Author: Pete Petrovsky

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What a difference a DC charger makes, the WA EV Network has just crossed the halfway mark.

In September of 2019, a few days after our long-awaited Model 3 arrived on top of a tilt tray truck in our driveway, we took the pristine Tesla on a 360 km family road trip from Perth to Hyden.

Although we had been a two PHEV family since April of 2016, this was the first time we owned an electric-only vehicle, also known as a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) or PEV (Pure Electric Vehicle). With no internal combustion engine generator to rely on anymore, we had our first experience of ‘range anxiety’ when the car began warning me to plan my next charge because “all known charging locations will be out of range soon.”

Not long after the car began prompting me to “stay below 105 km/h to reach destination”. Being a new car, I was not only keen to test it out and to see what would happen if I ignored the warning but I was also curious about this ‘range anxiety’ phenomena that was often cited in EV articles and YouTube videos at the time. I kept Autopilot set to 110 km/h and not long after the warning changed to prompting me to stay below 100 km/h and then to below 95 km/h.

When the projection chart showed we’d get to Hyden with just 2%, much to my wife’s and I think the kids’ relief, I lost my nerve and I put the car into Chill Mode and slowed right down to 90 km/h.

We ended up getting to Hyden with 4% or 20 km of range and immediately after arriving I plugged the car into a 10A socket at the Hyden Tennis Club.

I didn’t have much luck with getting access to the 3-phase 32A socket at the closed Visitor Centre and I couldn’t get through on the phone either, but I managed to find a 15A socket in the shed on our friend’s property where we were staying. As I was keen to show off the car and took our hosts along for a test drive, when it came time to go back home, we couldn’t leave until after 2 PM as we had to wait for the car to finish trickle charging on the 15A socket in the shed. Being a Performance (Stealth) Model 3, with roughly 73.5kWh of usable battery capacity, it takes approximately 30 hours to charge from 0-100% on a 10A socket and about 20 hours using a 15A plug.

What a difference one proper DC charger makes

Fast forward to December 2023 and Hyden has just become the 26th location to be commissioned on the WA EV Network. It means that we’re now in the back half of the rollout because when complete in early to mid next year, the network will consist of 49 much-needed EV charging locations averaging approximately 200 km apart all the way along the coast from the Northern Territory border to the South Australian border and also to Kalgoorlie.

With the WA EV Network marking it’s halfway milestone, I couldn’t resist taking the same car, this time four years older and with over 110,000km on the odometer, on the same Perth to Hyden road trip. Perhaps still traumatised from the last experience, my wife and the kids were more than happy to leave me to my own devices so I set out on my own this time and about four hours later I arrived in Hyden with 9% and plugged into the freshly commissioned Hyden 150kW Kempower unit (I was aiming for 10%). Only half an hour later I had gained about 300 km of range which would have been enough to allow me to head back with a top-up at Williams but I got chatting and before I knew it, another 20 minutes went past and the car was already charged to 100%. (Once the Brookton charger is commissioned next year, a 20 to 30 minute charge in Hyden will be enough to get to Brookton for a quick top up on the way to Perth.)

Four years earlier, we had no choice but to trickle charge for 20 to 30 hours, which is a little like pouring petrol through a clogged-up straw. Comparing the two experiences is night and day, it is like comparing a rabbit to a tortoise. In other words, it’s just not comparable. Think about it this way, compare going to the beach for 20 to 30 minutes versus 20 to 30 hours or going to the shops for 20 to 30 minutes compared to 20 to 30 hours or popping into work for 20 to 30 minutes as opposed to a marathon 20 to 30 hour shift. Doesn’t matter how you look at it, the two time frames aren’t even in the same ball park.

In case you’re wondering, even though Tesla may be starting to roll out 1 megawatt (1,000kW) V4 Superchargers or Megachargers to service its Semis, the power of most DC (direct current) chargers these days will range between approximately 50kW and 350kW, putting the 150kW Kempower unit a little below the middle of that pack. Although some of the newest EV models, such as the recently delivered Cybertrucks are capable of charging at 350kW it doesn’t mean that a 350kW charger would be more than twice as fast as a 150kW unit. The limiting factor is the current generation of EVs, which in Tesla’s case, top out anywhere between approximately 190kW and about 250kW, depending on the model and its corresponding battery chemistry.

For those who think that a 20-to-40-minute time period to recharge a car is still too long, I’d like to point out something that I discovered on my 17-day trip around Australia in the Model Y RWD, the slowest and shortest-range car that Tesla makes. While I was charging at the various roadhouses, as suggested by TOCWA (The Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) Chairman Rob Dean, I began to observe other people refuelling their ICE cars. I can tell you that the notion that people refuel their ICE car in 5 to 7 minutes on a long road trip is a fallacy. Granted, while it is possible, it happens very rarely and while most people may stand by their car with their hand on the bowser nozzle for six or so minutes, they will very rarely hop straight back behind the wheel to drive for another four hours. Instead, they will repark the car and they’ll use the restrooms, grab something to eat or drink and stretch their legs for a while. It means that an average roadhouse stop takes 20 to 30 minutes which is about as long as a Tesla Supercharger takes to recharge a Tesla. In fact, when my brother and I together with both families drove two Teslas along the 900 km route between Melbourne and Sydney earlier this year, we only needed to stop twice and both times our cars were charged to 100% before our food even came out. (By the way, as illustrated in this article, the last 20% of an EVs range takes the longest to charge and is often unnecessary.)

As an aside, for those reading this article who don’t yet own an EV or for the single EV families who are thinking about replacing their second car, it may be worthwhile to note that we no longer manufacture the Falcons and Commodores in Australia and hence we have no choice but to buy what the rest of the world sells and whether by legislation or market forces, the whole world is going electric. It, therefore, won’t be long before there won’t be much of a choice. That said, with ICE cars representing old technology what do you think a second-hand ICE car will be worth in 5 or 10 year’s time? Probably as much as a Walkman or DVD player is worth today. It’s old technology and when the world moves on, the old technology that’s left behind always plummets in value.

Getting back to the WA EV Network, yes, we all wish the WA State government made available a larger sum of money so that, similar to NSW, we could have had a network with an average uptime of 99.95% with ‘chargers that just work’. In case you’re wondering, yes, you guessed it, I am talking about none other than the Tesla Superchargers.   

That said, I think I echo the sentiment of most of the WA EV community, when I say that we are very thankful for this much needed and critical public infrastructure. Although, as mentioned, we would all have preferred a slightly larger sum of money but we are nevertheless not only thankful for the $21.6 million but we’re thankful for Synergy and Horizon Power listening to TOCWA (The Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) and the wider EV community when it came to the design of the network. As a result, it means we have a fantastic network which is fit for purpose.

By exclusively utilising only the Combined Charging System standard using only CCS2 cables and Type 2 charging points instead of the discontinued and obsolete CHAdeMO connectors, we’ll have a network that is built for the present and the future instead of the past. It means we have reliable and much faster 150kW Kempower chargers on the grid-tied portion of the network rather than the 50kW alternative. It means that with AC backup chargers every location can charge a minimum of three EVs at a time. It means we have idle fees to stop EV drivers treating the EV charging bays as EV parking bays, we have a credit card payment solution, we have a resilient system than can operate in emergency situations when the mobile network goes down, we have some but admittedly not enough drive-through locations allowing for EVs towing trailers, caravans or horse floats to charge without unhitching. We have a great network.

We have a world class network second only to Tesla’s Supercharger network and once completed, the state government will have provided most of the backbone of this critical public infrastructure for the private sector to backfill, but there is one glaring omission and that’s the inland Perth to Port Hedland route along the Great Northern Highway.

As TOCWA Secretary Harald Murphy has identified, it doesn’t make sense to have a road network that only services some towns and not others it doesn’t make sense to have an EV highway that leaves out major towns and regional centres. It’s a matter of equity, it’s a matter of access, it’s about tourism and it’s just not right to ignore and forget about places like Mount Magnet, Meekatharra or Newman to name just a few. With the WA EV Network having reached its halfway point yesterday, and with the retirement of Bill Johnston, (who said “I’m not saying no” to the proposed addition), the incoming State Energy Minister Reece Whitby has an ideal opportunity to announce the extension to the network.

It should be noted that the blueprints for the WA EV Network came from University of Western Australia Professor Thomas Braunl’s 2018 report which proposed three options for the network. All three options, included the Perth to Port Hedland route along the Great Northern Highway and the projected cost was estimated at $18.9 million, $23.6 million and $28.9 million for the Minimal, Proposed and Extended options respectively. (These were 2018 figures, therefore, if adjusted for WA inflation (All Groups) these numbers would be approximately 20% higher at $22.4M, $27.98M and $34.27M.) For reference the WA State Government has invested $21.6M into the WA EV Network.

