Home again. Our road trip from Sydney to Brisbane totalled 2616.9 km over 17 days. I noticed that the media were running their "long queues at EV chargers" stories again over the Easter long weekend so I'll just note that during our entire trip we had to wait for a charger a total of once, for 15 minutes. Most of the times I charged the car ours was the only car charging.
Today's drive from Glen Innes to Sydney went smoothly. We drove to Armidale where we charged and had an early lunch (including, for me, a massive coffee), then drove Thunderbolt's Way through Gloucester to Raymond Terrace where we topped up the car again and had dinner. After that it was just a boring drive down the Pacific Motorway to Sydney.
Minor rant again about the stupid Tesla chargers. Tesla took government subsidies to build these chargers and in exchange had to open them to non-Tesla cars, but they still insisted on placing the chargers between parking bays. The cables are just long enough to stretch across to the other side of the bay for cars that have their charging port on the other side but the main problem is that Tesla makes no effort to make it clear which charger is supposed to be used from which bay. No signage, no markings on the ground, you're just supposed to know. Consequently a lot of drivers of non-Tesla cars who either don't know or don't care just plug in whichever charger is nearest to their car's charging port, and if they use the wrong side then they effectively occupy two spaces. I saw two cars doing this today.
Tesla should put the chargers in the middle of the bay so the cable can easily reach either side and it's obvious which charger goes with which bay, but failing that they could at least put up some signs.
So far so good. Charged at our favourite AmpCharge before leaving Brisbane, topped up at the awkward wrong-side chargers in Tenterfield, and made it to our motel in Glen Innes in time to go get a chicken parmi at the Railway Tavern.
In hindsight it would have been good to leave Brisbane about an hour earlier so that we'd have arrived in Glen Innes well before sunset. As it was we ended up driving the last half an hour or so during dusk and had several close encounters with wallabies between Tenterfield and Glen Innes. Nothing requiring full on emergency braking fortunately, but at one point we did have to quickly stop due to a group of 3 wallabies just standing in the middle of the road in front of us.
The drive back to Sydney begins tomorrow. About 1000 km with an overnight stop in a motel in Glen Innes.
We could potentially save about 25 minutes by going back via Gloucester instead of Tamworth. There's some nice scenic bits that way, but more demanding driving and fewer good places to take a break. I'll see how I feel on the day.
Gosh I love to see these in the wild. They did a great job on its restoration. Would you believe me if I told you there’s one in our backyard?
These chargers at Ampol North Lakes are a good design. Long cables with hinged support arms, which means that despite the charger being positioned between the two parking bays you can use either side, park either way around, and still reach your charging port regardless of which of the four corners of your car it's located on.
They're 160 kW chargers which is no longer cutting edge, but our car can only handle a max of 150 kW anyway so that's a non-issue for me.
The journey to Brisbane was completed in accordance with the plan. Charged in Tamworth while having breakfast and in Tenterfield while having lunch, and made a couple of other quick stops for driver swaps and toilet breaks.
Tenterfield was the only time we had to wait for a charger, fortunately just for 15 minutes. Tesla's lopsided charger designs are awkward for non-Teslas that have their charging ports on the correct side of the car, but fortunately the cable was just long enough to reach across.
Tesla cars were very much in the minority at these chargers while we were there, a reflection of the fact that there are no other good ones nearby. There are NMRA chargers in Tenterfield and Glen Innes, and a Chargefox in Stanthorpe, but they are all single chargers with max charging rates of only 50 kW for the NRMA chargers and 75 kW for the Chargefox. By contrast the 4 Tesla chargers in Tenterfield are nominally capable of up to 250 kW if your car is too.
Today's plan: charge in Tamworth before we leave, charge again at the halfway point in Tenterfield, then push on to Brisbane. It's 620 km, which will take an estimated 8 1/2 hours including just over an hour of charging time. We'll have breakfast and lunch during our charging stops so it's not just wasted time.
Road trip underway! We're taking our BYD Seal from Sydney to Brisbane via the New England Highway, with an overnight stop in a motel in Tamworth.
One recharge at Cameron Park on the way which we probably could have skipped, but since we wanted to stop to grab a quick bite to eat for dinner anyway I did take the opportunity to top up.
That's just under 400 km driven, tomorrow we'll do the remaining 700 km.
Anthony Horton
Devil's Panties
JL Johnson 
Oni