000 mile road trip a week after buying my first EV. I avoided the ultra-slow chargers and I was driving an older Tesla, so I had a couple of extra things going for me, but all-in-all, my experience was very similar. The most problematic issues involve the EV driver learning curve and the need for more infrastructure. I will say that gasoline vehicles faced the same issues in the 1920s in the US when there were not gas stations everywhere. So, this is not an unforeseen or unsolvable issue. It's quite easily fixed and will be soon.
as a Polestar owner, i will say this is a fair review of what a new person experiences. Broken chargers, ICE’d parking spaces and people not checking in on the charging apps are the main issues. As for credit cards, most charger companies off a free RFID card that you can just tap and go.
In the UK, many service stations ripped up disabled parking spaces and turned them into EV charging spots. Meanwhile, disabled spaces were moved right to the back of the car park, where they're of limited use if you can't walk very far. Do selfish Tesla owners care about that? No, you don't. So forgive me for not caring when your precious EV spaces are 'iced'.
Well done Rosie. There is no way I would have attempted that trip in anything other than a Tesla. Anyway, if you really want to save money on charging get solar panels on your home and recharge during the day ( amortised cost is about 4 cents per kw). I can usually get 150 klms of charge per day for about $1.00. Driving on energy produced from your roof top solar is the next level of smugness :).
Rosie, many destination Tesla chargers will charge non Tesla vehicles it just depends if they have been internally switched on to do so.I find getting a RFID card from the charger provider much more reliable and quicker than relying on their app to instigate a charging session.
I'm in country NSW and I'm going to bite the bullet and get an EV. Your video reinforced my worries but at the same time showed that with good planning it can work. Your absolutely right without good charging infrastructure all the govt efforts are a waste of time.
Great video. EV newbies do need some guidance into the planning required to get around our country. Totally agree that our charger network will be our archilles heal if we dont sort it out. I drive a Tesla and have not had any issues yet, but non-Tesla owners here, and in the US and UK are already reporting charger reliability and availability issues. It is not surprising; Australia has been held back for too long by interests hostile to EVs, but now that EVs are becoming more popular, it is definitely something we need to fix for zero emissions travel to succeed.
Hi Rosie. Love your videos.
My wife and I completed an EV road trip thru Vic, NSW and QLD in between the two recent flood affected times. We completed 7000km over a 6 week period. The total energy bill was A$40, this happened because we used destination chargers at our nightly accommodation as well as the free NRMA DC chargers. Our vehicle is a long range model with 600km WLTP range. Not a model-S, which is way too expensive. Finding a charger was easy using the Plug share App. I now have no range concerns and will never go back to a fossil fuel vehicle.
Nice video Rosie! Switched to an EV myself and it works great if you organise and plan ahead. I usually charge the car while walking the dog😄. Can definitely relate to the charger anxiety. The apps are not always up to date and so you may reach an EV charger and find out it’s broken while in some cases it’s the opposite.
Hi Rosie , just check out the charging systems in Norway , fully charged did a great video .
I remember one electric car park with chargers at every parking space ! 😊👍
First, good on you for sharing your first real EV road trip experience. Good on you for highlighting that there is an issue with the public charging network, and that each electric car has different charging curves. Many newbies wouldn’t understand this. In terms of your suggestion for a credit card option for chargers, that is a good idea, but potentially problematic as it could be a target for credit card skimming hackers. Instead, the ChargeFox network and Evie charging network have a free RFID card you can order for those times your phone is flat. Also, Tesla destination chargers at Hotels can be used by non-Tesla vehicles if the destination charger is a version 3. You just have to wait a little longer as the charger works out when doing the handshake with the car that it isn’t a Tesla. Then it will revert to just being a standard EVSE. Also, I think if you had done it in a Tesla, you may have had a different experience. I have my own UA-cam channel called TeslaMif and live in Queanbeyan and would very much like to give you the opportunity to try the Tesla experience. It’s different to the public charging experience. The cars are also equivalent in price to the Polestar and you get so much more for them. Let me know if you would be keen to meet for a chat. There is the Australian Electric Vehicle Association Canberra branch brunch on Friday at the Arboretum at 9.30am. Why not come along and meet there and meet some other EV owners. Maybe consider joining as a member. It’s not expensive and you get discounts at local EV accessory shops and help as a member.
The self parking onto the wall power point is the killer concept.
Plugged into the grid 24/7 and even being part of the grid.
Forget Horse and Cart thinking, I think 🤔.
I've been driving EVs for 20 years now. This is a well done video on living with an EV. Rosie, you identified the issues really well. Of course that's not surprising to anyone who has watched your channel.
Thanks Rosie!
I love your videos!! This was great, aussies need the hear the info you are sharing!!! I’d be interested to hear your experience and understanding of Tesla?
As far as I understand your main issues are already addressed by Tesla:
- incentive to create a great experience for customers and maintain chargers
- more stalls per location
- occupancy fees for overstaying
- no app or any fussing required to start charge
- plenty of free cashflow to make more chargers
AND (big bonus!)
- an EV that is 9 years old that has a good chance of giving you a better experience these past 3 weeks: a 2013 Model S.
So perhaps ironically - a network from a private company that understands EV’s is the only model of charging that seems to actually work so far.
Great idea about queuing!!! Here on Maui we do use postit notes, some laminated haha
Good to hear an honest balanced view about long distance driving with an EV
I display my mobile no when charging as not everybody is using Plugshare. I was contacted several times and we always managed a good compromise. I had once a Model 3 at 100% blocking at night and I was desperate for a charge. I rocked the vehicle which triggered a Sentry mode event alerting the owner who came running in pyjamas from a motel across the road.
Great video, and an entirely believable experience based on the circumstances and your experience level. As you note, EVs are not just "swap and go"; we have a century of institutional knowledge about how to effectively own, drive and operate combustion vehicles, and not all of that translates in intuitive ways to EVs. I've been driving an EV for a couple years and can mirror some of your comments, as well as give some additional useful tips:
1. Don't underestimate the value of L2 AC charging during overnight stops (and at home); you mentioned a couple of times about either not bothering to or being unable to get a charge while the car is idle, and how much of an impact this had - 100% agreed. If you're road tripping, you *definitely* want to start off with a full charge (it's worth planning your hotels/stops to ensure proximity to a charger), and ensure you get a full charge overnight before you set out again; doing so saves 1-1.5hours of charging time the next day, since even at L2 speeds it's usually possible to get to 100% charge before morning rather than only the 60-80% charge you'd grab at a DC charger. It's natural to not think about this too much as it was never *possible* to refuel a gas car at home or a hotel, but this is where the vast majority of your charging actually happens (except on mid-day road trip stops) so it's definitely a mindset change to focus on the importance of overnight charging.