The inland route from Perth to Port Hedland will cost less than $5 million and it needs to be announced now while we have the processes and the human and other resources in place rather than starting again from scratch in one or two years’ time. (To put the $5 million figure into perspective, just one freeway onramp costs about $20 million. To put it another way, there are 137 local governments or councils in Western Australia and some of them spend $20 million on just landscaping in one year alone, whereas the WA EV Network is critical public infrastructure that will benefit hopefully all Western Australians for not just one year but for 5, 10 or many more years into the future.)

Please join TOCWA, AEVA and the wider EV community in calling on Minister Whitby and the WA State Government to finish what they started and to complete the WA EV Network thereby making EVs accessible to all Western Australians, irrespective of where they live.

The minister can be contacted on the following links:

https://www.wa.gov.au/government/premier-and-cabinet-ministers/reece-whitby

https://www.reecewhitby.com.au/

https://x.com/ReeceWhitby

https://www.facebook.com/ReeceWhitbyMLA/

Please note, this article was edited on 21 December 2023. The changes consisted of the inclusion of the paragraph quoting Professor Thomas Braunl and the accompanying map, which were inadvertently left out of the original version.

Pete Petrovsky is an active TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) committee member and a long-time EV enthusiast. He placed a $6,000 deposit for a Model X (#39) in 2014 but when it came to taking delivery he couldn’t justify the cost, so instead, he and his wife decided to buy two PHEVs and wait for the Model 3. In March of 2016 they bought the Holden Volt and a couple of weeks later the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and on the day it was unveiled, Pete ordered the Model 3. After selling the Outlander, in September 2019, Pete received his long awaited first Tesla, a Model 3 Performance. Despite still loving their Volt, Pete and his wife took delivery of their second Model 3 in December 2021 and a year later a Model Y RWD which two days later Pete drove around Australia in 17 days. In his spare time, Pete also runs the ‘Tesla Ahead of the Curve’ YouTube channel and is also a long-term Tesla shareholder. Pete can be reached on X @Ahead_of_Curve

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The WA EV Network has Arrived!

The much-needed WA EV network is here! Geraldton and Northampton are the first two sites to have been commissioned and, as of today, both are now operational. Geraldton boasts two 150kW fast DC chargers which are ready to replace the temporary 50 kW TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) DC charger that has been a godsend for hundreds of EV road trips. Northampton has one 150kW DC charger as well as a 7kW AC charger.

One of two 150kW Kempower DC chargers at Geraldton
WA EV Network Map

EV drivers eager to hit the country roads during these school holidays, will take comfort in knowing that each 150 kW charger shares its capacity across two CCS2 cables which means that up to four EVs can charge at any one time. If two EVs are sharing a single charger, the 150 kW capacity will be shared between the two cars, however, if the two EVs are spread across the two chargers, drivers may be able to draw up to the full 150 kW rate, which is good for a peak charge rate of approximately 1,000 km an hour in WA’s most popular EV, the Tesla Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive. This means that the majority of charging sessions are expected to take approximately 20 to 25 minutes, which is not only the minimum recommended break duration on long road trips but also just enough time to use the bathroom and grab a drink, coffee, or a bite to eat.

From left to right: Carl Van Heerden – Synergy, Sandra Giry – Synergy, Liam Dunphy – HEC, Pushpa Gurung – Synergy, Diarmuid O’Donovan – HEC, Jong Yiing Yang – Jetcharge, Harald Murphy – TOCWA, Guy McHugh – Synergy, Mary Davadra – Synergy, Sean Henderson – Jetcharge.

Geraldton and Northampton are the first of a total of 49 charging locations that will span the state, enabling EV drivers to fast charge every few hundred kilometres from the Northern Territory border, along the coast, all the way to the South Australian border. The WA EV Network has been funded by the WA State Government and will be available on the Chargefox network, however, a simple swipe of a credit card will be sufficient to get the electrons flowing. (This feature is not currently activated but it is coming soon.)

Originally the brainchild of Professor Thomas Braunl, the WA EV network, which comprises of Synergy and Horizon Power chargers, will add to the existing charging assets, including Tesla’s Supercharger network, the RAC Electric Highway, as well as other networks and dozens of commercial, donated, or crowd-funded chargers, such as the 50 kW AEVA DC units in Lake Grace and Ravensthorpe. You can find the WA EV Network chargers on the Chargefox app or for a complete listing check out www.plugshare.com

Full House at the First Test-Charge with four EVs charging simultaneously
The Northampton site at 202 Hampton Rd, Northampton
A successful test-charge in Geraldton. The Geraldton site is located at 31 Foreshore Dr, Geraldton.
The cafe across the road from the Geraldton charger will be a handy place to take a break on long road trips.
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Tesla Opens Model Y Reservations in Australia!

From the 14th of March 2019, the day Elon Musk unveiled his new Tesla sneakers and then the Model Y at the Tesla Design Studio in Hawthorne California, Australians have been wondering when the car that is destined to become the world’s bestselling passenger vehicle will become available down under.

Elon Musk sporting his new Tesla Nike sneakers at the Model Y unveiling at the Tesla Design Studio in Hawthorne, California. Photo: mashable.com

It was great to see production begin in California’s Fremont factory in January of 2020 with deliveries following only a couple of months later on the 13th of March. We then had little choice but to spend almost the next year and a half eagerly watching YouTube videos of ecstatic new Model Y owners posting their reviews, and we were all buoyed when we saw right-hand drive orders open in countries like Hong Kong on 2nd of July 2021 and later in the UK on 15th of October last year. We were also glad to see the Model Y fully approved by Australian regulators in September 2021.

When the Australian order page briefly went live on 9th of April 2022, Aussie EV fans were on tenterhooks. Some Tesla enthusiasts such as TOCWA Chairman Rob Dean and his wife Robin got a chance to almost place an order before the reservation page was taken offline but not before they got a chance to take a screen shot. (As reported by The Driven, there was also at least one Australian who managed to pay a deposit that weekend, but their money was later refunded and the order cancelled.)

Rob and Robin Dean’s screenshot of the Tesla Model Y Order page on 9th of April 2022

Rumours and speculation ensued but finally this morning the well-worn ‘Stay Updated’ button was finally replaced with the long-awaited invitation to ‘Order Now’. So yes, it’s finally happening, Australians can now place their Model Y reservations!

 To begin with, Australians are being offered two variants. The entry level Rear-Wheel Drive (which used to also be referred to as the Standard Range Plus) but now known as simply the ‘Model Y’ and the top of the range Performance. Both versions will be made in Shanghai, and they’ll initially only be available in the 5-seat configuration.

The Model Y shares approximately three quarters of its parts with the Model 3 and to the superficial eye it looks almost identical but there are differences. Although both cars share the same platform and powertrains, being an SUV, the Model Y is heavier and bigger in all three dimensions. It is about 41mm wider, 56mm longer and 183mm taller with about 27mm more ground clearance at about 167mm. That said, the Performance with its 21’’ Überturbine wheels will ride a little lower.

Tesla Model Y and Model 3, dimensions comparison. Photo: Tesla Owners Online

As one would expect, the Model Y has more leg room and it’s easier to get in and out thanks to its higher seating positions. I found this to be a handy YouTube video with a real-world comparison between the rear seat leg room of the 3, the Y and the Model X. You can also refer to TOCWA’s very own Grumpy Old Man’s YouTube video at the 4’35” mark. Nigel is currently in the UK taking the Model Y through its paces.

There are also other differences, the most obvious being the Model Y’s hatchback versus the Model 3’s sedan boot design. Additionally, the Model Y’s three rear seats can recline into three positions, and they can also fold down individually compared to the 60:40 split in the M3. There’s also a handy button in the boot of the Model Y enabling the rear seats to automatically fold down and there’s also a hidden manual rear door release. The factory glass tinting on the Model Y is also different in that it runs all the way to the end while the Model 3 tapers off about 60cm from the bottom. Some of these features are demonstrated in this YouTube Video by Tesla Raj starting at the 9’35”mark.

Photo: Teslarati / Tesla Raj

The Model Y also has an additional smaller boot well or sub boot as can be seen in this video at the 5’30” mark and the front boot or frunk is about three inches deeper. There are also two side compartments in the boot as opposed to just the left one in the Model 3. As one would expect, the Model Y has considerable cargo volume, almost 50% more than the Model 3, with the M3 specified at 649 litres and the MY at 971 litres with 5 passengers, or 2,158 litres with just a driver and front passenger.

