Our October Casual Meetup will be at the annual Rotary Como Car Show at Wesley College, South Perth. We have a few owners showing their cars, including the Targa-conquering Model 3.
This year the show is on Sunday October 4th, from 10am, Public entry $10 adult, $8 conc., gold coin under 18 – all proceeds to Rotary and Wesley charities.
Feel free to pop past any time for a chat, and also to chat with the many interested members of the public that come along. It’d be great if you’re happy to stay for a bit, and give those owners bringing their cars a break to go get a coffee!
Now that the Lake Grace DC charger is installed and operational the Perth to Esperance drive has become so much easier. I’ve completed the 700km trip in a Model S three times since early 2017 using the slow but reliable 3 phase AC charging. Update: It is now possible to do this trip with DC charging the whole way.
To make the journey as trouble free and relaxing as possible
read on:
Perth to Esperance is 700kms via Williams and Ravensthorpe, the Perth to Lake Grace leg is 326kms, Lake Grace to Esperance 374kms.
On average you will lose 20 minutes of daylight driving East towards Esperance but gain an average 20 minutes on the return journey West, driving at dusk between Ravensthorpe and Esperance is not recommended so please take the above into consideration.
The Albany highway section of 168kms between Perth and Williams can get fairly busy, driving below 100kmh is not recommended or you’ll be very unpopular with the business people who use this road on a daily basis.
The Williams to Lake Grace section is flat and fairly good for range, take note if you’re driving into an easterly and factor that into the remaining range.
The 186km section between Lake Grace and Ravensthorpe is generally a low traffic road that can be driven a bit slower if needed but is not necessary. Be warned that at certain times of the year grain trucks are using this road, give them every opportunity to do their job as quickly and safely as possible.
The 188km section between Ravensthorpe and Esperance is not too busy but the traffic moves fast, it’s also a deceptive road, long sections of very good surface with random spots in need of repair from water damage, take note of the shire warning signs, it could very save you from tyre and rim damage.
Don’ be rigid in your trip plan, allow extra time for unexpected delays.
Spare tyre and jack, CARRY THESE ITEMS, although you are very unlikely to get a flat tyre, not having a spare when you need one will make it a very expensive and time consuming trip, not the type of memories you want while on holiday. Roadside repair kits are a plan C and are no substitute for a spare tyre in regional WA. Contact the TOCWA secretary regarding a loan spare and advice (free to TOWCA members).
When leaving from Perth I highly recommend you depart as
early as possible; firstly there’s less traffic to deal with on the outskirts
of town; secondly you have time up your sleeve to stop and take some photos; thirdly
and most importantly it’s nice to arrive at your final destination, get the car
on charge and relax with a drink before sunset.
How early? That’s up to you but sunrise is a great time to be on the road. If you don’t mind getting some driving done before breakfast the Williams Woolshed is a great first stop for a quick coffee or breakfast, just be aware the charging is extremely fast using the Tesla Supercharger, so get your order in quickly.
Lake Grace is an important charging stop and it’s likely that will take 40 to 50 minutes, if you’re a first time visitor it’s easy to use up that time going for a short walk and having some lunch. The DC charger is currently set to stop charging at 95%, this isn’t really an issue as by that stage the charge rate has likely dropped to a level where the Lake Grace DC charger has no advantage over the slower DC charging in Ravensthorpe.
Pro tips
Do not bypass working chargers on this route, even if you think you can get to the next one easily. It will not save you time and could very well delay you for a lot longer than you think.
There’s a good chance the moment you arrive a local will walk over and start asking about the car, make sure you plug in and confirm your car is charging before having a long conversation. Once again “Always be charging”.
Another tip is to carry the Chargefox RFID card as internet connection is often an issue when using the app.
Ravensthorpe is a small but lovely town that is well worth the stop even if you don’t need to charge, there’s an IGA supermarket on the hillside with a Cafe that provides a nice view. The DC charger in Ravensthorpe is 21 kW. If the DC is in use you can also top up charge at Ravensthorpe’s Green Haven caravan park which has a Tesla destination charger that cost the owners more to install than they’ll ever get back from the 50 cents per kWh charging fee. Back in 2017 when no one in Ravensthorpe had any interest in EV charging Claire at the caravan park stepped up. Unfortunately the caravan park is no longer available for charging due to the entitlement of some EV drivers. They also have some reasonable priced chalets if driving Perth to Esperance in one day is hard yakka. Charge far more than needed at Ravensthorpe so when you get to Esperance you don’t arrive low on charge and then have to worry about plugging in straight away.
Ravensthorpe IGA is a great spot to grab a coffee and check out the view.
Edit: There are now WA EV Network fast DC chargers in Esperance.
Esperance is a great place to relax for a few days, there are two locations with Tesla destination chargers (Smith Street Holiday House and Comfort Inn Bay of Isles) plus the horizon power type 2 and RAC Esperance Holiday Park via the Chargefox app (BYO cable). If you are staying for two or more nights, a 10 amp trickle charge is all you need. There’s plenty to do within walking distance including the local museum which has much more to see than just the Skylab wreckage. If you have time to spare a 90km drive east to the Duke of Orleans Bay is worth the effort, as well as the beautiful white sand beaches there’s a gem of a pub in the village of Condingup that back in 2017 served a tasty lunch.