2. Related to the above, Always Be Charging: If you're not actively driving, it pays to always try to ensure your vehicle is charging (unless it's 100% full). Every stop you make should involve plugging in if you can, even if it's a bit inconvenient; you'll invariably come out ahead in total trip time. I have made quite successful multi-day road trips in my Bolt (which charges at an abysmal 55kW peak) by ensuring the vehicle is either actively on the road or charging as quickly as possible at all times.
3. "Tesla" chargers at hotels are "destination" chargers, which are just a different connector on the standard L2 charger you'd normally use. You can (at least we can in North America) buy a passive adapter that lets other EVs plug in to these Tesla destination chargers (NOT Superchargers though!) and this can really open up your options for overnight charging on multi-day road trips.
4. Unless there's no alternative, I never target a DC charging location with less than 4 stations/chargers for the reasons you describe; invariably some are down or occupied, and your odds of finding a working charger are way better if there's multiple stations to try at one location rather than having to drive elsewhere. Also, if the stalls are occupied, the more stations there are, the shorter your average wait for a station to free up. Obviously this isn't always possible (especially with Australia's sparse population in many areas and thus long roads with few chargers), but Plugshare can also often show how many station heads are currently operational or in use to help with planning as you approach a charger.
5. App/station problems are common, and having as many mitigations as possible to this is helpful. If you can, try to get familiar with the charging networks in your area and their quirks. Wherever possible, request/order a fob/card for every network you expect to use, and link it to your account beforehand (in addition to installing the app). This can give you multiple methods to activate a reluctant or glitchy station; you can try from the app itself, tapping the phone on the charger with the app open (NFC, which I've often found most reliable), using the fob/card, or activating from the station itself and/or with a credit card where supported. My experience has been that when one method fails, others might well work so you can get started charging faster without having to move stations or call support, wasting precious time _not_ charging.
6. Sometimes, chargers are "partially" down or defective and will charge, but at anomalously low rates. If you know your car's charging curves well, you can see this happening and it's sometimes worth moving stations if there are other available ones at the same site.
7. A planning tool like A Better Route Planner can be very helpful in optimizing your trip's charging stops. I think the Polestar has or can have this right on the head unit, but it's also supported in just about any other EV if you run it on your phone (optionally casting it to the infotainment). ABRP knows the charging curves of various vehicles, and optimizes charging to stay in the most efficient band for a shortest total trip time. Especially if you set up a mechanism to live-update your state of charge while driving, it can provide very accurate projections that let you get the most out of your charging. For many vehicles (including my Bolt), the fastest charging starts at a very low state of charge (5% or less) so being able to "push the limit" and arrive with a very low SoC means you spend the most time possible charging at the highest rate. I have found these live estimates to be incredibly accurate, so I usually feel quite safe targeting an arrival at a charging station with about 7% state of charge, which is enough margin to ensure you still make it even if the estimate is a bit off.
All told, I think you did pretty well overall for being a relative newbie. I think your lifestyle can definitely support owning an EV with the right car model and behaviours, but obviously purchase price is still a big constraint. Gradual improvements to the charging network (both DC charging and better access to L2 charging at apartments, workplaces etc) will do the most to spur increasing adoption at this point, and ownership will really ramp up in 4-8 years once the used vehicle cycle starts making some of the currently-new cars (which are now good enough to be primary cars unlike most of the early first-generation and compliance EVs) accessible to more people at attainable price points.
Rose, love your videos. I suggest you buy a Tesla model Y AWD with trailer hitch. It will take a your kit. They are extremely roomy. Tesla has done a phenomenal job with charging infrastructure. It just works. I am thinking the money you save on petrol will pay for the vehicle financing. My driving behaviour is similar to yours. I have had my Tesla in Vancouver Canada for a year and I have never gone below 10% battery charge. I never have range anxiety. The last two hotels where I stayed had free Tesla resort chargers. They were not high end hotels. I suggest you do a similar trial with a Tesla. Looking forward to your next video.
Hello Rosie, welcome to the EV world and I'll give you my experience as 7 years driving EV (Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 and TM3 SR+)
Tesla is superior in charging experience, it doesn't matter if you are in a queue when it's 40 chargers. The queue will be over in minutes. Also it cost extra money to be fully charged and block a charging spot if over 50% of the chargers are in use
Tesla chargers are open to all now in Norway.
Preheating the battery to correct temperature for charging automaticly when destination is a fast charger and AC cooling/heating is a must. The LFP battery of my TM3 needs 40c to reach the highest charging speeds. BMW i3 charged fast up to 94% and Tesla is at about 100% before I've drunk my coffe and had my sandwich. The leaf tanked at 60% and with a range of 120km in summer it was a pain. Had to stop every 50km for charging.
Norway is a couple of years ahead of you in charging infrastructure, but you will get there.
I think the charging experience I have now with Tesla will be available to other EV's in 3-5 years. The gas stations etc are waking up and realise it's not useful with 2 chargers, 16 is a good start, but it should be 30. And customers are stuck there for 20-30 minutes are really good customers and will need food and drink if they have a nice lounge and a good menu.
2 chargers at a place is not usefull, better with charging spots with 30+ chargers and food/entertainment outside cities. I think the one I visited in the summer had 40 tesla and 20 other chargers located next to a gas station and McDonalds.
I hope you don't get there, but the 420km range I get out of my TM3 is about 120km longer than my bladder range. And I need to stop and walk a bit every three hours anyway when driving. Oh, the cruel fate of age! ;-)
kw is not really important when fast charging, km/minute is better. My bmw i3 with 50kw max charged distance faster than the Audi Etrons when they were brand new on 100kw chargers due to their inneficency.
Very fair criticisms. Only "noob" mistake you made was not using a destination charger in Melbourne whilst at the conference or not sorting home charging earlier.
Super frustrating that DC rapid charging isn't as easy as a petrol pump / much more fiddly and less reliable. We should not accept less reliability from them. It's reasonable to make this criticism.
Destination chargers are not that easy to come by though it turns out. On later trips I tried really hard to organise hotels with charing and that never worked out like I intended.
