Road Trip & Regional EV Charging (Australia)

Sealion 7 wins on boot space, not close. Charging's the trade-off — DC peak tapers earlier once you're past half, the MG4 doesn't have that problem because it never had much peak to lose in the first place. For a two-hour trip like yours it barely shows up either way.

Two hundred k each way isn't the trip that catches people out, it's assuming the pin on PlugShare is still accurate. Check the last week of check-ins before you go, not just whether the site exists. Did the same coast run last month and one of the Ulladulla bays had been faulted four days straight with nobody flagging it on the app icon itself.

Wait so is it just the last bit of the charge that's slower on the Sealion or the whole curve? Genuinely don't know how the bigger BYDs compare to my MG4.

Just the tail end really, past about 60% is where it stretches out. Under that they're close enough you wouldn't notice on a one-stop trip like this one.

Didn't think about the app check-ins being stale, that's actually more useful than anything the spec sheet tells me. Adding PlugShare history to the list of things we're checking before we commit to either car.

Whichever one you land on, throw a Type 2 cable in the boot regardless. Mate got caught at an untethered unit near Mollymook with nothing to plug in, whole detour just to find a tethered site instead.

Most of what we've seen touring that stretch is tethered these days, for what it's worth. The old 15A blue outlets at the caravan parks along there are still handy as a backup even without a cable, just don't expect anything fast out of them.

Following, need to decide by spring too.

Is there a specific window before a trip where you'd actually trust the app, like same day only, or does a few days out still count as reliable enough?

Went through Barnawartha North in May towing the van, four of six bays working, no queue on a Tuesday arvo. Weekends and long weekends are when it actually queues, not weekdays. Check the Chargefox app for a live fault flag on the specific bay before you leave, that's more current than any review from three months back.

Did this exact drive in June for a mate's wedding too. Fine for me but I went early arvo on a weekday. Wouldn't want to be rolling through there Friday peak hour with everyone else doing the same trip.

Is that live fault flag in the Chargefox app itself, or somewhere else? Only ever used the app to start a session so far, never looked for anything beyond that.

In the app, there's a status indicator per bay on the site page, not just the pin on the map. Half the time it's more current than what people are posting in PlugShare comments for the same location.

That's actually more useful than anything I've read in a review so far. Checking the app the morning of instead of trusting anything that's a few months old.

Bigger risk on a trip like this probably isn't the charger being down though, it's everyone doing the same drive on the same weekend and queuing regardless of how many bays are actually working.

Reading this from Darwin like it's a luxury problem. Four working bays and no queue on a Tuesday, must be nice.

Is Wodonga Evie actually noticeably slower, or just slower on paper? Trying to work out if it's a real fallback option or just technically one.

Noticeably slower in practice, it's a 50kW site against the 350kW Chargefox units. Fine to get you moving again if you need it, not something you'd choose over a working fast charger.

Drove through there last month, was fine.

ABRP flagging it as the make-or-break stop is about right for that route, seen the same thing recommending it to a couple of MG4 owners doing Canberra-Melbourne. Worth cross-checking against Chargefox's own trip planner too, they don't always agree on the buffer time.

ABRP's buffer assumes average conditions, not your actual battery health or the ambient temp on the day. Ran the numbers on my own trips a few times and it's usually a bit conservative, which is the direction you want it wrong in.

Good to know it errs generous rather than optimistic. Would rather turn up with charge to spare than be the one relying on a stop that's slightly overdue.

Not my trip obviously but curious, does a site like this ever get genuinely oversubscribed permanently, or is it always just a temporary bad patch that clears up?

Usually temporary, sites get upgraded or a second location opens nearby once a route gets popular enough. The Hume's busy enough now I'd expect Barnawartha to get expanded before it becomes a permanent bottleneck.

Towing on any current EV takes a real bite, roughly half your unladen range with anything more than a box trailer, worse again with the tinnie if it's got any weight in it. For a handful of trips a year like you're describing, renting a ute those specific days works out cheaper than owning a second vehicle you barely touch otherwise.

That's basically what I expected to hear. Does the tinnie do less damage than the trailer being lower profile, or is weight the bigger factor at the speeds I'd actually be driving?

Weight matters more than shape until you're up around highway speed, so if they're a similar all-up weight it won't be far off either way. Shape only really shows up once you're past 90, more a Midland Highway problem than a trip into Launceston.

Kept my ute for exactly this and don't regret it, but I'm out doing property work most weekends, not a handful of times a year. If it's genuinely occasional like yours, renting comes out ahead financially every time.

We just rent a ute twice a year.

Carried a portable on both trips towing the van and used it more than the actual DC chargers some weeks north of Rocky. A motel Type 2 outlet is nearly always a bare 10 or 15A circuit, not proper EVSE, so having the protection built into the unit is the actual reason to carry one instead of just a cable.

Makes sense when you put it that way. Is there a particular amperage worth chasing or does anything rated for a standard AU GPO do the job at that kind of trickle pace?

10A GPO-rated is the safest bet if you don't know what's actually at the other end, most motels will have at least a regular powerpoint even where the fancier outlet's missing. Slower obviously, but it's an overnight top-up, not the main charging strategy for the trip.

Seconding a portable over just a cable, but check the outlet type before you leave home, not on arrival. Mate turned up expecting a 15A blue and found a standard 10A GPO instead, completely different plug shape, cable was dead weight.

Mismatch problem's more common at older motels than newer ones from what I've seen. A lot of the newer regional builds have actually put proper 15A blue sockets in because caravan owners were complaining about it for years before EVs showed up.

North of Rocky in the middle of the year the cable housing gets properly hot sitting in the sun by afternoon. Worth checking it's not lying across bitumen or a dark car space when you plug in.

Good call, we'll be pulling in mid-afternoon most days so that's exactly when it'd be worst. Will keep it in shade even if that means parking further from the outlet.

Been running mine off a plain GPO for months with zero dramas, does about 15km an hour overnight, which sounds like exactly the trickle scenario you're after for a motel stop.

15 an hour would cover what we need easily, we're not doing huge distances between the coastal stops. Nice to have an actual number instead of guessing at it.

Doing this same trip in September too.

Following for the family logistics angle, we've never done anything this long with kids in the car. Does the portable add much to the packing compared to just carrying the cable?