In terms of acceleration, the Model Y is only a little less lively at 3.7 seconds versus 3.3 seconds for a 0-100km/h sprint for the Performance models and 6.9 compared to 6.1 seconds for the entry level Rear Wheel Drive versions.

Being a larger and heavier car, the Model Y Performance is rated at 514km of WLTP range which is 33km less than the M3P. The Rear-Wheel Drive is rated at 36km less at 455km. When it comes to real world range, however, the EPA standard is a closer approximation with the MYP rated at 488km. Furthermore, this range will be reduced on rough country roads where there is little opportunity to use regenerative braking or when driving in the rain, in cold weather, going up hills, against a headwind or towing. Speaking of towing, the Model Y should be rated at 1.6 tonne braked or 750kg unbraked, as reported here by Bridie Schmidt in The Driven.

As one would also expect, the Model Y is more expensive, however, as I have touched on previously in this article, the Total Cost of Ownership is what is important rather than just the sticker price.

To check prices and delivery time frames see the Australian order page and if you like what you see don’t hesitate to reserve what in the next 3-5 years I’m tipping will become Australia’s bestselling car, first by revenue and then by volume. Considering that EVs account for only about 2% of Australia’s new car sales and the world is currently gripped by supply chain bottlenecks, I realise it’s a big call but to double down further and to be clear, I’m not saying it will just be the best-selling electric car, or the bestselling SUV, or the bestselling car in any other segment, I expect either the Model Y or the Cybertruck to become Australia’s best-selling car, period. With Australia accounting for less than a fraction of a percentage point of Tesla’s global sales volumes, the harder question is whether Tesla will have a global best seller before it tops the rankings in Australia or vice versa.

Pete Petrovsky is an active TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) committee member and a long-time EV enthusiast. He placed a $6,000 deposit for a Model X (#39) in 2014 but when it came to taking delivery he couldn’t justify the cost, so instead, he and his wife decided to buy two PHEVs and wait for the Model 3. In March of 2016 they bought the Holden Volt and a couple of weeks later the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and on the day it was unveiled, Pete ordered the Model 3. After selling the Outlander, in September 2019, Pete received his long awaited first Tesla, a Model 3 Performance. Despite still loving their Volt, Pete and his wife took delivery of their second Model 3 in December 2021. In his spare time, Pete also runs the ‘Tesla Ahead of the Curve’ YouTube channel and is also a long-term Tesla shareholder.

(13 June’22: the range estimates in the 3rd last paragraph of this article were corrected to correctly reflect the figures as per the Tesla website.)

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Rethinking the Design of EV Charger Configurations

Having recently come back from a 1,000km round trip, towing a trailer behind our Tesla Model 3, I’ve learned two things. Firstly, we need a denser network of reliable fast DC chargers in country Australia and secondly but equally importantly, we also need to rethink the design of electric vehicle (EV) charger configurations to allow EVs towing trailers to also be able to plug-in. We can refuel internal combustion engine (ICE) cars while towing a trailer, boat, caravan, or horse float, so why not an EV?

Plugging-in an EV while towing a trailer can lead to some creative manoeuvres under the existing reverse-park configurations

If EV demand figures are anything to go by, consumers love EVs, both around the world as well as in Australia and we also love towing our trailers, caravans, boats and even horse floats but how are we going to go combining the two? How are we going to go using our EVs for towing?

With EVs accounting for only about 8.3% of global new light car sales in 2021, there aren’t yet many two-EV households, therefore for the time being at least, when a two-car family buys an EV, it is mainly bought as a second city car, with an ICE four-wheel drive SUV or ute/truck usually the designated towing vehicle. As a result, most manufacturers have targeted their EV sales at this second car market but with EVs growing at a rapid pace, (the 8.3% global figure was a 108% increase on 2020 numbers), contrary to many projections, it may only be 3-4 years before one in every two cars sold around the world is an EV. Furthermore, with 89% of Tesla owners saying they’ll replace their car with another Tesla, many more two-EV households, such as ours, may not be that far away, which means at least one of the EVs may need to be a capable towing vehicle. To put it another way, as Tesla points out, “consumers do not buy cars that can meet most of their driving needs; they buy a car that meets all their driving needs.”

This fact is not lost on car makers several of whom have introduced impressive off-road and towing vehicles including the Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer EV, Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla Cybertruck, Chevrolet Silverado, Toyota Hilux EV, Ram 1500, Lordstown Endurance, Bollinger B2, Fisker Ocean SUV, LDV Maxus New EV, Canoo EV Pickup and others.

Whether we’ll see any of these models in Australia anytime soon remains to be seen, however, in the absence of a national EV policy and with Australia having become a dumping ground for dirty and inefficient EVs due to a lack of vehicle and fuel emission standards, it is no surprise that car manufacturers have been slow in introducing their EV models to our shores. We’re therefore limited to only a fraction of the models available in other markets. As an example, Europe has around 120 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and over 90 pure EV (PEV or BEV) models on the market. In contrast, with less than 30 models available in our market of which only about a dozen are fully electric, prospective Aussie EV owners are confined to about a quarter of the PHEV selection and less than a sixth of the PEV options. That said, however, with deliveries having already began in some right-hand drive markets, the arrival of the Tesla Model Y in Australia seems imminent. The Model Y should be able to tow up to 1,588kg on the 19” or 21” wheels and when the Cybetruck becomes available here, it may well become the ultimate towing vehicle with an unrivalled 6-tonne towing capability. In the meantime, the Model X is also capable of towing up to 2,300kg.

With so many towing capable EVs inevitably hitting the market, we need to ensure these cars can conveniently charge when towing. At the moment, the majority of EV chargers are mounted against a curb requiring most EVs to reverse up against the curb or some to drive-in forward. Neither method works if towing a trailer. There were technical and economic reasons why some sites were initially configured this way, but one can’t help think that many other sites were designed in this manner for no other reason other than because this is the way things have been done in the past. Five examples are pictured below.

12-stall South Lamar Boulevard Supercharger in Austin, Texas
12-stall Kemptthal Supercharger in Switzerland
6-stall Tesla Supercharger at Shanghai International Metropolis in Shanghai, China
6-stall Tesla Supercharger in Modi’in, Israel
6-stall Tesla Supercharger in Hartshead Moor, UK – Westbound

I can’t see the above configurations being any more cost effective than what I call a “drive-through” layout. A drive-through configuration as found in most petrol and gas stations doesn’t require the cars to reverse or forward park against a curb or wall but instead allows them to enter at one end and exit at the other while also allowing for EVs towing a trailer to plug-in.

Existing vs Tow Friendly Charger Configurations

As can be seen from the graphic above, in contrast to how the stalls are mostly configured now, there are numerous advantages to a ‘drive-through’ configuration. Apart from a more efficient design, a drive-through configuration makes for easier parking when towing while also giving non-towing cars a choice to either reverse-park as is the case now or forward park, particularly when two or more bays are free. If there is at least one towing vehicle being charged, the drive-through layout allows for more towing EVs as well as non-towing EVs to be charged simultaneously. As figure #2 shows, and as can be seen from the photos below, a car with even a small trailer needs to block-off four other charging bays in order to awkwardly manoeuvre into a position where an almost fully extended charging cable can reach the towing vehicle.

Tesla Model 3 towing a trailer awkwardly charging at Williams Woolshed Supercharger in Western Australia
Tesla Model 3 towing a trailer awkwardly charging at Eaton Fair Shopping Centre Supercharger in Western Australia
Eaton Fair Shopping Centre Tesla Supercharger with proposed location for future drive-through style chargers

As the photo above shows, had the Superchargers been installed at the location indicated by the red marking, the stalls could have been configured in a ‘drive-through’ formation. As the graphic illustrates, and as summarised in the table below, a drive-through configuration can accommodate the same number of non-towing EVs as the usual reverse park configuration shown in figures #1 and #2, however, while a reverse park configuration can only accommodate a maximum of one towing vehicle and two non-towing cars, a drive-through layout such as the one in figure #7, can accommodate up to four non-towing vehicles in addition to one towing vehicle.

Table comparing the simultaneous charging capacity of the three main charging stall configurations

While not as efficient as the drive-through design, a parallel park layout can still work for towing EVs. We were lucky to find one such charger in Nannup, Western Australia where we had a very convenient seamless charging experience.