Great video with “real world” experience from a “newbie” 😊. Don’t worry, when you do get an EV sometime in the future, you will quickly learn the tips and tricks…
In the US it's much the same. The public EV charging infrastructure is not there - not even close.
If you only need to use your car in town or to a town close by then any brand is a wonderful option. However, if you want to use it to travel long distances and not have problems or anxiety you need to use a Tesla. They are the only company that have decided to solve this on behalf of their owners. It's urgent that public EV infrastructure improve, and fast, or it will give EV's in general a black eye and slow the needed transition from ICE to EVs. It may already be too late for many early adopters.
Love the informative videos Rosie!
👍
Looks like your first EV experience was similar to mine. I've got a Polestar 2 LRDM and my first long trip was a nightmare because of all the reasons you've said.
I only do one long trip per year and must say the second time I did it was much easier due to my improved knowledge and also more chargers available. I did notice more EVs wanting to use them though so hopefully charger installations keep up with EV uptake.
From the UK by the way which from what I understand is quite a way ahead of Australia in terms of charging infrastructure. Not including Tesla of course who have it sorted everywhere.
Great video and great, honest review.
Hi Rosie. Thanks for making this video and sharing your experience. It will be interesting to revisit this video on a yearly basis to see how things have changed the meantime.
The comments in here are so much more civilised that other videos featuring Polestar 2. People hating on EV's in general, or Tesla fanboys dissing it. Nice to see some appreciation for a this beautiful car.
Tesla owners have a vastly different experience than non Tesla owners because of the Supercharger network. Here is what's different
1 there are a lot more Superchargers locations
2 They always work. I've had a Tesla for three years. I road trip every weekend. I've never not been able to charge. In that time I've encountered one broken charger but there were seven more at that location and they all worked
3 At least 8 chargers per location, new Superchargers have 12. Old Superchargers are being upgraded to 16 from 8.
4 The status of each Supercharger station is shown on the nav screen
5 if a Supercharger station is half full they set the charge limit to 80%. When your car approaches the limit they send you a text telling you that you have five minutes to disconnect the car, after that they charge you idle fees
Thanks for the episode Rosie! Great to hear about your “real life” experience around living with an EV, particularly for road trips.
Great video as always Rosie, very jealous you got to drive around the polestar! Loved the combination of engineering information with the story of your trips and real world challenges of the charging network. Also, you have very interestingly named placed in Australia!
I need to send this video to my niece who has a 2-hour commute to work several days a week and made an impulse purchase of a Chevy Bolt.
Excellent Vid Rosie. Really helpful advice for me who is in the throes of deciding on a an ICE or EV for his next car.
Great video Rosie - thank you. Lots of great insights and data, and explanation of your experiences and the challenges of public fast charging.
Check the NSW EV Strategy which includes a $209 million investment into public EV charging infrastructure to address the problems you so clearly outlined.
Great Video Rosie. You are 100 percent correct that we need to improve the charging experience before we worry about making EV's cheaper and having more of them on the road.
Also we need to have certain rules for all chargers. Starting with not being lower speed than 350Kw capable for all new installed chargers. All chargers must be able to charge any vehicle registered in Australia. Anyone found icing an EV charger is fined $1000 for every hour they stay there. The council parking people will love giving those ones out. Also that any charger that is under 350Kw must be a free charger. Any charger that normally charges money for their use must give you a free charge if you have issues with the app or the unit is offline when you arrive. this will force them to get as good as Tesla so you can pull up, plug in, and walk away and it just works using the details saved on the vehicle profile currently being used.
If they implement all these points it will help tremendously in making driving an EV as smooth as possible.
As for you looking for a new EV, maybe give the new MG4 a try. Look up the Fully Charged video starring Robert Llewellyn for a good idea of how it goes. It's a lot cheaper than it's nearest rival. 28k euro vs 38 for the VW ID3. plenty of room for everything you do as well. It's a bit like a proper EV station wagon. ua-cam.com/video/GLHjx623jA4/v-deo.html
Thanks Rosie, as usual you are spot on!!!!! I have now rented a Polestar 2 three times and I have to say I love how good they are. I really like how they look, both outside and inside, I love that Scandinavian minimal look, very funky. I also like how well they are screwed together, seemed like they are going to last a long time. And I really liked how easy the computer was to use, very intuitive, I had it figured out very quickly. And I liked how smooth and powerful it was, and mine were just single motor 2wd. And I also liked how well it handled, and that the suspension was compliant without being harsh.
My first trip was a holiday, driving from Melbourne to Swan Hill, where we overnighted, and then to Mildura the next day, where again we overnighted, before an identical return trip. I and my nephew were able to easily find a charger in Bendigo, Swan Hill, and Mildura, plug in, and walk to a cafe for a nice meal, and come back and find the car suitably charged. We thought how easy is this, we thought it was wonderful :-).
However, the 2nd and 3rd trips were work trips from Canberra where I live too, and there was no time during our busy schedules to plug in while we were having a meal. There were no chargers near by, and in both Yass and Mittagong where there were free NRMA chargers, there was always a queue to use the charger. I ended up charging late at night when there was no one around, which was a drag because I was pretty tired.
And I could not get over that there is nowhere really to charge in the whole valley of Belconnen where I work. The one in the Labor Club car park was only for Teslas, and I could not find the one in the Belconnen Mall Shopping Centre, which according to Plugshare is a pretty slow charger. I went to Phillip to the John McGrath Kia dealership, which they advertised as being a 110kw per hour charger, and the fastest non Tesla Supercharger in Canberra, but I only managed to get 65kw per hour. I ended up at Hotel Realm a lot, which is meant to be a 75kw per hour charger, but I only got 50kw per hour from it at best.
I therefore really agree with you Rosie, the car was fantastic, and it would do over 400km on a 90% charge, but the charging stations in Canberra are pretty hopeless, not at all fast, 50kw per hour at best, which is mediumly fast at best, and not fast enough!!!!!
But I am an electric car convert, love them!!!!!
Good vid 👍🏻✅
It was lovely to meet you, thanks for your kind words 🙏🏻🇫🇮
Lotsa points that are very pertinent in this video. Thanks. EV’s are the future and the problems require engineers to fix them.
Nice real world experience..well done. Some info updates: In Australia/NSW it is now not cheaper anymore to fill up an EV at charging stations compared to an ICE car. NRMA chargers are not free anymore. Currently the charging costs are $0.50 ~ $0.75 on the road of any of the chargers NRMA/Evie/Fox etc. So there are no more cost savings to be had while on longer trips. But it is still cheaper when charging from home. Personally we are lucky as we have a large solar installation and 99%+ are fairly local area trips.
