When electric vehicle owners Harald Murphy and Pete Petrovsky set out from Perth in their brand new Telsa Model Ys to drive around Australia, they had no illusions about the challenges that such a trip still entails.
Both are paid up executive members of the Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia, and both have extensive experience with electric cars and driving them in regional areas, including those with a lack of charging infrastructure.
Harald Murphy, a 53 year-old electronic engineer, was the sixth EV driver to circumnavigate this big (largely) brown land, a feat that he completed in November 2018 in his Tesla Model X. At the time, he was the fastest to do the full lap in just 19 days.
Pete Petrovsky is a “Big Lap” debutant, having never driven further north from Broome in an EV, but as an energy consultant and sometimes contributor to The Driven he is still well across the nuances of charging in the outback and why it is rarely a good idea to fast-charge to 100%.
Today is day nine in their current around-Australia adventure, which they are doing in the opposite direction having started out from Perth in late August.
#AUSYtour Day 9@Tesla #ModelY arrived at #Threeways Roadhouse #NorthernTerritory after driving 186km from #BarklyHomestead (blue line). Charging at #Threeways Roadhouse on 32A 3 phase.@Ahead_of_Curve is on the way to #Camooweal (red line). pic.twitter.com/vvsAdH0nVY
— Harald Murphy (@harald_murphy) September 5, 2022
When I first heard about their mission, my first reaction was to ask if would they cross paths in northern NSW or the Gold Coast in the hope I might catch up with them personally.
How little did I appreciate the impact that driving in each direction has on how much ground an EV can cover, due to a massive 6,500km gap in DC fast-charging between Townsville, Queensland, and Geraldton, Western Australia.
On Sunday, they crossed paths instead at Barkley Homestead, smack bang in the middle of an EV charging abyss and about 2,000km from the nearest DC charger.
#AUSYtour Safe travels @harald_murphy Look forward to seeing you again in #Perth pic.twitter.com/czM6JiV5Bc
— Tesla Ahead of the Curve 🔋⚡️🚘📉📈🇦🇺 (@Ahead_of_Curve) September 4, 2022
Suffice to say, I had to content myself with a conference call.
“We set out to raise awareness about basically three things,” says Petrovsky.
“We believe these are the remaining stumbling blocks in the adoption of EVs in Australia – being the penetration of fast DC chargers by a very big margin, as well as public education about EVs, and government policy.”
“Our trip addresses all three really well.”
There are two main distinctions in types of EV charger. Slower EV chargers – including your powerpoint, or a wall box type you might install at home, or the small charger at the shopping centre – output AC electricity.
Other examples of AC chargers on a road trip are three-phase plugs at campsites, roadhouses, motels and other businesses. Some are perfect to use overnight while you recharge as well, after negotiating use of the plug with the host.
Faster chargers, which generally range from 50kW up to 350-450kW, output DC electricity. These are far more expensive to install (although far less than a hydrogen refuelling station by an order of magnitude) and require a direct grid connection.
Whether an EV driver can access an AC or a DC charger is the difference between spending minutes, or hours, at any particular location.
“On a road trip, fast reliable DC charging is essential,” says Murphy. “The reason ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles are so convenient at the moment is the ubiquity of service stations.”
“EVs are just as convenient when there is a ubiquity of fast DC charging – an example of the difference is currently you can navigate from Adelaide to Brisbane and use nothing but fast DC charging,” he says.
“You don’t need to consider what your state of charge is, you don’t need to consider your energy efficiency, and you don’t need to consider the distance between chargers. You just start your trip and go.”
“But the big issue with any part of Australia west of the eastern seaboard, is that there isn’t a lack of DC chargers, there’s also a lack of AC chargers.
“What we have to do is weigh up time, speed and distance because in some cases you slow down to make it to the AC charger at all, and then you have to constantly balance how long you stay charging with how much energy you need,” he says.
Travelling in the outback can be a challenge at the best of times, and though the lack of charging is an inconvenience it’s not life threatening as long as you keep to the main roads.