Duke of Orleans Bay.
For the return to Perth, if you want to be a bit more adventurous there are two options, via Jerramungup (Tesla HPWC) & Albany or North via Kalgoorlie. If you want alternate recommendations let me know.
In fantastic news for all Tesla owners, we are thrilled to confirm that a supercharger station is being installed in Williams early next year at the Williams Woolshed. It will be a great day when our Eaton Supercharger finally loses its coveted most isolated Supercharger in the world honor.
If you’re a longer term Tesla follower cast your mind back to March 2016, Tesla were about to display the mass produced Model 3 for the first time and the small (by today’s standards) Tesla fan base were salivating at the thought of a reasonable cost electric vehicle with the style and potential performance of the Tesla Model S. Anyone who had been for a drive in a Tesla product were excited, Legacy auto were not, Tesla was just background noise while they continued building vehicles with 20th century technology. As far as Legacy auto was concerned Tesla was just a niche product purchased by fanatics, the customer base was small and would soon dry up. 48 hours after the Model 3 reveal Tesla had over 300,000 deposits for the model 3, a car many would not receive for over 3 years, that was the last time Legacy auto would underestimate Tesla.
Anything Tesla announce on battery day will gain the full attention of the worlds car makers and likely lead to massive investments in research and development in an attempt to keep up with Tesla, the winners out of this will be the worlds car buyers.
Tesla battery day could bring a battery with better energy density, a battery that will have a useful life of well over a million kilometres, possibly a battery that can be charged at a far faster rate than currently available. It could be none of the above and it still won’t matter, Tesla only need one breakthrough and in the eyes of the fence sitters waiting to buy an electric car a Tesla goes from almost as good as ICE to slightly better than an ICE in total cost of ownership, it doesn’t take much to tip the scales for good.
So what is the most likely announcement on battery day? Amongst many small advancements I think the important one will be faster battery production allowing more efficient use of the facilities and factory workers that will lead to lower costs per kWh of batteries. This reduction in cost may only be 15 to 20% but that’s enough to create the tipping point necessary to assign the internal combustion engine to history.
I was discussing solar with a friend recently, as usual it focused on: how low the cost is in 2020; how short the payback period is; how cheap it is per kWh of electricity produced. As an investment how does it stack up compared to superannuation we quizzed. On the way home I had a thought, if the power bill savings are invested wisely what’s the possible dividends?
I did my calculations based on the most common system now being purchased for homes in Western Australia, the 6.6kw of panels connected to a 5kw inverter, this allows the maximum solar production without losing the low but still available feed in tariff, I avoided including the old 48 cents feed in tariff (FIT) as within 18 months that will be obsolete. In late 2020 the WA FIT for new installations is changing to 3 cents before 3.00pm & 10 cents after 3.00pm, as most new installs will likely face north-west or west to take advantage of the late afternoon sun the new installations FIT will probably average 5 cents per kWh across a full year.
Although a complete 6.6kw solar panel installation in
Western Australia can be purchased and installed for some hard to believe low
prices I based the calculations on a price of $4000, that’s very close to the
average for Western Australia in March 2020. it’s important to remember that’s
a full payment on delivery cost, not solar via a finance package.
Firstly, unless you’ve recently given up smoking or gambling
the $4000 is not spare cash, it has some investment value or has to be
borrowed, so how much return could you expect from that $4000 if invested via
the bank or via superannuation.
Interests rates are very low or non existent at the moment so that $4000 would do well to attract 3% interest, you may end up with $7230 after 20 years, good luck getting 3% in 2020. If you could manage to get the $4000 into your super that averages 8% pa over 20 years and suddenly the resulting $18,650 is looking fairly useful, even at 6% the figure is reasonable at $12,830.
As an alternative what if the $4000 is invested in a 6.6kw
solar system and you reinvest the power bill savings over the 20 year expected
lifespan of the solar system.
Every household uses electricity differently but those with
plentiful solar generation and a seemingly poor West Australian feed in tariff
soon learn to consume from the panels rather than the grid. Of course, unless
the house has a battery, purchasing power from the grid at 28 cents per kWh is
unavoidable at night so for this exercise I going to use these figures:
Average daily solar production 24kWh
Average daily consumption of 19kWh split into 11kWh from solar and 8kWh from the grid, leaving 13kWh being fed back into the grid, over 365 days this would result in average power bill reduction of $1361 based on above mentioned kWh purchase price and feed in tariff.
Now imagine after the 3 year pay back period that $1361 was
invested every year for the next 17 years, what are the possible returns?
Superannuation at 6%: $40,000+
Superannuation at 8%: $49,600+
As you can see if you invest in solar initially then roll the savings into super the returns can be very handy, now consider the possibilities if you made far better use of the solar electricity being generated on the roof. With a 100% electric powered home including heating, cooking and a heat pump hot water system powered from daytime solar, as well as of course charging an EV, the savings from avoiding the purchase of gas could also be rolled into superannuation, the end result will be well worth the effort.
Thanks to Peter Petrovsky for your advice and input on this article.