The charging Network is at least 10 years away from being adequate right now. And unless the government steps in with some serious money to increase the charging Network by 10 fold minimum, EV on the road charging will just get worse as more and more EV's are replacing ICE cars.
Recently travelled from Adelaide to Melbourne (and back later) in my Ioniq (38kW) and, after an earlier scary trip to Robe in which we crawled into Robe because I didn't charge it enough in Keith, I was pretty cautious. I travelled at no faster that 90kph in order to maximize efficiency. We topped up in Talem Bend then a full charge in Keith and another top up in Nihll on our way to Horsham. We'd heard that the fast charger there was a bit dodgy but, because we stayed overnight, trickle charged from a spare wall socket (the motel props were very cooperative!). Another full charge in Ballarat and that was more than enough to get to Melbourne.
We stayed in Melbourne a few days and ran into real trouble trying to find a working charger. A lot were out of action (and had been for a while) and others were full.
The trip over increased my confidence a lot and range anxiety became range confidence. I travelled the speed limit all the way home.
Full charge in Ballarat and then again in Horsham. We did use the fast charger there and one charger didn't work and another one was dodgy. The next day we headed into Keith with about 10% range left as we drove in (this was as low as it got for the whole trip). Keith is well set up with a bank of Tesla chargers meaning other brands had the two port charger to themselves. We topped up again in Murray Bridge (good chargers there), did some shopping and headed home.
I've had the car for about 2 years, but this was a 'newbie' experience. I've been really impressed with it as a 'city car'. Now I'm more that happy to take in on longer trips.
Think of a world where the "gas pump pistol" was not standardized... Seems stupid. Then way have Australia not standardized charging. Is it that hard to add two options (diesel and gas) to a charger. (The answer is no...)
It is so frustrating to me that we have gas stations and the only thing we need to change is a plug in stead of a "gas pump pistol", but that is apparently too hard. Now you have to find the "right" place to charge, you need to use an app to pay and the price is not clearly marked.
Good point.
If you are in the refuelling business, then refuel EVs.
But the EV market IS being standardised. Virtually all new models are being sold with CCS. The only other big maker with a different standard is Tesla, which have their own charging network. So 2 designs, not really that complicated. Petrol, Diesel and LPG all have different connectors/nozzels, that's 3 standards.
@@jdillon8360 The reason that Tesla initally had a proprietary plug is that (in the US) the other car makers could not agree on a plug standard (that Tesla would have happily agreed to). So Tesla gave up in disgust and developed its own. Since Australia adopted the CCS standard (after the Model S and later Model X were imported equipped with the Tesla plug), Tesla has equipped following models (S and Y) with CCS, and upgraded its chargers to support both Tesla and CCS vehicles (and newer chargers with CCS only I believe - Tesla Model S and X owners can buy an adapter to allow them to use chargers with CCS plugs). Seems that Tesla is opening up its charging network to other makes in the US and Europe, so would expect that to happen here also one day. That would greatly increase charger availablility (not to mention reliability - can't ever recall ever seeing a broken Tesla charger), and reduce Rosie's range anxiety :-). The only time I have ever seen a Tesla charging site close to full was when Mercedes Benz had parked in a bay and plugged in, which also blocked the adjoining bay since the MB had its socket on the right rear while Tesla sockets are on the left rear.
Thanks Rosie
I think doing a long trip, in backward Australia, in an EV, is like reviewing my 4WD with a trailer on a trip to the city.
An EV would work well for many because we would charge with ~free electricity from out rooftop solar and ~99% of trips are within charge range.
(Bikes outperformed cars in the city even 50 years ago - faster, cheaper, healthier, cleaner - and its only gotten worse for cars since then)
This mirrors the experience of many, including a friend that had a EV with just a 100 km capacity 2 years ago in the UK. She sold it after the stress of arriving at multiple broken chargers in random places like hidden away behind hotels with little charge remaining. We ended up being routed to the same faulty charger on the return trip which luckily had another just 5 km away but on the first occasion that 5 km was on less than 1% charge remaining so rather stressful! The infrastructure is what needs improving but it is getting better rapidly. Since that trip nearly every motorway services has had EV chargers fitted. A lot by Gridserve who have the best UX possible with a tap of a contactless payment card used to start the charge and again to end it. No apps, no embedded Windows 98 interface or anything else unnecessary to do the job. I have since bought a Tesla and the experience with their superchargers has been great, rarely needing to queue except for some really busy spots and at one of the earliest that they installed with just 2 charge points. Quite why they chose to install just 2 and why newer non-Tesla installations continue to make that same mistake knowing that EV are the future I don't know. It does take some enthusiasm to choose a full EV but we're getting there very quickly.
BTW: If I lived in Australia I'd be on the list for an Aptera. Fears of being stuck in the outback with no fuel would be banished.
Yes, all us Tesla owners are stereo-typical sweethearts! Hate to say it but Tesla has solved most of the concerns you bring up in your story. Also, most of the time most people never need to use a public charger. My car is filled up every morning for my 100 mile daily commute. The big problem then becomes, what about those who don't have access to home charging. This is probably where infrastructure needs to step in. Just my 2 cents.
Have just started looking at EVs.
As with most, but not all potential owners, vast majority of driving would be relatively short distance, city based driving. However, would like to be able to drive Melbourne- Sunshine Coast, given your experience/s, really may retain ICE vehicle for this potential type of long range drive.
The drive itself is demanding enough, with the nagging background potential of range anxiety.
Have no doubt that since you made this honest and helpful video, there have been many more chargers installed on highway type routes.
However, the sales of EV;s have been dramatically increasing, so I wonder , even with more chargers, the net result is any different.
Have no intention of purchasing a Tesla- the reasons do not matter.
Thanks for sharing your practical experience.
Excellent. Thanks Rosie.👍
I have had my XC40 for nearly 3 years now here in the UK. First few long trips were similar to your long trips. In use or broken chargers; but I had always got a plan b & plan c. However, the price of charging at Rapid chargers is teh same as petrol now, so we took the 10 year old Golf instead on long trips and it was so much easier.
You spotted the 2nd charge thing they don't tell you. ie first charge you only go to 80% as it is so slow; then even if you push to 10% that is only a range of 70% of the total. Bit of a shock first time I did that.