Tesla Model 3 towing a trailer conveniently charging at the parallel park configured 50kW DC charger in Nannup, Western Australia

The reverse park, parallel park and the drive-through configurations constitute the three main layouts, however, these can be combined into numerous variations to suit a specific site, such as illustrated below.

Example of a charger stall configuration utilising a combination of layouts
Example of a charger stall configuration utilising a combination of parallel park and reverse park layouts at the Tesla Supercharger in Aiea, Hawaii

Naturally, one solution open to towing EVs is to unhitch the trailer, boat, caravan or horse float in a nearby parking space and to then drive the EV to the charger and plug-in as per normal. An ICE car towing a trailer doesn’t have to unhitch just to fill up with petrol or gas and an EV driver shouldn’t have to do so either, as there can be many disadvantages to this approach including the following:

  • It can be prohibitively inconvenient to unhitch a trailer,
  • it can be unnecessarily time-consuming to unhitch a trailer,
  • EVs that are towing will consume more energy resulting in a shorter range which means they’ll need to charge more often. This in itself can potentially be seen as a small inconvenience, so it doesn’t need to be further exacerbated with unnecessarily unhitching and hooking on the trailer at each charging station,
  • when a trailer is unhitched from a car and parked elsewhere it needs to be secured to prevent another car simply pulling up, attaching it to its tow bar and stealing the trailer, caravan, boat, or horse float,
  • it’s not uncommon for particularly older trailers to have no brakes requiring the wheels to be manually chocked on anything other than the most level surface which exacerbates the inconvenience of unnecessarily hitching up and unhitching a trailer,
  • the jockey wheel near the point of the A-frame of many trailers doesn’t reach low enough to attach to the towbar of some cars such as the Model 3 without an adapter, requiring a minimum of two people to hook-on or unhitch a trailer, 
  • it’s not uncommon for some trailers to have finicky electrical connections requiring extensive jiggling of the connection in order to get it to work properly, requiring at least two or three people to establish a stable working connection.

As outlined above, unhitching a trailer, boat, caravan or horse float just to charge, is unnecessarily time consuming and there are numerous impracticalities and inconveniences to this approach and as mentioned earlier, an ICE car towing a trailer doesn’t need to unhitch just to fill-up, therefore, neither should an EV.

A drive-through configuration such as that found in most petrol / gas stations is the logical solution having the following benefits:

  • It is designed to cater to electric vehicles towing a trailer, caravan, boat, horse float or anything else,
  • it is a more efficient design allowing more EVs to be charged simultaneously,
  • it is a more convenient design allowing particularly towing EVs but also non-towing EVs to get in and out of the charging bays faster and easier,
  • it doesn’t require unnecessarily fully extending the DC cable to reach the towing vehicle,
  • notwithstanding the fact that the Tesla Semi or other electric semitrailers will have their own dedicated charging networks and assuming they will have a plug that is backward compatible with CCS2 and perhaps also a Type2 (Mennekes) connection for trickle charging, a drive-through layout may be the only way these trucks will be able to charge at regular charging stations.

As noted earlier, due to economic constraints in augmenting the existing network infrastructure, and as not all sites are the same, naturally, every site won’t lend itself to a drive-through layout, however, in situations where it is possible to achieve a more logical, more efficient, user-friendly design at little or no additional cost, a better thought-out configuration such as the angled drive-through design should be considered.

Below are some examples of tow-friendly Tesla Supercharger configurations:

Tesla Supercharger in Hitra, Norway
12- stall Tesla Supercharger at Morongo Trail in Cabazon, California with dedicated charging stalls for towing EVs
16-stall Tesla Supercharger in Ystad, Sweden
10-stall Tesla Supercharger in Rudshøgda, Norway
20-stall Tesla Supercharger in Malung, Sweden
16-stall Tesla Supercharger in Fåvang, Norway

Most petrol and gas stations have a convenient drive-through design so why should EV owners have to reverse-park against a curb to plug-into an EV charger? From the perspective of an EV owner towing a trailer, the current reverse-park layout is a major oversight requiring immediate rectification.

This concludes part one of a two-part article. Part two can be found here: https://www.tocwa.org.au/2022/04/20/major-parts-of-australia-in-desperate-need-of-reliable-fast-dc-chargers/

[This article was edited on 22nd of April 2022, to add the second (right) image of the Morongo Trail Cabazon Supercharger in California which better shows the dedicated charging stalls for towing EVs. Thank you to Steve @rexjamo for supplying this photo.]

Pete Petrovsky is an active TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) committee member and a long-time EV enthusiast. He placed a $6,000 deposit for a Model X (#39) in 2014 but when it came to taking delivery he couldn’t justify the cost, so instead, he and his wife decided to buy two PHEVs and wait for the Model 3. In March of 2016 they bought the Holden Volt and a couple of weeks later the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and on the day it was unveiled, Pete ordered the Model 3. After selling the Outlander, in September 2019, Pete received his long awaited first Tesla, a Model 3 Performance. Despite still loving their Volt, Pete and his wife took delivery of their second Model 3 in December 2021. In his spare time, Pete also runs the ‘Tesla Ahead of the Curve’ YouTube channel and is also a long-term Tesla shareholder.

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Major Parts of Australia in Desperate Need of Reliable Fast DC Chargers

Having recently come back from a 1,000km round trip towing a trailer behind our Tesla Model 3, I’ve learned two things. Firstly, we need a denser network of reliable fast DC chargers in country Australia but importantly we also need to rethink EV charger design and configurations to allow EVs towing trailers, caravans and boats to also be able to charge. This is part two of a two-part article. I address the need for more efficiently designed EV charger configurators in part one.

With almost 70,000kms on the clock in a little over two and a half years, I drive almost twice as much as the Australian pre-Covid average of about 15,000km a year. As I can charge at home, if I exclude long road trips, I’ve never come anywhere to even close to running out of the Model 3 Performance real world city range of approximately 500km (the car is rated at 530km at the WLTP standard).   

That said, while our M3P, may have considerably more than sufficient range around town, once you add a persistent headwind, higher average speeds, bigger payload, fewer opportunities for regenerative braking, a rougher coarse road, rain, colder weather, HVAC use, not to mention a fully loaded trailer, the usually more than sufficient 450-500km range starts to take a considerable dive to closer to 250km or less. While in theory, the 250km is more than enough to still stay within the recommended no more than two-hour drive legs in between at least 15-minute rest breaks, in practice, things become a little more challenging when EV chargers are more than 250km apart or in our case, when the only DC charger along a 320km route ceases to work.

CCS2 port unavailable at Kojonup 50kW DC charger

While a large battery with increased range would obviously help on the occasional long road trips, at all other times, it would add unnecessary extra weight thereby reducing efficiency and handling while increasing the embodied energy, not to mention the price and hence the economic payback period of the car. A better solution is a denser network of reliable easy-to-use fast DC chargers particularly in country areas.

Unfortunately, the coverage of most EV charging networks in Australia is still very limited and the reliability of non-Tesla chargers is far from optimal.

With only a few hundred public DC chargers in Australia, primarily centred around the eastern states, there are vast uncovered areas in Australia compared to the full coverage in New Zealand Source: Plugshare
The USA map can only show some DC chargers. With over 65,000 public DC chargers in the USA, it is too resource intensive for the website to load all the DC chargers.
The map of Europe can only show some DC chargers. With over 25,000 public DC chargers in the EU, it is too resource intensive for the website to load all the DC chargers.

While Tesla can boast near-perfect Supercharger reliability and the largest EV charging network in the world, the fact is that we still have large gaps in many parts of country Australia, particularly in WA, NT, SA and northern and inner parts of QLD. As demand for Tesla Superchargers is only increasing around the globe, jurisdictions with lacklustre EV policies understandably rank lower on the priority list. Not only do we have no real national EV policy to speak of but with Australia becoming a dumping ground for dirty and inefficient cars, due to our lack of vehicle and fuel emission standards, it is no surprise that Australia is not a high priority.

Tesla Supercharger reliability, Source: Tesla Impact Report 2020
Map of Australian and NZ Tesla Superchargers Source: Plugshare

Australia no longer manufactures the Commodore, the Falcon or any other mass-market cars, so we have no choice but to buy what the world sells. Apart from a couple of exceptions, with virtually all manufacturers ceasing the production of fossil fuel vehicles either by 2025 or before the end of this decade, our DC charging networks will need to expand, fast.

