An EV-friendly overnight at Spud's Roadhouse
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Halfway to Uluru, we stopped at Spuds' Roadhouse for the night. We picked this place because, well, it’s the only place for a few hundred kilometers, and because it has EV charging.
We thought we’d be the only EV around, but two others were already charging when we arrived. They were using the two fast DC charging connectors, which only takes about 30 minutes to top them up, while they visited the roadhouse. I plugged into the adjacent slow AC 7kW charger, mainly for the photo opp, since I would be there all night with access to all the chargers.
Robert and his partner were returning from a trip to Alice Springs (and a bit beyond), in their Tesla Model Y standard range (like ours, but the previous model). They had slept in the car a few nights under the stars, on their Tesla branded mattress. I asked how they coped with the kink behind the folded down seats, but they seemed unphased. Robert is bigger and older than me, so now I feel like a wuss. He has been travelling with just the standard UMC (universal mobile charging cable) and its 10A and 15A plugs. I showed him the CCS2 cable and 5pin UMC plug that I carry with me.
Dean, and his partner Gica, were travelling in their BYD, also with the same sized 60kWh battery as our vehicles, which is considered standard range, compared to the long range options. As you can see, they were towing a trailer, containing a pop up tent. That nearly halved the range of the vehicle, at high speed. He compensated when needed, on long stretches of road between charging options, by driving at slower speeds, which reduces drag and increases range. They had come from NSW through Broken Hill, and were off to Roxbury, north east of here.
I spotted another EV, another BYD, behind the fence. I wondered if one of the locals owned it, but no. Stay tuned for that story.
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