We have just been to a wedding in the centre of London so to avoid all the various anti car charges we took the Volvo on a 600mle round trip. We were acting as a van and the trains were on strike so not much option. Yes I had planned the route and charging but found a completely different vibe as there were so many other options to charge now.
Previously I would never have planned a stop at a British Motorway services as they only had 2 chargers and they were always in use. Often by a PHEV trying to justify its plug in capability and taking an hour to fill the tiny battery. But as we were routed up a different motorway to the original plan due to roadworks ,I just got to about where our bodies wanted to stop, pressed the Sat Nav button to find chargers and it suggested the next service station. Also telling me there were 12 devices of which 8 were available. Sure enough, incredibly, it was true apart from some doggy parking to get near a wire taking up 2 bays.
Plugged in tap credit card and off for the loo & coffee. Full (yep 80%) before we had done with our body needs.
Tesla did a brilliant job in understanding that before people will buy EVs they need charging ability. Hence they built a network first. We can even use some of them here in the UK and they are the cheapest; presumably because they have written off the install costs.
I am sure Aus will get there too. Its chicken and egg. More people using existing chargers mean they put more in.
You have learnt that you don't ever think about using a free charger or you will be queuing. The discounted charging we got with the car was useless as those chargers were always full and a queue. Sorry we are not queuing, so we went elsewhere to plan b.
98% of my driving is within the range of the car. Even though it has very poor consumption. Also the "just plug it in to the mains" option is always useful. As the cost of most of my electricity is 7.5p kWh it is a tenth of a Rapid which are often in the 80p bracket. More than happy with the car.
Your choices to buy will only get worse as there are so many options now. I had only 3 real options when i bought. So do hope you get your head round it.
Excellent Video Rosie. Thanks. My next car should be an EV and videos like this are really important information for people learning the ropes.
See if you can rent an EV for your next long trip - it's the best way to get a sense of the adventure and which car might be right for you when it's time to buy - I did 3 rentals before buying. The app A Better Route Planner is a good EV trip simulator.
Transport Evolved recently had a similar video about the serious charger issues in the USA. W.A is putting money into a public charger network which is good. I have my eyes on an MG M4 atn. Like you I have never bought a (new) car, I have inherited them all, and have spent a year waiting to see if anyone would release a small non SUV EV at some point with over 300 km range.
Plugshare, plugshare, plugshare!
Log in, check in, communicate, take photos, report issues.
I am clearly spoiled with Tesla charging network. No need for a queuing system when you have so many charging options and you can see the status of all the chargers in any location. I've fast charged about 70 times over the last 3 years and never waited in line. I hope that Tesla only opens their chargers in locations with extra capacity. Fast chargers should have been everywhere by now all without any need for a credit card and all with plug options to adapt to any car. Yes would be nice to standardize on plugs and have a universal payment method and make sure that new chargers are at minimum 150kw so charge times are fast. Recently drove from Boston to Orlando with no issues, never charged for more than 30 minutes. Just got in the car without any need to plan. It will soon be this way for all EV's.
Thanks for sharing, was really interesting.
There's a synergie between your Tesla driver stereotype smashing (and other 50kW chargers) experience and what you already enjoy cycling around Canberra - the community element (not smugness)! Great video and I'm an early-adopter still driving a 2014 24kWh Nissan Leaf in rural England we charge more often (EVSE at home) than we did before moving here (three-stop move)!
Fantastic, comprehensive, honest look at the experience. Thank you!
My only additional thought about EV ownership is that we are still comparing them to ice vehicle ownership, because that's what we are familiar with.
I'm preparing to spend more on a Tesla for two reasons. One is the charging network. Two is that when FSD is working, Tesla's will be worth way more than any other cars, ICE or EV's, because they can be a robotaxi. Paradigm shift.
That was well done Rosie. You offered a practical overview from actually "front line" experience. Good job
It wasn't well done. An hour of research into charging before she got the car would have allowed her to halve the time she spent charging and removed most of the stress and doubts she experienced on her journeys. She made all of the same unnecessary errors that she mentioned those other novices reported on in the stories and tweets she listed in the intro to this video.
Rosie I really enjoyed this commentary of your trip, there is one more thing that is preventing me from purchasing an EV, I live in Victoria and we now have a 30cents per kilometer tax this makes your 3000 km trip considerably more expensive.
EXCELLENT VIDEO,
EXCELLENT DOCUMENTARY.
Brilliant! Thank you!
Problems with charging points are not just in Australia. Kyle from the 'Out of Spec Reviews' channel spoke a few days ago about the not so good situation in the US.
Right, that's a shame! It does sound like some countries in Europe have it sorted pretty well though, so hopefully all the other locations will eventually get there! Australia and the middle bits of the US are always going to have a handicap though, as the population density is so low. That must make it way harder/ more expensive to get a hassle-free roadtrip experience.
@@EngineeringwithRosie EVs are truly perfect for those who live in the capital cities where even a 400km road trip only happens once a year, if at all. But, for those in the regions, or those who do frequent serious intrastate or interstate drives, an EV is just not feasible nor rational. As you realised with your June 2022 Polestar 2 EV experience.
Until 5 minute ultra fast charging, and, exponentially more charging stations become a reality, petrol ICE cars will still be king when it comes to trip flexibility, dependability and certainty.
@@user-kc1tf7zm3b Depends on which EV. I've done Sydney to Brisbane and return twice in my first year of Tesla ownership and never had a charging problem. Even got free overnight charging at motels along the way. Wasn't fully aware of this Tesla advantage before purchasing, but I wouldn't look at any other EV make for my next car because of the charging reality.
My local service station is unmanned and you pay with credit card. It has 8 pumps and 2 credit card readers. And has a roof over it. And is near the shops. But no toilet.
I have been saying this for months now.
Self parking EV will 'nuzzle' onto a wall plug at home and everywhere else.
EV big batteries will become part of the grid.
20million vehicles in Australia, 300million vehicles in USA.
Huge long trip batteries doing small daily drives 100kwh capacity vs 7kwh daily drives.
And always 93% full, or 100% full 🤔
Now add rooftop solar PV, 6.6kw system to the 20million buildings in Australia, all connected to the grid.
Grid stability and grid storage.
BRILLIANT 👏 👏
Hahaha Hahaha Hahaha 😆
Very true....but we need a bidirectional DC only charging standard to accomplish that. I charge my Tesla on a 12kWp solar array.