(This was part one of a two-part article. Part two is available here: https://www.tocwa.org.au/2022/04/20/rethinking-the-design-of-ev-charger-configurations/

Pete Petrovsky is an active TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) committee member and a long-time EV enthusiast. He placed a $6,000 deposit for a Model X (#39) in 2014 but when it came to taking delivery he couldn’t justify the cost, so instead, he and his wife decided to buy two PHEVs and wait for the Model 3. In March of 2016 they bought the Holden Volt and a couple of weeks later the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and on the day it was unveiled, Pete ordered the Model 3. After selling the Outlander, in September 2019, Pete received his long awaited first Tesla, a Model 3 Performance. Despite still loving their Volt, Pete and his wife took delivery of their second Model 3 in December 2021. In his spare time, Pete also runs the ‘Tesla Ahead of the Curve’ YouTube channel and is also a long-term Tesla shareholder.

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Fuel prices are fuelling the switch to electric vehicles, but will an EV still be worth it if fuel prices drop?

With petrol and diesel prices at the pump rising to astronomic levels are you thinking of switching to an electric vehicle?

If so, you’re not alone. As can be seen from the Google Trends search data below, Australians are increasingly thinking about making the switch to EVs.

There is a long list of reasons to switch to an EV but if it’s the cost of owning and running a car that’s your main motivator, you’ll want to know how the figures compare to your current car and you’ll also be interested to know how this may change as petrol prices rise or fall.

The chart below illustrates the relationship between fuel prices and how much better off you are likely to be, owning what is by far Australia’s most popular EV, a Tesla Model 3 versus owning an average Australian internal combustion engine (ICE) car. The calculations are based on a short 3-year period of ownership but the longer you hold on to the Model 3 the better off you’ll be.

As the chart above shows, at a petrol price of $2.00 per litre, you’ll be at least $14,193 better off with the Model 3 after 3 years, but even if the petrol price was to halve to $1.00 a litre you would still be $9,198 in front. Incredibly, even if fuel was completely free, the Model 3 would still put you in front to the tune of $4,203 over 3 years. In fact, the petrol price would need to be at a negative 84 cents for you to be at break-even point. Yes, you read that correctly, the petrol station would need to pay you $84 for every 100 litres of fuel you pump into your car and owning the Model 3 for just three years would still put you a dollar in front.

In case you’re wondering what is the affect of the cut in the fuel excise tax announced in the federal budget on 29th of March, it would work out to $1,099 over a 3-year period but the Treasurer has announced it will only be put in place for 6 months, so it works out to about $183. Therefore, the difference is a benefit of $14,093 vs a benefit of $13,910 for the M3 over an ICE car, but that of course assumes that fuel prices don’t go up any further.

The table above provides some insight into the calculations which are based on Australian averages and if anything, are a little too kind towards the petrol car. For example, it assumes that the Tesla Model 3 is charged from the electricity grid 100% at average standard electricity tariffs. Once you purchase an EV, you’ll quickly realise there are various EV-friendly lower cost tariffs offered by electricity retailers. Furthermore, most EV owners charge their cars using a solar PV system which, can produce more than enough power to cover the electricity usage of an average Model 3 several times over. For example, assuming a typical residential system with a 6.6kW solar panel array and a 5kW inverter, one would expect it to produce anywhere from 23-24kWh a day in the least sunny parts of Australia such as in Melbourne or Hobart to around 26kWh in Sydney, 28kWh in Adelaide or Brisbane or about 29kWh a day in Australia’s sunniest cities like Perth or Darwin. A Model 3 driving the average amount driven by an Australian car will use between 6 and 6.5kWh a day. Therefore, a typical residential solar system in Perth will produce enough free energy to power four and a half Model 3s and even in Melbourne a typical solar PV system will power about 3.75 M3s leaving surplus energy for another EV and the rest of the home.

The great benefit of solar power is its predictable cost. With the cost of petrol and diesel being based on fluctuating prices determined by world oil markets, it’s anyone’s guess what the prices may be at the bowser in the next few weeks let alone in the next few years, making household or business budgeting a challenge. In contrast, once an appropriately designed solar PV system has paid for itself, usually in about two to five years, the price of its solar generated electricity is exactly zero as the power it generates comes from the sun which has cost the exact same amount of zero cents for the last 4.603 billion years and will likely cost the same for a further 5-7 billion years. (Some will argue that there is an opportunity cost in the form of foregone feed-in-tariffs, however, these have been declining over the years and they generally represent only about a quarter of a standard residential electricity tariff.)

While it’s hard to argue with the economics of owning Australia’s most popular electric vehicle, there are many other important aspects of car ownership. I would argue that when it comes to an EV such as the Model 3 or Model Y, there are only two factors that one could argue to be inferior to a petrol car. These are the upfront cost in the form of the sticker price and the time to refuel, however, as you will see these are largely irrelevant in the vast majority of situations for most Aussie car owners.

As I hope I have made evident in the first part of this article, it doesn’t make financial or any other sense to look at a car’s sticker price in isolation. One should take all the costs of car ownership into account and make decisions based on the difference in the total cost of ownership because if you don’t you could fall into the trap of buying a $50 printer only to later realise the print cartridges will cost you $100 each. With that said, the only time the sticker price becomes relevant is if one is unable to stretch the budget or the loan. While I would never advocate for anyone buying a car they can’t afford, there is a phenomenon called the “Tesla Stretch” where aspiring Tesla owners have stretched their budgets and / or borrowing capacity to afford their dream car. The Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia (TOCWA) conducted a recent poll on its Facebook page which which showed that almost 88% of the 139 respondents spent more on their Tesla than on their previous car with a staggering 69% paying $30,000 or more.

As with the sticker price, the time to refuel argument is only relevant in rare circumstances. With a highway range of approximately 350 – 400km the Tesla Model 3 RWD has the shortest range of any Tesla but even with this model the time to refuel will only be a factor on long road trips with legs of more than three and a half to four hours at a time. It should be noted that to avoid driver fatigue the recommendation is to have a 15-minute break at least every two hours. At all other times, an EV is actually much more convenient than a petrol or diesel vehicle because, similar to a smartphone, you recharge it when you’re at home which means that most of the time you hop in the Tesla you’ll have about 10 days of driving waiting and ready to go without the inconvenience of spending time searching for and driving to a reasonably priced service station, then standing there with your hand on the bowser inhaling the petrol fumes for five minutes, then lining up to pay and so on.  

Having focused on the two factors where one could argue than an EV is inferior to an ICE car, below is a list of some of the other factors where Australia’s most popular EV excels including:

Furthermore, unlike most cars which are the best they will ever be the day they are driven off the dealership lot, the Model 3 continually improves via mostly free over-the-air (OTA) software updates.

Does this mean that a Model 3 or a Tesla for that matter is the right EV or even the right car for everyone and for every situation? No, of course not, but it’s hard to deny that it presents a very compelling proposition and once Full Self-Driving (FSD) becomes a reality in the not-too-distant future, driving anything other than a Tesla may as Elon Musk explained feel like riding a horse. Furthermore, with there being no end in sight to the volatility in fuel prices Elon may have also have been right when he said that it would be “financially insane to buy anything other than a Tesla”.

(This article was first published on 26th of March. It was edited on 29th of March with the only change made being the insertion of the paragraph above the saving table relating to the fuel excise cut.)

Pete Petrovsky is an active TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) committee member and a long-time EV enthusiast. He placed a $6,000 deposit for a Model X (#39) in 2014 but when it came to taking delivery he couldn’t justify the cost, so instead, he and his wife decided to buy two PHEVs and wait for the Model 3. In March of 2016 they bought the Holden Volt and a couple of weeks later the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and on the day it was unveiled, Pete ordered the Model 3. After selling the Outlander, in September 2019, Pete received his long awaited first Tesla, a Model 3 Performance. Despite still loving their Volt, Pete and his wife took delivery of their second Model 3 in December 2021. In his spare time, Pete also runs the ‘Tesla Ahead of the Curve’ YouTube channel and is also a long-term Tesla shareholder.

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A Quarter of a Million Kilometres in Seven Years and the Tesla Model S is Still Going Stronger Than Ever

Having waited nine months for their Model S to arrive, it’s no wonder Rob and Robin refer to their Model S P85D as their “baby”. Back in 2015 Tesla deliveries in Western Australia were fairly rare, there was no delivery centre, no showroom, no service centre or local Tesla employee to hand over the cars. Each delivery experience was unique. In Rob and Robin’s case, Tesla sales requested they collect their Model S from a transport depot in Canning Vale a suburb in Perth, Western Australia. The car was clean, charged to 90% and the key fobs were handed over with little fuss. There was no one trying to sell window tinting or seat protection, less talk and more driving, the way it should be.

