Fish and chip charger jettisoned as first electric truck prepares to do big lap of Australia

I first reported in The Driven last September on Jon Edwards’ plans to do the first “big lap” in an electric truck, starting in Perth. See: The electric truck conversion running on waste vegetable oil and old Tesla parts

Since then, Jon has purchased Australia’s first Hyundai Mighty electric truck and has also significantly modified the conversion of his other truck, a Mitsubishi Fuso, now renamed the “Fusla” in homage to its repurposed Tesla battery and motor.

Although both vehicles have required innovative solutions to some complex technical issues, the Hyundai is likely to be most ready for the trip.

Fortunately, Horizon Power strongly recommended delaying the trip until their charger network in the north of WA was completed in June.

The recent flooding (and fires) across northern WA, NT, Queensland and even the Nullarbor would have made an earlier trip near to impossible.

Jon and his team have used this time to modify the Hyundai truck with aerodynamic  fairings and an enclosed tray, and to mount a 120kWh portable battery on the tray.

Positioning the battery for optimal weight distribution has created spaces each side of the battery – the executive and premier sleeping suites. There is no ensuite.

The portable Biofil fish ‘n chips charger is no more, partly because of an unexpected social media backlash about burning any sort of fuel to power an EV, and partly because of a view that transporting a liquid fuel plus charger would be more of a “hybrid” rather than a “pure EV” journey.

The truck requires a minimum of 670V to charge but a number of older Tritium chargers across NT and Queensland only provide 500V.

Jon’s solution has been to fit charging modules to the tray mounted battery, raising its output voltage rom 430 to 750V, allowing the truck battery to be charged at 42kW via a CCS2 cable.

The tray battery can be charged at 40kW via a CCS2 port, or at 20kW from a 32A 3 phase plug using the blue Setec DC rectifier in the photo.

The truck battery can charge at up to 100kW DC but only 7kW AC, a long night in a caravan park.

Jon plans to travel at around 85kph and estimates that at that speed the truck’s 115kWh battery plus the 120kWh tray battery will give a range around 400km.

The fairing appears to have dropped consumption by 12-15%, down to 37kWh/100km, not bad for a vehicle over 5 tonnes loaded.

The truck enters “Turtle mode” at 20% charge, limiting speed to 69kph. At 12% it drops to 10kph…..

Oddly, the vehicle has no active battery cooling system. Jon has measured temperatures of 52 degrees Celsius during charging and is concerned about the effect of high ambient temperatures because the battery enters “protection mode” at 55 degrees.

Likewise, the motor has reached 100 degrees and also enters protection mode at 150. Temperature information can only be obtained intermittently deep in the screen menu, inappropriate when driving.

Accessing technical support has been difficult, with slow and incomplete responses, suggesting support is currently based overseas. Hyundai have been unable to provide information on how to monitor these temperatures continuously.

Hopefully Hyundai will be interested in the data collected on the trip and will use it to further refine the vehicle.

As always, Horizon Power have been collaborative and supportive of this project and plan to use this vehicle and the journey for promotions.

The Hyundai is the workhorse, but my heart is with the Fusla which is now a bundle of ingenious innovation and also free of the dreaded canola.

I’ll cover the Fusla in my next article, but it will be on display at AEVA’s workshop event on April 20, 11-4pm at Canning River Eco Education Centre, Cannington WA (see AEVA website for registration information).