More crowdfunded EV chargers rolling out to fill gaps on Nullarbor route

Rob Dean’s excellent article last week on the charging bottleneck developing on Nullarbor route mentioned a solution being developed by Jon Edwards of Biofil fame.

West Australians have always been a bit tetchy about the only major national route connecting WA’s capital Perth with the eastern states. It didn’t help when the WA government sealed the road to the WA/SA border in the mid 1970s, but South Australia took several more years to finally seal the 200km gravel section on their side the border.

The crowdfunded Biofil DC charger at Caiguna and Delta DC chargers at Balladonia and Madura were key elements in persuading the then reluctant state government to fund an extension of the WA Electric Highway out to the border.

The rollout of these four sites by Horizon Power is running to schedule, but is still up to seven months away. The chargers will be 50kW, shared between two outlets.

I attempted to contact the relevant people in both NRMA and RAA (SA) to ask about rough timelines for the NRMA chargers planned for Eucla Border Village (SA) and Nullarbor roadhouse, and the RAA and NRMA DC chargers planned for Ceduna but haven’t received a reply.

It is quite possible that this route is seen as a low priority because of low traffic.

Given this uncertainty, when a number of Delta 22kW DC chargers became available at a very favourable price it was Jon Edwards’ idea to purchase them to fill the current DC charging gap between Madura in WA and Ceduna in SA.

The units will be purchased through the NFP TOCEVA established by Jon, and each of the three EV associations operating in WA (AEVA, TOCA and TOCWA) have agreed to put money in, with private donations making up the balance.

Donations to the project can be made to : TOCEVA, PayID 97978818134. It will be interesting to see if yet another crowdfunded venture from WA influences the decision makers.

These units are robust and reliable (Balladonia’s is mounted under a loading ramp out in the weather) and can be plugged into the existing AEVA/TOCA 32A 3 phase outlets at roadhouses on the route. They will generate no extra work for the generally understaffed roadhouses apart from handing out the key and reading the customer’s phone pic of kW used for billing.

Once DC chargers from all organisations are in place on the route, the amount of use these Delta chargers get will be monitored.

I believe Rob Dean is correct that the new DC charger networks between Perth and the WA border, and Adelaide to Ceduna will result in a significant increase in EV traffic exploring one of Australia’s greatest road trips. If use tapers off, the chargers will be redeployed in areas of most need in WA, in consultation with the EV associations.

Based on Plugshare check ins, the EV traffic volume on the Nullarbor route has roughly doubled in the last six months compared with the previous six months, so there is an immediate need for these chargers, backed up by anecdotal reports of queuing.

The extra chargers will also offer greater choice around charging and accomodation stops, especially as one roadhouse is now charging $2/kWh (the equivalent of $7/litre for diesel) even when staying and paying for overnight accomodation.

Having CCS2 plugs on the route will also reduce the practice that has resulted in one roadhouse banning EV charging : using a 32A plug wired to only one phase in a 32A 3 phase outlet, causing phase imbalance and potentially shutting the whole system down. Fine for home, but not for remote power sources.

The project demonstrates yet again that when EV organisations, drivers and leaders like Jon work together it is possible to come up with practical and effective solutions to charging, even on the Nullarbor.

See also: The EV charging bottleneck soon to arrive on the Nullarbor

And The Driven’s EV Models page for a summary of all EV models available in Australia, or soon to be.