The car had plenty of features but only two they really cared about, firstly it was insanely fast, and second, they could charge it from their excess home solar power. In those days the Deans “couldn’t care less about supercharging, software updates, autopilot or the massive touchscreen on the dashboard.” They also weren’t bothered by the fact that in 2015 Tesla was a very small car company, living on the edge, with no service or support within 3,000kms of Perth, but to them it was worth the risk to support the only car maker taking EVs seriously.

The plan for the car was fairly simple, have some fun, take a regular weekend drive camping and attend a few car shows, maybe clock up 20,000 kms per year. The only long trip Rob & Robin had initially planned was in winter of 2016 when they were preparing to drive from Perth to Broome and back, but that trip turned out to be so enjoyable it became a catalyst for many more trips to all parts of Western Australia and eventually a visit to every state and territory including:

Home (Mandurah) -Exmouth-Broome return, 4,900kms June 2016 AC charging only

Home-Shark Bay return 1,800kms November 2016 AC only

Home-Albany-Esperance-Kalgoorlie-Perth return 2,000kms April 2017 AC only

Home-Adelaide return 5,600kms December 2017

Home-Tom Price- Newman-Marble Bar-Port Hedland-Onslow-Exmouth return 4700kms April 2018 AC only

Home-Kalgoorlie-Leinster-Yalgoo-Shark Bay return 3,100kms October 2018 AC only

Around Australia clockwise including Tasmania 19,620kms Sept-Oct 2019

Home- Exmouth- Yardie Creek-Kalbarri- return 2,800kms June 2021

Home-Eucla-Esperance return 3,000kms January 2022

More than a dozen other trips between 700 and 1,800kms at 140 overnight destinations.

Seven years and 250,000 kms later they still love the car as much as they did the first week they had it, so much so, they can’t wait to buy another Tesla. This time it will be the Model Y which they plan to use as their second car, because they say they’ll never sell the Model S P85D.

To hear more about Rob and Robin’s experience with their Model S click on the video below or try the following URL: https://youtu.be/7uvoFdJsmDM

I interview OG Tesla owners Robin and Rob Dean to get the first-hand account with their 7-year old Model S after they recently competed 250,000 kms in the P85D.

Q&A:

How has the battery held up?

In short, it’s not an issue, it’s all been as expected. After 250,000kms the car’s range is 420km in the city and 370km on the highway which is roughly 10% less than new, but as expected, the first 5% of battery degradation was much faster than the last 5% which is now barely noticeable.

What are your total out-of-pocket running costs? I just had the 4th set of tyres fitted, the average lifespan has been 81,000kms per set. I’ve kept with Michelin’s paying between $350 and $410 per tyre fitted. All up including two minor repairs it’s added up to $4660.

How much do you think you’ve saved on fuel?

Who cares? Well okay, put it this way, if the bloke up the road had the time to drive his less powerful and slower high performance V8 250,000kms over the past 7 years he would have consumed $39,000 worth of fuel at city prices. If I paid full grid price for the electricity consumed the cost would be $11,500, the fact is charging has cost us virtually nothing as most charging has been free from our home solar system. The car also comes with free lifetime supercharging and most of the AC charging we’ve done around Australia has been complimentary and the few dollars spent on DC charging is immaterial.

What about servicing?

It’s often incorrectly claimed that Teslas don’t need servicing; it all depends on how much the owner values their vehicle. As this car spends a large amount of time far away from a service centre, I’m happy to spend some cash making sure it’s in the best possible condition. $1,300 over 250,000kms is money well spent.

Any warranty repairs?

At 160,000kms Tesla replaced the rear drive unit due to the milling noise showing up in some early Model S vehicles, the car was in the care of Tesla service for just a few hours. The MCU was replaced at 220,000kms under a recall due to a potential eMMC failure, this took half a day at Tesla service.

What don’t you like about your Model S?

The paint appears soft and has suffered more than previous cars have from loose stones (chip seal) on country roads. Tesla also make unnecessary changes to the charging screen via software updates. At one stage, the Tesla charging screen was perfect, but not anymore. Some bored tinker-man in California adds complexity for no reason.

What has turned out to be surprisingly good beyond your expectations?

As I said earlier Supercharging didn’t interest me, and to be honest if it didn’t exist I’d still be just as supportive of EVs, but after experiencing the simplicity, reliability and convenience of Tesla Supercharging on both sides of Australia I can see how important the Supercharging network is to encouraging everyday Australians to change from petrol to electric transport.

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What to Expect When You’re Expecting Your Tesla

(Essential reading for new owners and a handy review for existing Tesla drivers.) Written by Pete Petrovsky

If this is your first EV or first Tesla, congratulations on taking the first step towards helping to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy with a car that is completely changing the entire automotive industry for the better. You’ll be glad to know you’ve ordered the world’s safest car, which is an absolute pleasure to own and drive and you can wave Goodbye to petrol station visits and most servicing.

Did you know Tesla doesn’t have a mandated service schedule? That said, there are a couple of recommendations. How much will servicing your Tesla set you back? In Australia, the Tesla recommended servicing and maintenance will cost $111 in the first three years compared to $1,725 or about 15 times as much for an average Australian internal combustion engine vehicle over the same 3-year period. But that’s just where the savings begin. Did you know that even if petrol was free, you would still be better off with a Tesla? To find out how far ahead you can expect to be after three years see: https://www.tocwa.org.au/2021/11/26/tesla-model-3-economics-compared-to-an-average-australian-petrol-car/

With all that enjoyable, safe and low-cost motoring to look forward to, you’re no doubt eager to hit the road, but perhaps you’re wondering whether you know everything you should before jumping behind the wheel of your shiny new Tesla. While I aimed to be comprehensive, the following should not be considered an exhaustive list of everything there is to know about owning an EV, but hopefully it should make for a good and informative start.

Paying For Your New Tesla

There have been a couple of instances in Australia where reservation holders had their email accounts hacked and consequently, while under the impression they were transferring their funds to Tesla, instead, they were unknowingly making the transfer to a scammer. I believe Tesla has now put in place various measures such as using your car’s VIN number as the account number but a good tip is to first transfer a negligibly small amount and check with Tesla that they received your funds and then use the exact same account details to transfer the balance. This is the method I used for our first Tesla in September 2019 and it worked well, however, with there now being a considerable backlog, you’ll need to allow enough time to ensure you are ready to take delivery as soon as your car is ready, otherwise you may run the risk of being pushed back in the queue as your car may be reassigned to the next reservation holder for that model car and trim. Please note, if you’re financing your Tesla and your bank or other loan provider is making the transfer for you this may not be an issue, but if you are going to be transferring the balance owing on your car yourself it pays to be cautious as you may not get a second chance.

Insurance

You’ll want to ensure you take out comprehensive car insurance before driving your new Tesla for the first time. There are numerous variables that go into determining insurance premiums including the insured value, the excess, where and how the car is parked, your driving history, your demographics, the age of the youngest driver, your no claims bonus, personal versus business use, how much you expect to drive the car as well as optional extras such as a hire car and so on. It’s important you take these and any other relevant factors into account when arranging your car insurance. In terms of who are the most Tesla and EV friendly insurers in Australia, TOCWA members report the lowest premiums from RACWA and Budget Direct ranging between approximately $900 a year or lower to about $2,000 a year or more for a Model 3, but please do shop around as far and wide as you feel appropriate and please let us know if you happen to find better like-for-like rates with another insurer. [2023 Update: Model Y premiums seem to be fairly similar the Model 3 amounts quoted above.] [2024 update: Koba Insurance says they specialise in smart EV insurance including pay-per-KM insurance where you can grant them remote access to your car. We haven’t had enough experience or feedback from our members to form an opinion on this product as yet but I’ll update this article once we do.]