Brilliant to meet @Ahead_of_Curve during his quick charging stop at @middys_elec in Darwin this morning. First #ModelY here and wow! What a car 🤯 Might have made a sale already 😉 Thanks again mate and safe travels. Look forward to seeing @harald_murphy again in a few days 👍 pic.twitter.com/fRpjsFGz9u
“If you miscalculate (how much energy you’re using) you won’t make it,” says Murphy. “There’s the embarrassment of having to be towed – but you’re always continually balancing the energy consumption in getting to your destination.”
Petrovsky explains: “You can get into a situation where if you do the speed limit it will slow you down. By driving slower (and hence using less energy per kilometre) you can make better time, because the AC chargers are so slow (that if you need to use them) you need to wait longer to charge.”
Murphy used the tactic of driving slower to save energy – also called “hypermiling” in 2018 in his Model X 90D when driving from Tennant Creek to Camooweal in Queensland.
“It was a distance of 471km and I basically hypermiled that,” he says. With his 100% full battery indicating a range of 380km, he drove between 50-70km/hr to avoid having to stop at Barkley homestead along the way, which only had 15 amp AC charging,
“It can be done, but the fact you even have to think about doing that is disappointing,” he says.
Petrovsky says that this particular road trip is significant because the two are both driving the Model Y RWD – “the slowest and shortest range that Tesla sells currently,” he notes.
The chip seal roads characteristic of the outback chew through the 430km or so real world range possible on a city road in traffic.
When I spoke to the pair, Murphy had driven 5,500km in six days, whereas Petrovsky – who went north – had driven just 3,650km.
Murphy was able to take advantage of crowd-funded fast-chargers between Perth and South Australia, but Petrovsky headed straight into the fast-charging wasteland that is northern WA.
“The charging has been in huge contrast to Harald’s experience in the last few days,” says Petrovsky.
“It comes down to ringing places ahead, and sometimes the staff don’t even know they’ve got an EV charger. Most of the time its a 32amp or 20amp three-phase socket, and sometimes the infrastructure doesn’t support those currents, so they trip.
“You couldn’t get anything that’s more opposite to the DC fast charging infrastructure.”
Harald, who knows this expanse of Australia’s outback all too well, said he’s been dreading turning west towards Darwin.
“I can admit to literally dreading turning west out of Townsville because I know I will have 6,500km of AC charging desolation – I say that strongly because that’s the comparison you feel compared to driving up the eastern seaboard,” hge says.
This is my last #FastDCCharger until I get to #Geraldton #WesternAustralia in about 6,500km and use the #TOCWA @tesla_wa 50kW fast DC charger in about 10 sleeps😩 https://t.co/WyKqFRrcpj
— Harald Murphy (@harald_murphy) September 3, 2022
While the trip around Australia is still something best done by hardy adventurers, there is change afoot for DC charging around Australia.
By the end of next year the Synergy Horizon WA project should be complete, and although a Northern Territory network is yet to be announced, the federal Labor government has promised funding for a nationwide network.
But it’s been a long time coming, says Murphy.
“Another reason why I’ve done this lap with Pete is to highlight the devastating lack of progess that has occurred since November 2018 when I was sixth person to go around Australia,” he says.
“In that time, the only DC chargers that have been added on the route have been privately funded or crowdfunded – such as Caiguna, Geraldton, and Jurien Bay – funded by TOCWA and the WA EV community.”
“The light at the end of tunnel is that perhaps in 18 months time there will be the best part of a unified around australia DC fast charging route.”
When they return to Perth, the two will be only the 21st and 22nd attempts to do the Big Lap (there is also another unconfirmed “Lapper” as can be seen in this list.)
“Assuming we do finish it, it’s disappointing that a mere 14 EV drivers have gone around Australia since 2018,” says Harald.
“Meanwhile many thousands of ICE drivers go around Australia yearly.”
“However, let’s hope in four years’ time many hundreds if not thousands of EV owners will be making the same journey,” he adds.
“And bring a lot of tourist dollars to the regions using clean sustainable transport,” says Petrovsky.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.
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