Congratulations to Tesla and Karrinyup Shopping Centre for opening Perth’s 1st Supercharger.
It’s been a little over 2 years since TOCWA member, Jayson Stanley asked, and Elon said OK to a Store, Supercharger & Service Centre.
We’re thrilled to announce Tesla have fulfilled Jayson’s 3 wishes
Our next casual meetup is Sunday 1 August 2021 at 11:00am at:
The Saint George Hotel
2 Morris Rd, Innaloo WA 6018
Casual meetups are open to everyone including those who have never seen a Tesla before.
It’s an ideal opportunity to meet club members and to see the cars in the flesh which we are all passionate about.
It’s also a great way for new owners to learn more about their cars and to share in the vast pool of knowledge gained by other members.
We hope to see you there and look forward to chatting about all things Tesla.
The Perth North Supercharger location has now been confirmed comprising six 250kW v3 stalls being installed in the underground car park of the Karrinyup Shopping Centre.
Our next casual meetup is Wednesday 14 July 2021 at 6:30pm at:
The Russell Inn Bar & Restaurant – 137A Russell St, Morley
https://www.facebook.com/TheRussellInnMorley/
Casual meetups are open to everyone including those who have never seen a Tesla before.
It’s an ideal opportunity to meet club members and to see the cars in the flesh which we are all passionate about.
It’s also a great way for new owners to learn more about their cars and to share in the vast pool of knowledge gained by other members.
We hope to see you there and look forward to chatting about all things Tesla.
| Driver | Start/End point | Completion Date | Vehicle |
| 1. Glen George | Perth | November 2011 | MG converted Blue |
| 2 Richard McNeall | Sydney | September 2016 | Tesla S Blue |
| 3. Jeff Johnson | Sydney | November 2016 | Nissan Leaf Blue |
| 4. Sylvia Wilson | Gladstone | July 2018 | Tesla S Blue |
| 5. Steve & Keita Burrell | Perth | August 2018 | Tesla S Titanium |
| 6. Harald Murphy | Perth | November 2018 | Tesla X Titanium |
| 7. Wiebe Wakker | Darwin/Sydney | March 2019 | VW converted Blue |
| 8. Richard Smith | Darwin | April 2019 | Tesla X White |
| 9. Linda Rohrs | Gold Coast | July 2019 | Tesla S Blue |
| 10. Rob & Robin Dean | Perth | November 2019 | Tesla S Blue |
| 11. Peter Hayes | Melbourne | December 2019 | Tesla 3 Silver |
| 12. John Paul | Melbourne | March 2020 | Tesla 3 Red |
| 13. Jules Boag | Sydney | May 2021 | Tesla S White |
| 14. Michelle & Terry Arzanikow | Ballarat | June 2021 | Tesla 3 White |
| 15. David McLeod | Warnambool | August 2021 | Tesla S Blue |
| 16. Phil Smith | Cairns | August 2021 | Tesla 3 Blue |
| Currently travelling | |||
| Hilly Andy | ? Perth | 2021 | Tesla 3 Blue |
| David Coates | Melbourne | 2021 | Tesla 3 Blue |
Due to a redevelopment of the Jurien Bay foreshore the “plan B” 3 phase outlet has been removed making the 50kw DC charger at Caltex even more important for those looking for a short stop on the trip between Perth and Geraldton. There is a Tesla destination charger at the tourist park but this is limited to 3.6kw so is only useful for an overnight stop.
If Perth to Geraldton is only 410kms via the coastal road do I need to stop? In most cases, absolutely yes, due to the nature of the road surface and almost constant winds it’s near impossible to achieve reasonable energy efficiency, driving at slower speeds on this busy road and being a road hazard is not an option so it’s best to accept the inevitable and plan a 25 to 40 minute stop at Jurien Caltex while adding 20-40% back to the battery.
The most critical aspects to using the Jurien Bay DC charger is to carefully read the operating instructions on Plugshare before arrival, patience is front and centre at this location, if you try and rush the process or miss a step you’ll just waste time. The Tritium DC charger is very reliable, the only time it’s failed to work is due to an issue with a handful of pre 2020 model X or S cars with a CCS2 upgrade or the operator rushing the start up process. If your Tesla is less than 24 months old, you should not have any issues with this charger.
A few tips:
Phone ahead your arrival time, Wade or Jarryd will make an effort to be on site as they know the process better than other staff members.
Make sure when the charger is unlocked both charging handles are firmly pushed into the holsters before and while the charger completes its 5 minute start up process.
Don’t arrive at this charger with less than 50kms of range, even though it’s so far been extremely reliable there is no longer a plan B in town, keep enough spare range to drive the 24kms to the Cervantes destination charger.
Don’t complain about the price, 70 cents per kWh and a $25 minimum may appear high but the Electric vehicle owner that spent tens of thousands of dollars installing the Jurien Bay unit will never see a return on investment.
The Australian version of the Tesla HPWCv3 is now available from the Tesla store.
We’ve confirmed that it is 22kW capable and for those interested, the manual is available here
10 JUNE 2021 BY PETE PETROVSKY
As some may have noticed, a couple of months ago, Tesla’s supercharger map had two exciting and long awaited W.A. updates.
As we know, the location of the supercharger icons on the map are not designed to be precise or provide an accurate indication of the location, therefore, the question is where will the latest WA supercharger be located.
In my view, it would be ideal to locate it in Joondalup as it would be an ideal location for:
1. those heading north to Jurien Bay etc. Joondalup would also put Dongara and potentially Geraldton within reach, and then on to Kalbarri, Monkey Mia, Carnarvon and so on.
