Australia's first Electric Highway!

Post by **lesmando** » Sun, 22 Mar 2015, 15:59

In South East Queensland we only have one public DC charger (second one is behind a fence and not accessible). So I rely on Level 2 chargers. OK if you are not in a rush

In one day I travelled approximately 350km.

75KM Brisbane -> Gold Coast (Level 2)
80KM Gold Coast -> Tyagarah (Level 2 brick)
20KM Tyagarah -> Knockrow, There is a huge hill, 180M ish climb (Level 2)
100KM Knockrow -> Gold Coast (Level 2)
75KM Gold Coast -> Brisbane

Post by **photomac** » Sun, 22 Mar 2015, 16:27

lesmando wrote: … I rely on Level 2 chargers. OK if you are not in a rush
In one day I travelled approximately 350km…

Impressive!

Post by **jonescg** » Fri, 17 Apr 2015, 17:32

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/ ... -electric/

Hopefully we'll have the first few chargers going in next month!

Post by **MDK** » Fri, 17 Apr 2015, 19:27

Excellent news. I see a road trip in my near future!

Post by **jonescg** » Fri, 17 Apr 2015, 22:06

We'll need to ensure that the inaugural Perth AEVA "Plasmaball Run" is well organised in time

Have you got your Tesla to ChaDeMo adapter on order?

Post by **MDK** » Fri, 17 Apr 2015, 22:13

jonescg wrote:Have you got your Tesla to ChaDeMo adapter on order?

I received the adapter a couple of weeks ago, and tested successfully at the University Club (at 46kW)

Post by **photomac** » Fri, 17 Apr 2015, 23:22

Great stuff!

Post by **reecho** » Sat, 18 Apr 2015, 00:05

MDK wrote:
jonescg wrote:Have you got your Tesla to ChaDeMo adapter on order?

I received the adapter a couple of weeks ago, and tested successfully at the University Club (at 46kW)

So Matt with a depleted 85Kwh pack on the model S any ideas what the charge time will be with the Veefil and adapter?

Interested in the charge curves with the model S compared to legacy EV's...

You will have the best or both worlds with the Circontrol Trio as well. 22Kw AC via Mennekes or the 46Kw via ChaDeMo....

Post by **MDK** » Sat, 18 Apr 2015, 00:26

I only charged from 32% to 60% because of the 30 minute charge limit at the UWA charger.

I will have to try it from a higher state of charge to see when it starts to taper, I suspect somewhere around 85-90%

I got a steady 122A and voltage slowly increased from 355V (at 32%) to 377V (at 60%) as the batteries gained charge, so I actually started at 43kW and ended at 46kW and added 22kWh in 30 minutes (109km of "typical" range)

A ~ 0% to 90% charge should be possible in under two hours, enough time for a decent lunch

Post by **Rusdy** » Wed, 17 Jun 2015, 22:07

Regarding the first Bunbury charger (and the rest coming). Anyone know the details of what are the 3 types of plugs? user jonescg mentioned J1772. Is there any published details?

Click Here

Post by **reecho** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 03:07

CHAdeMo, CCS Combo and Mennekes Fast AC with 32A J1772 and 15A wallpoint as backups.

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 05:20

Wow - what a week!

At the request of the RAC I'm not going to share any photos of the installations until the day of the launch (22nd of June) but this is such a massively awesome project I think we can share the locations.
The Bunbury, Busselton and Margaret River stations are up on Plugshare. Please note the Balcatta charger is not a fast charger, just a simple J1772 unit.

Luke and I have been commissioning the charging stations in Bunbury, Busselton and Margaret River, with Mandurah due to go online at the end of the week, probably running by Saturday morning.

Each charging station consists of a card activated Trio fast charger which has the ChaDeMo plug, the CCS Combo plug and Fast AC (Mennekes, or Type-two). This is in front of it's own dedicated parking bay. In the bay adjacent is a 32 amp-capable J1772 charge point, also card activated. On the back of this charge bollard is a humble 15 amp GPO, which is always available. If it keeps getting abused by Wicked Campers, the council might eventually padlock it off, so it's just a matter of asking the council for the key.

So feasibly you can charge a Tesla Model S on Fast AC, a Leaf of BMW on the Fast DC, a 2011 iMiEV on the Level 2 bollard and a converted car or electric motorcycle all at the same time!

The L2 charger has an isolation switch which may be locked on with a small padlock, preventing any scallywags from switching your charge off. Likewise with the weatherproof GPO on the back.