Vehicle Delivery

Before picking up your car I recommend that you download the Tesla app here: https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/support/tesla-app and set up an account. Tesla may have already let you know that the delivery experience will be fairly fast, possibly as short as 5-15 minutes. You may therefore want to consider reaching out to an experienced Tesla owner to run you through the controls and settings before you drive off for the first time. Alternatively, please see this video about how to best set up your new Tesla. I generally recommend setting the car up with the following options turned on:

  • ◦ Lights – Auto
  •  ◦ Auto High Beams – [2024 update: In May 2024, Tesla updated our cars with Adaptive High Beams via a free over-the-air update. In my experience, the adaptive high beams seem like a great safety feature and hence I’d recommend enabling them on all cars with Matrix (Global rather than SAE/ECE) Headlights. All Australian Model Y vehicles and most if not all Shanghai-built Model 3 cars after about Q4 of 2021 have matrix headlights and I believe if Tesla needs to replace headlights on older models they replace them with the new matrix headlamps.]
  •  ◦ Windscreen wipers – Off or Auto [2023 Update: The algorithm has improved so now it’s more of a personal choice.]
  •  ◦ Regenerative Braking – Standard
  •  ◦ Stopping Mode – Hold (This is the single pedal driving feature. It can take a few hours of city driving before it becomes automatic or instinctive but once you get used to it you will most likely won’t want to drive in any other mode.)
  •  ◦ Charging – 80% for cars with NCA batteries and 100% for cars with LFP batteries [2023 Update: As per Tesla guidelines, the original article recommend 90% but Tesla has changed this recommendation to 80%.] (Standard Range and Rear Wheel Drive cars have LFP batteries and Long Range and Performance variants have NCA batteries. To check for yourself, navigate to the charging menu and if you see the words Daily and Trip on the State of Charge scale your car has NCA batteries. If it just shows percentages you have an LFP battery. )
  •  ◦ Settings under the Autopilot Menu:
  •  ◦ Set speed – Current Speed
  •  ◦ Automatic Blind Spot Camera – Enabled
  •  ◦ Blind Spot Collision Warning Chime – Enabled
  •  ◦ Forward Collision Warning – Early
  •  ◦ Lane Departure Assistance – Assist
  •  ◦ Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance – Enabled
  •  ◦ Automatic Emergency Braking – Enabled
  •  ◦ Obstacle Aware Acceleration – Enabled
  •  ◦ Traffic Aware Cruise Control Chime – Enabled
  •  ◦ Green Traffic Light Chime – Enabled
  •  ◦ Walk-Away Door Lock – Enabled
  •  ◦ Driver Door Unlock Mode – Enabled
  •  ◦ Car Left Open Notifications – Enabled
  •  ◦ Lock Confirmation Sound – Enabled
  •  ◦ Close Windows on Lock – Enabled
  •  ◦ Display – Auto
  •  ◦ Brightness – Auto
  •  ◦ Trips – Rename the last trip meter to: “Lifetime – Do Not Reset!”
  •  ◦ Trips – Rename the second last trip meter to “New Tyres”
  •  ◦ Trip Planner – Enabled
  •  ◦ Online Routing – Enabled
  •  ◦ Sentry Mode – On (Remember to turn back on after a software update. Please note, Sentry Mode consumes about 200 Watts per hour or about 4.8kWh over a 24 hour period. Sentry Mode is automatically turned off once the state of charge drops to 20%.) [2024 Update: Tesla has announced Sentry Mode power consumption optimisations which will soon reduce the power draw of this feature .]
  •  ◦ Dashcam – Auto and On Honk (Remember to turn back on after a software update.)
  •  ◦ PIN to Drive – Enabled
  •  ◦ Glovebox PIN – Enabled
  •  ◦ Cabin Overheat Protection – On (Please note this will be automatically disabled when the battery state of charge drops below 20%)
  •  ◦ Software Update Preference – Standard

TOCWA

At any time, but ideally prior to taking delivery of your vehicle, I would encourage you to become a TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) member. TOCWA is the officially sanctioned Tesla club for WA and a not-for-profit volunteer-run group facilitating communication, advocacy and community for Tesla Owners and reservation holders within WA. 

TOCWA is always willing to help anyone considering buying an EV but for best value I would urge you to become TOCWA member as the cost is just $20 a year and I’d be surprised if you don’t get this back several times over. Firstly, as a member you will be invited to join the weekly ‘Ask Us Anything’ Zoom call run by the Club Secretary where you’ll get the opportunity to have your questions answered by veteran Tesla owners with years of invaluable experience. The Club Secretary and Chairman who are among some of the first Tesla owners in Australia, have, as at 2022 driven well over 200,000 kilometres in each of their Teslas around WA as well as on trips across or around Australia and they and many other members are always happy to share their years of experience. [2024 Update: Both have now driven over 300,000 kms.] You’ll also be invited to monthly in person Casual Meet Ups and many other events as well as being able to borrow charging equipment, spare tyres for long road trips and other equipment at no cost. You will also be able to purchase some chargers and other accessories at substantially discounted prices. Being a not-for-profit organisation, the club is able to buy in bulk or at wholesale prices and offer the items to members at no mark-up. For full disclosure, I am a proud TOCWA committee member. To join the club please visit: https://www.tocwa.org.au/membership-join/

Synergy EV Home Plan

Once you’ve taken delivery of your Tesla, I recommend signing up for Synergy’s EV tariff ‘trial’. If you’re still on the Synergy A1 tariff your electricity rates won’t change apart from between the hours of 11PM to 4AM during which time your tariff will drop by about 30% from currently 29.3273 cents to 20.4651 cents. Whether you charge your car during this time or not, the tariff applies to your entire home’s electricity draw. If you are on any tariff other than A1, please give me a call to determine the best course of action. 

In order to qualify for the Synergy EV Home Plan, you’ll need to provide proof of ownership but the car cannot be registered in a business name.

[2023 Update: Synergy no longer offers the the EV Tariff trial, instead they offer the ‘Electric Vehicle Add On’]

To find out more see: 

https://www.synergy.net.au/Your-home/Energy-plans/Electric-Vehicle-Home-Plan

Plugshare and Charger Network Apps

A must for all EV owners is the Plugshare App which lists most if not all EV chargers available to the public in Australia and around the world. The browser based version can be found here: www.plugshare.com and these are the Apple iOS and the Google Android versions.

An alternative is A Better Route Planner which can be found here: https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ and these are the Apple iOS and the Google Android versions of the app.

You may also wish to download the following EV charging network apps and set up an account and a payment method such as a credit or debit card so that when you arrive at one of these chargers you can plug and charge without stress or wasting time worrying about setting up an account and linking a credit card.

Apple iOSGoogle AndroidWebsite
ChargefoxChargefoxChargefox
SmartchargeSmartchargeSmartcharge
ChargePointChargePointChargePoint
NextchargeNextchargeNextcharge
EvieEvieEvie
AmpChargeAmpChargeAmpCharge
ExplorenExplorenExploren
EvertyEvertyEverty

You can also try WeVolt which is a WA company trying to combine multiple charging apps into one.

WeVoltWeVoltWeVolt

Chargers, Cables and Adaptors

Only cars ordered before 9th July 2022 will come with an included UMC (Universal Mobile Connector) which will work on a standard 10A home powerpoint. It will also come with a 15A adapter also known as a “pig tail” and you can also purchase other after-market tails such as the 32A, 5-pin, 3-phase one, which among many other places, can be found here: https://www.evseadapters.com/products/australia-32a-5-pin-adapter-for-tesla-gen-2/ or https://braumach.com.au/products/tesla-model-3-y-20a-gen-2-mobile-charger-cable-adapter-2017-22-aust-stock? [2024 update: expect to pay no more than about $200. If the price is more, there are now plenty of outlets that may offer cheaper pricing.] There’s a good chance you won’t need this 3rd tail which should generally not be used in off-grid generator-powered situations, but if in doubt please feel free to reach out to TOCWA for advice.

For a faster, permanently wired and wall-mounted home charging solution, you can consider the Tesla HPWC (High Power Wall Connector) See: https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/support/home-charging-installation/wall-connector The HPWC is very reasonably priced but the installation pricing from the installers listed on the Tesla website is exorbitant, in my opinion. If you require an installer, or if you’d like to discuss other charging options please feel free to contact me and I’ll try to put you in touch with a reasonably priced installer in your area.

For charging at untethered public AC chargers you will require a Type 2 (a.k.a. Mennekes) EV cable which can be purchased from Tesla here. It can also be bought from other retailers, however, please note, these cables can come in various power ratings and length configurations. I recommend the 22kW 7.5-metre version. Although a 5-metre cable is considerably cheaper, it’s not uncommon to find yourself “ICED” which is where the EV charging bay is blocked by an ignorant or inconsiderate driver of an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. In these situations, the 7.5-metre cable should be long enough to reach an adjacent parking bay.  

For more great information about charging your Tesla please see the following article: https://www.tocwa.org.au/advice/charging/

Accessories

If you’re interested in buying accessories for your new Tesla, I highly recommend attending the TOCWA Ask Us Anything teleconference call and speaking to the existing Tesla owners first. In terms of vendors, this is the link to the official Australian online Tesla store: hhttps://shop.tesla.com/en_au There are also now many third-party vendors. The two main Australian sites seem to be: https://tesloz.com.au/ and https://tessories.com.au/ but you can also explore Amazon and many other online shopping sites.

