Adventures, like an ill-fated Mawson exploration through Antarctica, can be full of trials, days without food, and with the occasional mutiny. So imagine our surprise when our 20,000 km adventure around Australia in a little EV was instead, well, fun and easy.
We set off from Adelaide in winter with a roof pod on our BYD Dolphin, tents, an induction hotplate, and an assortment of charging cables.
The Dolphin is our city-runabout EV, which we’ve already taken on multiple road trips from Adelaide to Melbourne, around Tasmania, and off-grid camping in South Australia. We insist that we can road trip further in this car – we don’t need something big and monstrous to get around Australia. So we loaded up our family of four in our coral pink EV and off we went.
First on the bucket list was swimming with the colourful strobing cuttlefish in Whyalla. A fitting start given our colourful sea creature inspired vehicle, although ironically cuttlefish are colour-blind.
The Nullarbor is famous for being waterless, rugged and very straight. Charging is pretty straight forward too, with our first charging stop at the Nullarbor Roadhouse running off solar and free.
Apart from a 260km stretch through Border Village, there are chargers both fast and kinda fast on regular intervals and we make the most of the recommendation to charge frequently.
From keys on wooden spoons to unlock the charger in Cocklebiddy to solar arrays powering EV chargers during the day, the charging is as varied as the experiences at each Roadhouse.
Surprisingly, most of the traffic crossing the Nullarbor at the same time as us was not road trains, but towed caravans. We saw one other EV – other notable mentions include a horse float, and one bus that looked strangely like a hotdog.
All the way along the west coast is a 4000 km journey made possible by consistent WA EV charging stations. They gave us the perfect excuse to stop and camp at iconic places like Sandfire Roadhouse.
Also photo worthy were the many dolphins, whale sharks, stingrays, and humpback whales that we saw in Monkey Mia, Coral Bay and Exmouth. As the weather warmed up we faced a 277 km stretch between Exmouth and Nanutarra.
We jettisoned the roof pod for extra aerodynamics, and we learned how the gradient of the road, head wind and high speed of the car all affect the efficiency. This huge state surprised us with amazing quartzite white sand beaches, pink lakes, stunning sunsets, shipwrecks galore and a persistent Frenchman whose name (d’Entrecasteaux) pops up everywhere.
On the remote stretch of road from Derby to Kununurra, as we approached Fitzroy Crossing, twin plumes of bushfire black smoke covered the sky and initial impressions were not very welcoming. Most charging stations were vandalised here, but did still work.
But it’s the solar powered charger at the Ngumban Cliff rest stop that was truly impressive. Surrounded by red dirt and totally off grid, this is an epic engineering feat. Our car joined the 4WD enthusiasts in traversing the Gibb River road … well, the 26 km sealed section at least, to stunning Emma Gorge that is one of the best swimming experiences.
The most challenging part of our journey was through the Northern Territory. There are distances between fast chargers longer than our car’s highway range. After testing out the car in the 130 km/hr speed zone we committed to slowing down and taking in the scenery, camping at Victoria River and charging overnight from the 15A plug.
Darwin and Katherine feature fast chargers, but as we headed south it got creative. The iconic Daly Waters pub has a three phase plug open to EVs – if you can find someone at the bar who knows about it.
At Barkly Homestead we charged overnight in the campground, making the mistake of parking under a tree so in the morning our car was covered in stinky bat poo.
A car with less people and a longer range might skip over these places, but we enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere of Australia’s remote and quirky places. The NT was characterised by swimming in endless waterholes and hot springs, sampling laksa while we sweated and felt cheated when we didn’t see a single wild croc (but plenty of golden orb spiders).
Outback Queensland is full of interesting history, from megafauna fossils to rare dunnarts and Australia’s own Muttaburrasaurus dinosaur.
While the Queensland EV highway is the longest in Australia, we appear to have timed our trip when most of the chargers are out of action and awaiting upgraded replacement.
Fortunately, Queensland entertained with the most “big things” from giant gumboots to big cane toads. This was also the point in our trip when an over-the-air update gifted us in-car karaoke. Karaoke is truly the best feature of our car, and makes a road trip more fun.
With each kilometre we got closer to home. NSW took the prize as the state which required the most charging apps installed on our phones, which goes to show the proliferation of EV charging providers.
We used our first pole-mounted charger with ultra-convenient street parking in Chatswood outside Sydney. This rock star parking space was perfect to add some electrons to the car while ducking into the shopping centre to play at Timezone.
In Jervis Bay we didn’t encounter a single public charger, but did see many wild kangaroos by the beach. Canberra provides convenient chargers at some tourist destinations, like the Royal Australian Mint.
In Victoria we walked over ancient lava flows and past unique rock formations and we had our only experience of a public fast charger losing all power. Fortunately, if one charger goes down, there’s bound to be another one the next town over, as chargers are in almost every town from Ned Kelly’s Glenrowan to Wandong.
We might be biased, but the drive home to Adelaide is made super easy by the reliable and frequent RAA chargers. You can choose from a smorgasbord of fast charging options including Bordertown, Keith, Tintinara, Coonalpyn, or Tailem Bend. Which just goes to show that as much as we love an adventure, it’s good to be home.
Highlight of the trip: Swimming with a whale shark on Ningaloo Reef, WA.
Lowlight: Only being the second BYD Dolphin to complete a lap. D’oh! (Ed: But the first with a family of four!!!!).
Images: Lara and Benno Lang
Nitty gritty details:
We drove just over 20,000km and spent a total of $1,811 on charging.
44% of charging was fast DC (75 kW+), 30% slow AC (15A/10A/three-phase/7kW) and the remaining 26% was slower DC charging from 22 and 50 kW.
Our car has a 60 kWh battery, WLTP range of 427 km, and maximum charging speed of 88 kW.