@@moestrei there was no way the old Australian Coalition government was going to do that.
As the population migrated to that 'complete' technology the remaining customers bills would increase or the government subsidies would increase 🤔.
Even the current government is caught in a bind.
Car legislation means the world's manufacturers can dump cheaper ICE vehicles in Australia and so the fossil fueled power plants are protected.
But we have had
Shut downs, for repairs.
Floods in mines.
World's prices sky rocketing.
We are badly prepared.
Our leaders have constantly lied in a dangerous way.
Big donations and big subsidies are a toxic mix.
The Coalition said that was the danger of the Opposition.
Even the LNP leader lied to his own. They thought he knew more about the economy.
But I digress.
Australia has big problems.
@@stephenbrickwood1602 Very sad, very true and for me as an electronics engineer this country missed huge opportunities here. We could make electric utes (sensibly sized ones), world leaders in renewable tech and instead being the biggest polluter per capita run 100% renewable. We got it all: The sun, the wind, the space, the materials, the tech and the people. But we are governed by stupid, narrow minded corrupt pricks.
@@moestrei I am an old Construction Civil Engineer, power station and a power line, and many other projects.
Please follow the comments and add your comments.
Not enough Engineers speak up.
We have the numerical skills and real world situation skills.
I have priced and tendered many real world projects.
We can put reality into the minds of every one.
But often we are silent, government employees.
@@moestrei we have
7.688 million km² =
8,000 million x million m2 of sunshine 365 days annually. =
660Gwh daily
So many relevant points!
Really enjoyed this.
Charging now in Europe by Tesla can be used by any car. Australia has all the advantage with the amazing weather. Solar which is a plus. Investment to local garages would be a great way to move forward.
The Nils Frahm concert was amazing 😁
yes rosie oz needs to set charger standards NOW while we,er in the early days & some sort of parking fine system perhaps cameras on the chargers ?
As far as I am aware you can use Tesla destination chargers for non Tesla EV's. Australia uses the same CCS as Europe.
So the Non superchargers are just the Type 2 AC connector outputting 7kW to 11kW.
no such thing as range anxiety...
It's called bladder anxiety!
ABC...always be charging plugshare is your friend!
Excellent review. I've been driving an EV for 5 years. You did great for your first time. I'm an electrical Engineer and also messed up my first longer trip. One thing to note, I'm sure someone else has mentioned it, but "A Better Route Planner" seems to do a much better job than the built in apps in the car and does a wonderful job at relieving range anxiety. At least it gives you a second opinion. It's pretty advanced and can even tell you to slow down to make it between charge stations. It knows the charge profile of your particular vehicle, efficiency at different speeds, temp, altitude changes, etc to give you the best route with the least stops. Sometime it suggests to drive below the speed limit to make it between chargers and also sometimes the efficiently gain of driving slower is quicker than stopping to charge. It figures out that stuff so you don't have to. It's especially good for a newbie who might make the mistake of trying to charge too high, or maybe "top off."
It’s sort of a knock-off of the Tesla system, but without all the insights provided by the massive amounts of information the the integrated Tesla system has.
Every power point is a servo. Home charging and better trip planning would have made this experience a non-issue. I am a Tesla M3 LR owner and it makes a big difference having the Tesla infrastructure means more choices. Maybe the government could offer additional subsidies to car manufacturers to create their own networks.
There are RFID cards you can get for ChargeFox and the Evie Charger networks, for when mobile network coverage isn't working, or working correctly. I've got one for Evie, and CharegeFox on the way.
You can then add the RFID card to the App, so that solves that issue well.
Australian Motorist Associations now own ChargeFox, and are going to be expanding the network as fast as possible.
Where I grew up in rural southwest WA (70s/80s), it was very common for roadhouses to have a sign like "Last petrol for 90 miles" (yes, started with miles).
That was because a lot of cars could only manage about 200miles (320km) on a tank. There was no guarantee that the next place that sold fuel would be open (particularly evenings and weekends).
So, drivers had range anxiety.
I moved to the UK in 89 and the same issue existed in rural areas on weekends. Few places sold fuel on a Sunday. Notably in Wales, it was really difficult to get fuel on a weekend. Many people carried a fuel can in the boot.
Now, I have a diesel car that has a range of more than a thousand km. Multiple times a year I drive to see family in one go; 800km. No more range anxiety.
But that is just convenience, really.
If sufficient chargers exist, then range anxiety should go away.
I make that point all the time, that Australian drivers have range anxiety in petrol cars too! I have run out of petrol probably five times in my life. And never in an electric car though I came very very close one time in the work car in Denmark.
Yes! More charging stations! and more choice on EV cars.
13:19 Some of our apps like ChargePoint in the US have wait lists with messaging. I also have a hang tag that can hang on the charge handle indicating my number and if you can just disconnect me once charged, etc. It just asks to put the tag under a windshield wiper so it can be reused.
My range anxiety vanished when I started planning my trips with the "A better route planner" app. It's amazingly accurate, knows the charging curve of every EV model and uses that to optimize trip time. (I am not affiliated with the app in any way, just a very satisfied user of the free tier.)
Also add Plugshare to get an idea of how likely it is that a charger is actually working!
My EV experience has been Teslas in the US so it's been very different from your experience. But people here have the same concerns. Lack of charging stations and broken chargers. Not being able to charge at home. Then any time there is news of queues at chargers they get wound up screaming that EVs will never work. I don't know how it goes in Australia but I've had to que at petrol stations quite a few times, too. And not necessarily just during holidays. There have also been plenty of broken pumps or stations that don't even have petrol to sell. I think within 5 years the available charging locations will be more than adequate, and in 10 years it won't even be a discussion anymore.
I catch myself being picky about where the charging locations are. There have been a few I've visited that were at a good restaurant and I stay for a 100% charge because I'm having a lovely meal. That's kind of required for road trips, but for people who live in apartments the 'public' fast chargers need to be at places like grocery stores. But even better would be the apartment complexes installing L2 chargers all around the property.
We'll get there! Charging at home and keeping road trips to a minimum is IDEAL EV life. But road trips are plenty achievable as well.
As a Californian and a Tesla owner you have my sympathies. It appears that Australia has many of the same sorts of problems, maybe even with the Teslas there that we had here a few years ago, with some Tesla rich areas like the one I live in, and out on the longer highways with other EVs. My 4 year old Tesla took me 9000 miles around the greater part of the U.S. mainland when new. At that time I saw the same pattern of one, maybe two Non-Tesla charging spots across the parking lots from where the seldom less than 8 Tesla chargers were, if there were any others at all.