At this stage, the RAC Electric Highway is completely free to use. Any RFID card will activate the charge. However after Jan 1st 2016 a driver management system is likely to be in place where councils may charge for the power. We don't know what they will charge per kWh, however as long as it's 1/5th the cost of petrol, it's all pretty good.

If you get there and the charger is showing red lights, some clown has pressed the emergency stop button. Just follow the instructions - pull it back out and hold the button for 10 seconds and it will reset.

Australia's first electric highway - it's finally here! Makes me want a (road going) EV so bad...

By the way, NO PICTURES until the 22nd of June!

Post by **acmotor** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 05:56

Well done Chris !
Now, everyone USE the highway !

Mandurah, Bunbury, Busselton are the ones I want, all on line by the end of the month.
I'll be heading south for sure.

Hey Chris, what RFID card is required ?

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 06:01

Any RFID card - your library card, your student card

or your Smartrider. Or just call Patrick and he'll give you one. Make the most of the free power while you can!

Your 2012 beast should be good for the long Mandurah to Bunbury leg? It will be on empty when you roll in, but 107 km isn't completely out of the question?

Post by **acmotor** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 06:42

I would plan to fill at Mandurah with FC to 80% + 1 hour at 3.3kW for 100% and ejerry can in the back with 2kWh as backup. I regularly get over 100km with a few kWh left. The infill FC will be good when online. What time scale ?

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 07:04

Harvey by end of July. Augusta by the end of this month. I think Donnybrook is further ahead than most too. If you need a top-up between Mandurah and Bunbury, Carnaby's Park are EV friendly.

Chargers are currently set to run for 1 hour, but the parking limit will eventually be enforced at 30 mins. Early days though, and councils will do what they want.

Post by **Gabz** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 15:30

http://www.margaretrivermail.com.au/sto ... c-highway/ photo that got past jonescg.

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 15:46

It was bound to happen since the cat was already well out of the bag.

"Funded by the RAC, the highway will provide access to otherwise remote areas of WA for electric vehicles, with 50 watt stations being spread from Perth to Augusta."

Sigh...

Post by **acmotor** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 16:55

LOL.... There is a historical trail sign outside the Bindoon Hall noting that they had a 60kV generator there before the grid reached town. Must have blown plenty of globes !

Post by **Rusdy** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 17:16

jonescg wrote:

Each charging station consists of a card activated Trio fast charger which has the ChaDeMo plug, the CCS Combo plug and Fast AC (Mennekes, or Type-two). This is in front of it's own dedicated parking bay. In the bay adjacent is a 32 amp-capable J1772 charge point, also card activated.

Damn it for no photo until 22nd! So, there are 2 charging stations? One by Trio fast charger, and the other charge point? As the leaked photo only shows one charger station (Trio).

Please leak more, me can't wait until 22nd.

This massive interest by lots of people is not good. I want them all for myself!

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 17:54

The Circontrol Trio charger is the fast charger, and the adjacent level 2 bollard is the slow charger. Both of them make up a 'station' I guess.

Yes there is STACKS of interest and excitement about this project. Matt said he was in a cafe in Margs and he overheard someone talking excitedly about "The electric cars are coming to Margaret River". Every installation had plenty of onlookers who are very keen to know more. It's pretty darn cool

Clearly the RAC are right behind it.

Post by **Adverse Effects** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 18:16

yep it is pretty darn cool

now to conquer the world

Post by **g4qber** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 19:02

half deciding to take the imiev down as a challenge.
currently showing 80km range in winter

veefil was charging to 75% 8 days ago.

74.5kms Crawley to Mandurah
60.3kms Mandurah to Carnaby's Park

stop at Carnaby's for 6 hours?
there was rumours that Carnaby's was going to install their own DC fast charger sometime in the future.

47.7kms Carnaby's Park to Bunbury
53.1kms Bunbury to Busselton
50.3kms Busselton to Margaret River

route already mapped out here
http://therevproject.com/trials/highway.php

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 22:55

Joseph - you would only need to spend 2 or three hours at Carnaby's. Just enough to roll into Bunbury on empty. Go for a walk around the Myalup Forest - it's a beautiful spot.

See you on Monday? Anyway, with a bit of luck, Mandurah FC will be operational by Saturday.

Post by **reecho** » Fri, 19 Jun 2015, 00:47

I picked up Nissan WA's Leaf today fro the trip down.

Low and behold it has never had a fast charge in it's life.

Well that changed this arvo.......