Can you go the distance? A weekend road trip to the snowfields in an electric car

Driving my electric Volvo from Geelong to Falls Creek in the Victorian snowfields, I was pleasantly surprised with how robust the EV infrastructure is for this journey.

When it came to charging, I probably didn’t need it as much as I thought I might. There is a lot of discussion about the range claims of EV manufacturers and what the realistic range of a car actually is, and that is part of the reason I wanted to share my experience.

For an EV, a winter snow trip is likely a worst-case scenario for range as it is has lengthy high speed highway driving, it is cold (at least by Australian standards) and has significant altitude gain over the route. So, what does this mean for real range in a Volvo XC 40 Recharge?

Despite an advertised WLTP range of 510km, the ∼500km one-way journey is roughly 140-160% of the battery capacity in these driving conditions.

This means about four charging stops: two on way there, one destination charging on arrival, and one more charge session on the return journey.

I found charging on this route convenient with multiple 350KW charging locations along the route, that were mostly in working order and available at the time I arrived or became available after a very short wait.

Charging sessions were about the duration of a reasonable rest stop, in my case about 20-30 minutes with exception of charging at Bright, where the fastest available charger is 50kW and I was charging for almost an hour. But I spent most of that time hiring snow chains. If I had planned to arrive in Bright for a meal I would not have been impacted at all.

Destination charging at Falls Creek was adequate, with occupancy being a greater issue than the charge rate. Upon arrival the four type-2 22kW AC destination chargers were fully occupied. While slower, by the early afternoon two were available and I was able to take my car to a 90% charge after a few more hours of snowboarding.

The return journey benefits from travelling down hill and I had more flexibility with my mid-journey charging stop. Suffice to say I have omitted my home charging, but with a final arrival percentage of 9% I needed some strong solar days to enjoy very low-cost charging at home.

Some personal insights and a little white whine…

– Users occupy the fastest chargers first. Even where price signals are used, and available slower chargers would deliver their maximum charging rate.

– Consumer understanding of battery EV charging is low. I observed one user sitting at a 350kW high speed at a reported 100% state of charge until delivered power reached 0kW.

– Should EV charger parking costs be considered where charging bays are limited?

– One user occupied a destination charger with a stopped by vehicle notification on the charger for more than 6 hours.

– EV charging networks could do a better job of indicating faulty charging stations.

James Rourke-Dunkley is program manager at ARENA Smart Energy Hubs. The original version of this article was originally published on LinkedIn. Reproduced here with permission.