2. those coming back from north of Perth, for example Jurien Bay, Geraldton etc could charge at Joondalup and then have enough to travel around Perth or comfortably reach the Eaton Supercharger,
3. those living in apartments in Joondalup who have little if any options to charge. (Joondalup has the second highest apartment dwelling population of any suburb of Perth after the CBD),
4. those living north of Perth who feel uneasy buying an electric car with the most northern DC charger being all the way in Gwelup (an approx. 25 min drive from many northern suburbs near Joondalup and potentially longer in traffic) Understandably, most charging occurs at home, however, if one forgets to charge, or the power goes out and there is another issue it makes the EV purchase decision easier if you know there’s a fast charger within a 5 to 15 minute drive.
5. Joondalup has aspirations to become Perth’s biggest satellite city with approval to build high rise buildings such as the 18-storey Arthouse completed in mid 2020.
6. Wanneroo which is adjacent to Joondalup is Australia’s 5th fastest growing council with the Wanneroo and Joondalup population projected to reach 800,000 by 2070. (The current population of Perth, is less than 2 million.)
If the thinking is that the primary purpose of the supercharger is to address the long-distance trip market rather than serving the surrounding suburbs, then another good location is the Drover’s Marketplace and Leap Frog’s Botanic Gardens, Mini Golf and Restaurant at 1397 Wanneroo Rd in Wanneroo as it is the most northern point with any infrastructure along Wanneroo Rd (which heads out to Indian Ocean Dr to Jurien, Dongara and so on.)
Drover’s Marketplace is located on a major intersection which services about 62,000 cars on an average day. To put this figure into perspective, it is about three times more than the traffic along the Australind Bypass along Forest Hwy in Eaton where the only other existing Supercharger in Western Australia is located and about fifteen times as much as the traffic along Albany Hwy in Williams where the next supercharger is to be commissioned.
The Marketplace is home to a major northern suburbs tourist attraction which is the 5-acre Leap Frog’s Botanic Gardens with integrated mini-golf, wedding venue and restaurant. Drover’s Marketplace is also home to a cafe, steakhouse, pizza restaurant, Italian restaurant, bakery, hairdresser/barber, liquor store, large fruit and vegetable and mini mart store, butcher, 24/7 gym, laundromat, 7-day chemist, medical centre (including physiotherapy, dentist, nutritionist, pathology, sleep clinic and podiatry). There is also a creche, kids indoor swimming pool, storage, vet, pet store and so on. Importantly, the above list only includes the existing tenants as the other half of the site is currently being developed which provides a good opportunity for the installation of appropriate electrical infrastructure. This southern part of the development already includes a petrol station and across the road is also a McDonald’s. Carramar Village Shopping Centre is within walking distance and includes a major supermarket, community centre, several fast food outlets, newsagency, cafe, 24/7 gym, hairdresser/barber, chemist, medical centre, school and so on.
It is entirely possible that Tesla has already picked the location and thus the above could serve as a suggestion for the next supercharger location or maybe there is still time for Tesla to take the above into consideration. Either way, with the State Government due to begin installation of the fast DC charger network across WA next year, it is going to be an exciting time for WA Tesla and EV owners.
Independent Australian car reviewing website chasingcars.com.au have tested a Tesla Model 3 Long Range, Hyundai Kona Electric Elite, Nissan Leaf, MG ZS EV and the Audi e-tron 55 Sportback on a drive to exhaustion range test to determine which cars have the longest range and which cars have the most accurate range claims in authentic Australian driving conditions.
Many of you will have seen the social media commentators claiming how much range an electric vehicle needs, it normally goes like this: “I’m all for electric vehicles and keen to buy one but unless it has X amount of range I’ll stick with my trusty diesel”. As each year passes and the range of showroom EVs increase the commentators X number also increases. This is Uncertainty 101 from those with the most to lose when the country transitions to electric drivetrains, it’s a very effective manipulation of all the fence sitters that are close to making a new car purchase.
To make this very clear when I say 450km of range I’m referring to passenger vehicles, not commercial vehicles such as heavy duty four wheel drives that were purchased with the sole purpose of towing a caravan or large trailer over long distances. I’ll also make it very clear that 450kms is real range on coarse surface country roads sitting on 100km/h, this is where the range is needed most. Anyone buying a vehicle that never leaves the Melbourne to Cairns coastal corridor could easily survive on 350km of real range.
There’s no doubt that battery costs per kWh and energy density will improve sufficiently to make the fitting of large battery capacities fairly easy for vehicle makers That’s great for commercial vehicles but a waste of resources for the average Joe who for the vast majority of the year drives less than 200km per day and makes 2 to 3 long trips of maybe 2,000km, having a battery pack 20kWh or even 30kWh bigger than necessary is careless, multiply that by millions of average Joes across Australia and it’s a significant drain on materials, labour and energy that could be better used elsewhere.
So how does 450km of range deal with the vast distances of Australia? That’s a fair question and the answer is straight forward, carefully placed DC fast chargers are a far better use of materials, labour and finances than millions of EVs full of oversized battery packs. The careful placement part is critical, between the capital cities and larger towns 220km average spacings are suitable, for regional areas in north, west and central Australia there’s far less choice of suitable sites so a 300km spacing may have to suffice. A reasonably organized driver should have no issue stopping every 300km to add around 65% charge on a long country trip.
The author currently drives an electric vehicle with 400km of real range on Australian outback roads, and has been to every State and Territory over the past 6 years. His last vehicle was a diesel 4WD with 1,100 km range, it is not missed.