I did run into the inverse of your situation at one hotel with EV charging provided. That hotel had both Tesla level 2 chargers and the SAE J1772 style used here for other EVs. Tesla had been a part of that standard's development, so both types or connectors are compatible with the protocols. Tesla provides a simple adapter that needs only to connect the two different pinouts. The Tesla plug EVSE refused to begin charging, so I broke out the adapter and was OK.
I pondered whether the hotel had hired a qualified electrician for both installations. Both EVSE units will need a proper ground/earth connection, but commercial buildings here often use three phase AC while households use our weird split-phase system. They may not have wired the Tesla unit correctly. I do hope you are able to try a Tesla for a road trip there and report on it the same way for comparison.
Should Polestar be forced to provide charging stations?
Tesla has spent so much money rolling out fast, in good locations and reliable chargers for their drivers that is the reason why we are getting our Model 3 delivered this month.
I would much rather see a standardised system implemented where every EV can charge at every charger. It would be a big waste if each manufacturer had to roll out its own charging network.
@@EngineeringwithRosie in Australia we only have two types of charges. CCS has quickly become the main type of charger in Australia.
Tesla is looking like allowing other manufacturers to charge on their chargers. It's only a software limitation. They have done this overseas already.
Cool video and seems like those problems are consistently experienced. Can you provide your opinion on the moderately held views that our electricity infrastructure cannot support the growing number of EV's in the community?
I own a polestar 2. I only use it for local trips and it is fine (have a big garage witb 9.2kW charging). I never even think about charging as the car is always charged to 70% every morning (170 miles range).
For road trips I have a fuel cell electric vehicle which has 300 miles range and charges from empty to full in less than 5 minutes.
So I am 100% EV, but driving long distance has the same time overhead as an ICE.
One of the major costs with larger installations and high-powered chargers is demand charges. The government should do something about them. eg. Make a special exception for charging infrastructure. Sure the electricity infrastructure providers may need contributions to help with the costs of installing bigger transformers etc, but once the infrastructure is there, demand charges are greedy and IMO stupid.
That's about what I would expect, now, in Australia, an EV newbie, with a non-Tesla, sorry for mentioning the T-word. Also Polestar 2 is quite "thirsty", so it's not "just" that is can't use Tesla charging network, everywhere yet, the charge you do get doesn't take you as far as it would in some other cars, or most other cars up to and including that size and price. At highway speed you get almost 50% more range per kWh in a model 3, which is important when charging infrastructure including available power, is a limiting factor.
The small surprise to me was that you didn't do more thorough research before. ABC, Always Be Charging, consequences from failing to charge when opportunity present it self shouldn't be categorized as "what to expect", not charging is in the "mistakes to avoid" category. When buying a car you're more likely to do more research, and, prepare for charging at home.
Tesla is opening their supercharger network for other brands, it's a slow process, as they don't wan't that to create problems for Tesla owners, but when it happens roadtrips in a non-Tesla, but Tesla charger compatible car will become much easier, where there are Tesla superchargers. Perhaps you should Tweet Musk and ask him to hurry up with the opening of chargers in Australia, both opening to other brands, and opening more supercharging stations. It's not just that superchargers provides high power, they're not even the highest powered on the market, but the stations usually have a lot of chargers, and they're very reliable. For many, the opening of the supercharger network will make all the difference.
Wow very cool video. Totally agree with the charging infrastructure. My Family and I just got back from a 5000km trip from Canberra to Whitsundays and back in our Tesla Model 3. My takeaways are that if you are on the Tesla system it all works great. From Brisbane up we where using the QLD EV Highway and they where good. The really good thing about them is they are every 100km so if one is broken then most of the time you can get to the next. They also all have a 22kw AC charge point next to the 50kW DC so you have a good chance that something would work. I would also note that my parents in law have a Kona and they use Tesla destination (AC) chargers a lot. They do lots of long trips and at first they had some problems like you but now they have it worked out.
Wow that's a long trip! I hired a Tesla for a shorter trip (Canberra to Newcastle return) so that I could see what the Supercharger network is like in Australia. And I liked that there were more chargers in each location, the software always worked flawlessly and I didn't come across any broken chargers. But I did find the Tesla chargers were in less convenient locations than the Chargefox/ Evie ones. In locations that weren't close to the highway (I had to drive into Sydney at one point instead of staying on the highway, which added probably 40 minutes onto the trip time). Also locations without nearby food or toilets, tricky to find the precise location within multi-storey carparks etc. Did you have the same issues?
@@EngineeringwithRosie I was keen to hear this :) of the two different experiences, which one would you say is less bad? It was interesting to hear about the inconvenience with the Tesla locations and amenities, I didn’t know that.
@@cordeauxboi Tesla charging was less bad, definitely! But I only charged it maybe 3-4 times, so it's not enough to see if my experience was representative. And the Tesla issues were inconveniences (no food or toilets nearby) as opposed to things I would be majorly worried about (getting stranded due to broken chargers). So I would still be way more likely to buy a Tesla if I was doing a lot of road trips in it, even though I STRONGLY preferred the Polestar 2 as a car.
@@EngineeringwithRosie Thanks Rosie! This is all so interesting! We have owned a 40kWh Leaf since 2018, love it, but we don't do any road trips more than 200km which it can handle without charging. If you ever do a comparo of the Polestar and Tesla I would love to hear/watch!
@@EngineeringwithRosie Fascinating. What made you strongly prefer the Polestar over the Telsa as a car?
Thank you sincerely for this insight :) I'm totally clueless. I can't help wondering why EV's dont use all their flat surfaces for Solar charging cells and why the wheels dont incorporate generators (much like bicycle light generators of bygone days, yes I am that old). I could guess that it wouldn't fully charge with these add ons but surely would increase ranges substantially on EV's and reduce charging costs over all.
The proprietary variables in the implementation of this technology are stifling the entire structure of this industry.
ALSO, the parking spaces where you charge must me symbolized the same manner as handicapped spaces are; making it illegal to park in them if you don't have a car parking there to use a charger.
Sounds stressful ... Having a young family, probably having EV car is a bad idea at the moment. I'll give it another 6-7 years and then see. Great and honest video compared to some other EV Australian reviewers...
It does feel crazy to have Tritium building chargers in Brisbane, and yet support and parts seems to be so so hard to get sorted for charge networks.
