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.
Time to break free from the chains of motoring?
A modern electric bike will cost you far less, do much the same thing while taking up a fraction of the space and you'll get healthy in the process.
Did you know that around 70% of journeys in the UK under five miles are driven? This is where we can save fuel for when it's really required.
https://www.cyclingelectric.com/in-depth/buying-new-car-buy-an-electric-bike-instead
#transport #war #iran #costofliving #oilcrisis #oil #evs #electriccar #cycling #ebikes
So one of our two corporate JetCharge ChargeMate units, not even three years old, has failed. JetCharge doesn't sell the units now and it's looking like they don't even repair units out of warranty any more. So,
Who can recommend a type 2 EV charger, available in Australia, 3-phase 32 A ("22 kW"), that can be operated in non-smart "plug it in and it charges" mode? Not Tesla brand.
Anthony Horton
Devil's Panties
JL Johnson 
Oni
CyclingElectric
Deborah Pickett