Tesla to Uluru: an 8000 km recap
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July 23 - August 11: We drove to the centre of Australia in an EV. Using the shortest range EV that Tesla currently builds.
If you like a long drive, the scenery is spectacular and sprawling. Wandering the sand dunes and spiniphex plains is very peaceful. Sunsets and Uluru are otherworldly.
The charging infrastructure in Australia is getting better, but the drive up the Stuart Highway isn’t quite there yet. Thanks to RAA / Chargefox and The NRMA for your work so far on chargers along the Stuart Highway. We need improved reliability. We luckily dodged a few outages. Pimba lost power for a couple of days that made the EV charger unusable, but it fortunately worked during our time there. Glendambo (between Pimba and Coober Pedy) has only a 7kW charger that runs off the town’s diesel generator, and would not initially start, both times we passed through. The NRMA charger at Eldunda Roadhouse, in Ghan, died a couple of days after we visited.
But, there’s almost always a plan B for an EV. Any power point will do, albeit slow. While we were getting the charger rebooted in Glendambo, the service station there had also just run out of diesel, so other motorists had to just wait.
Below are some stats for EV nerds.
For everyone else, look at the photos 😉. For details of each stop along the way, charging etc, see individual posts in our travel blog Tesla Tripping.
Total kilometres: 5,519km
Overnight stays:
To Uluru:
Vic: Emerald, Halls Gap, SA: Hahndorf, Port Pirie, Pimba, Coober Pedy, NT: Kulgera Roadhouse, Yulara
Returning home:
NT: Yulara, Ghan (Erldunda Roadhouse), Marla’s Rest Roadhouse, SA: Coober Pedy, Port Augusta, Lyndoch (Barossa Valley), Vic: Sea Lake, Emerald
Car details:
Tesla Model Y “Juniper”, RWD standard range, 2025. “Launch Edition” with 20” wheels.
How long have we had this car?:
Since May 14. 3 months, or 12 weeks.
Odometer: 9,864km
I mean a looooong time, put it this way I used a Sony Handycam and film camera last trip!
Did you used plug share? Or what AAP?
On an average regular or mobile charger charges ~26-28% overnight, how did you manage when you stayed overnight?
We used PlugShare to locate charging along the way. We used mainly fast chargers and destination chargers. Only a couple of times a 10A power point (10A x 240V x 12h = 28kWh).
Our light weight camper (and 4WD tracks) meant currently not possible to go with our BEV.