After doing 19k KM in our Ioniq 5 a lot of this resonates and thank you for a great video for other EV newbies expectation management.
My pet peeve beyond queue management has to be temperature warning. Watching a queue rage at the delays in Goulburn because all cars had cold packs was tragic, but between the car OEM and the charger network apps neither wants to be the one to say "this is going to take longer". It's terrible UX for everyone in the mean time while drivers blame the charger. It would be much nicer to explain "we're protecting your $30K battery by not turning it into a brick or a fireball". People are usually happier to hear that 😂
More chargers in groups is better than 1 or 2 scattered around. Having multiple chargers in a place means it’s less likely that you’ll be waiting and more likely that a charger will be workiing.
I’m guessing 100 years ago petrol stations weren’t that common either so to some extent, the lack of chargers is just an aspect of technological change. I do take your point, however, that EV’s are probably more suited to around town trips or trips between known points, where charging is feasible. Home charging is probably the only really economical way to charge. As for instance, the Tesla superchargers seem to be going up in price - around 60-70c/kWh compared to probably less than 20c for off peak charging at home. I know NRMA has free charging but that won’t last. They also have reduced costs for charging by members at Chargefox which is very helpful. It does surprise me a little that Service Stations haven’t started to embrace chargers as their business model will start to look shaky when EV adoption increases. Cheers
This is not an issue with Tesla. No sweat with Tesla chargers except perhaps peak holiday seasons.
Might not be totally fair, but from your chart I see that there are about 50% more charger in Norway then in Australia. At 5 times the population that is not a lot. I know that there has been a lot more focus on EV's in Norway and that the Australian grid is a little less green, but hopefully things will change.
With the level of charger we have now most long trips can be done efficiently with or without a Tesla. 🙂
I am super keen to do a Nordic EV roadtrip and compare the experiences! I am hoping to get over there next year (xc skiing in Finland is on my wishlist! and tonnes of clean energy projects to visit in Sweden, Denmark, Norway). Norway and Australia are probably as far apart as you can get for EV adoption. I'm hoping that will change soon for Australia. Our previous prime minister said that EVs would "ruin the weekend" whereas the new government is starting to announce supportive policies for EV purchases and charging.
@@EngineeringwithRosie another positive trend is the increased production of EV’s and their falling cost. Enough Australian households own >1 car and have a garage. The 100’000’s of households in this group just need an EV close in sticker price that is a decent experience and the inherent advantages of EV’s might just win them over. This use case doesn’t need public charges or large range. I think the economics, torque and lower running costs could take the ‘wheel’ pretty soon haha
The situation in Denmark is not as rosy (see what I did there?) as in Norway. (She had lived in Denmark not Norway) in Norway, there are parking garages with rows of chargers. Here in Denmark the much fewer chargers are actually getting full and causing wait times. The sales of EVs are outpacing the amount of chargers. It could take 5 years or longer for Denmark to start to get to the level Norway has today.
For the record, Norway used it's oil money to help build their ev system. Here in Denmark they don't even have cash incentives for buying electric vehicles, but they are doing stuff (energy islands windmills etc) to replace the oil platforms they promised to shut down.
@@EngineeringwithRosie Norway at the moment is a prime example of what bottlenecks in the grid can result in.
The difference in electricity prices at the moment between the north and south is just ridicules. The average price last week was more then a 100 times higher in the south then in the north. The lack of transmission lines result in a cost for 1 MW in the north was about 6 Australian dollar.
So if nothing changes you should do your driving in the north of Norway. That should not be a problems since there are lots of interesting places to visit in the north.
@@bknesheim that sounds wild in Norway! It is so interesting how different the factors are in every location! Denmark, south Norway, north Norway! I would love to visit Lofoten so north Norway works for me hahaha
I am concerned with governments legislating bans on ICE cars - transitioning huge industries is not easy, and the more authoritarian the approach, the more unhappy those who don’t want to are and the more critical the public will be of EV’s. In most of the world there also simply aren’t enough EV’a to meet demand, so the help that’s needed for now seems to be with sourcing batteries and battery materials - we can’t transition our entire economy without a lot of new material, which means lots of mines fast.
AC destination charging is super critical....charge your car overnight...there should be banks of AD chargers in carparks....takes the pressure off the DC chargers
there should be no free chargers, they only get abused....overstay fees prompt people to unplug quickly, and generate revenue to expand & repair the network
there will always be broken chargers...just like fossil pumps...the charging network needs to be brought to a level where a broken charger does not matter
I think 100kW would be enough charging speed for a road trip. Say you spend 30min going from 10% to 60%, you will have half the car range witch may be a two hour drive before your next stop.
Infrastructure is the biggest problem I agree on. Both how dense and reliable it needs to be.
From position of an Aussie mechanic all of this was bang on. I'd just say that not even the charge infrastructure is that bad at current adoption levels just that the market needs to improve. As soon as you can buy something the equivalent of a Toyota Camry or Corolla with a range of 300km for under $20k aussie investors won't be able to throw enough money at trying to take as much of everyone else's via charging.
For me it makes no sense to trade in yet even though I have excess solar and do only very short low km trips as I may not do 100,000km before I die and at current with options available and many pushing for too large a range due to anxiety I do not think I will be able to buy something that will be either lower carbon footprint for what life I need out of it nor is it going to be much more cost effective in the near to mid term..... I do hope converting my subaru forester to a 250km EV will be viable in next few years for $10-12k though.
I think the problem is the Australian charging infrastructure. I have an id3 a I use the locally but I do as well some longer roadtrips.
But I live in Italy where the charging infrastructure has got much better, even if it is still less developed compared to other European country, I was able to roadrip whitouth any problem.
But If I had bought a comple of year early (I've got the car this January) I doubt that my roadrip would have been this smoothly.
Yeah and I do agree that free charger are the worst and sucks that you should rely on thoose to travel.
Your success rate is better than what I used to get in Scotland, back when nearest Tesla supercharger was over 80 miles away.
9 year old Model S probably fine, Leaf or i-Miev, not so much.
If you can charge at home EVs are brilliant.
Locations with single chargers are annoying. Ideally want an AC charger (or 2) at the very least near a lone DC charger so there's a fallback rather than being stranded.
Hubs with more chargers a la Tesla make more sense and take roughly similar amount of planning as a single charger.
Our model S is almost 10 years old. Battery and car, still going strong.