EV Knowledge

As a new EV owner there will be some new information you’ll want to take on board, including charger knowledge, public charging etiquette, and lots of Pro Tips that you will find helpful. As a minimum, it’s good to know about the ‘ABCs’:

  • Always Be Courteous

Electric vehicles are a disruptive technology and although it’s becoming rare, you may come across some people whose livelihoods or whose belief system or identity may be threatened by the rapid shift to sustainable transport. You may also find yourself ICED or there may be other situations where you’ll be tempted to let the person know exactly what you think, however, it is always best to remain calm, respectful and courteous and if all else fails it may be best to prevent any escalation and walk away. Please also remember that being an EV owner and/or an EV driver you’re representing other EV drivers and the wider EV community.

  • Always Be Charging

Owning an EV is in many ways similar to owning a smartphone. There’s nothing worse than a dead phone and although it’s extremely rare for a Tesla to ever run out of charge you don’t want to find yourself in that situation so it’s a good idea to plan your longer journeys around charging points and to always have a contingency plan because you could get to a charger only to find it’s not working or taken up by another EV.  

Although this is changing at a fast pace, you will soon learn that with Teslas still being a relative novelty, it’s not uncommon to be stopped by a curious member of the public who is fascinated by your Tesla and is eager to ask you about your experience. (The most common questions are: How long does it take to charge? What’s the range? Do you have to pay for the charging? How long will the battery last before it needs replacing?) It’s great to spend some time answering these questions but a good pro tip is to ask the person to wait twenty seconds while you plug your car in and ensure it is charging. (Look for the Tesla “T” logo in your charge port and wait for it to begin flashing green as this indicates that the car is charging.) That way your car can be filling up with electrons while you talk, rather than finding yourself engrossed in the conversation only to realise you could have been charging for the last twenty minutes.

  • Always Bring Cables

As already mentioned, your Tesla will may with an included Universal Mobile Connector (UMC). If it didn’t you can purchase one here. If you’re using the UMC as the means of charging your Tesla at home, it can be inconvenient to wrap it up and take it with you each time and it’s easy to forget too, therefore, Tesla and TOCWA recommend the Tesla Wall Connector (HPWC) but there are also other options. With a Wall Connector at home, you’ll be able to always keep the UMC in one of the three convenient storage spaces of your car, either under the bonnet in the ‘frunk’ or in the well under your main boot or in the boot itself. Should you find yourself in a situation where you need to charge you’ll have a cable ready to plug into any 10A or 15A power socket or a 32A 3-phase outlet if you bought the additional adaptor pig tail. For a faster and more convenient charge, there are an increasing amount of Type 2 (a.k.a. Mennekes) AC chargers at shopping centres, fast food outlets and other locations and many of these are untethered requiring a BYO Type 2 cable. You may also choose to carry a 10A or 15A extensions cable.

  • Always Browse Comments

As already mentioned, the Plugshare app should be considered a must for any EV owner. One of its numerous handy features is to see if a charger is being used before planning to charge there, but It’s also a good idea to take note of the last successful charge and to read any comments that the person may have written. If the last charge was unsuccessful it may be an indication that the charger is faulty, damaged or offline. It may also pay to check the opening hours of the charger as some may be located behind gates that may be locked outside of opening hours. Some chargers such as those located at car dealerships may be reserved for the dealership during opening hours and kindly made available to the public afterhours. Using these chargers outside the public times may result in the owner making the charger unavailable to the public.

  • Adjust Battery Consumption

As already mentioned, it is almost unheard of or at least very rare for a Tesla run out of charge, however, should you find yourself in this situation, if you haven’t done so already, ensure you have set your destination in the car’s navigation system and follow any of the car’s warnings.

Another very good option may be to reduce your speed. You’ll be amazed just how much of a difference a drop in speed of 10km per hour can make. As a rough rule of thumb, dropping your speed by 10% from say 110km to 100km per hour could reduce your consumption and hence increase your range by about 14%.

You could also try to use the air-conditioning system or the fan instead of open windows or to use seat warmers rather than the heater in winter.

You may also consider increasing the pressure in your tires by pumping them up to say 45 PSI but only do so if it’s safe and always ensure you keep your tires below the maximum recommended limit.

Always have 3 charging plans A, B and C

[2024 update: With WA now having eight and soon nine Tesla Superchargers which boast a 99.95% uptime and with the WA EV Network almost complete and the NRMA Network to hopefully soon begin to offer redundancy chargers, this rule is becoming less important, however, with more EVs than ever on our roads this rule is definitely worthwhile adhering to especially on longer road trips during holiday and other busy periods.] In short, always have a plan B and a plan C charging plan at the ready in case a charger is either down, ICEd or occupied.

Public Charging Etiquette

Last but certainly not least, a few things about public charging etiquette. It’s important to realise that an EV charging bay is exactly that. It shouldn’t be confused with a parking bay. Think how you would feel to arrive at a charger with a low state of charge in desperate need of a top up only to realise the charger is being taken up for hours by an inconsiderate EV owner who may have reached a full charge some time ago or worse still who hasn’t needed or bothered to even plug in. To combat the problem, Tesla Superchargers are now charging idle fees at a rate of $1 per minute, particularly when half or more of the stalls are being used, so treating a public charger as a parking bay may prove expensive.

IF 50% or more of the stalls at Tesla Superchargers are being used your car will automatically drop the charging limit to 80%. This is to ensure the chargers are available as the last 20% can take the longest.

As the table below illustrates, the fastest charging rates can be achieved between approximately 10% and 65% state-of-charge but for more tips on the best and most efficient way to charge at a fast DC charger or a Tesla Supercharger, please see this article: 100% a Waste of Time: Why charging to 100% is defeating the purpose of Superchargers

 It may also be helpful to log into the Plugshare app to register your charging session so that others intending to charge at that location can plan their journey accordingly. Logging your charging session into Plugshare is by no means compulsory, especially at busy metropolitan chargers but it may be particularly helpful and considerate to other EV drivers at remote locations or in regional areas. Another useful alternative may be the Need to Charge service.

It’s also important to realise that there is no such thing as a ‘free’ charger, there are only complimentary chargers. This is an important distinction, because many businesses who have agreed to host EV chargers, (some after numerous pleas by EV enthusiasts), have done so in good faith for little if any monetary reward. If a business, agrees to host, service, maintain and cover the electricity consumption costs, not to mention the capital costs associated with procuring, purchasing and/or installing and commissioning the EV charger, the least we can do is to buy something at the business. It also goes a long way to explicitly thank the establishment for installing and hosting the charger and it doesn’t hurt to leave a tip either. There are also some chargers such as the Biofil units running on used chip oil which require the manual starting of a generator, such as those put in with the help of Jon Edwards and the crowdfunding from the WA EV community at the Caltex service station in Jurien Bay or the Roadhouse in Caiguna. It may be worthwhile giving the business a call beforehand to let them know of your expected arrival time. Unless there are other EVs waiting for a turn, once charging, it’s advisable to charge for at least 20 minutes or so before the attendant has to return and turn off and pack up the charger. If you can’t charge for at least 15 minutes or so, please offer to pay for a full charging session as it can be annoying for the attendant to have to leave paying customers to come out to turn the generator on for you only to have to come back a couple of minutes later to turn it off to recoup a couple of measly dollars. [2023 Update: For exactly the reason explained above, these chargers now have a minimum $50 charge cost.]

Lastly, a tip for new owners. If you’ve noticed your car only has a single reversing light, don’t worry there’s nothing wrong, the car only comes with one white reversing light on the left as the right one is a fog light. Hopefully this will save you a phone call to Tesla as they get a few of these every day. Update: Soon after this article was published Tesla began shipping Model 3s with two reversing lights. Therefore, there will now be some models delivered around the end of February or early March 2022 with a single reversing light but the later models will have two reversing lamps as well as bigger indicators. (By the way, some very early Model S cars also came with just one reversing light.) 

For further information please see: https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/support/after-taking-delivery and if you get stuck you can reach out by calling the TOCWA helpline on 6262 3131.

Pete Petrovsky

Pete Petrovsky is an active TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) committee member and a long-time EV enthusiast. He placed a $6,000 deposit for a Model X (#39) in 2014 but when it came to taking delivery he couldn’t justify the cost, so instead, he and his wife decided to buy two PHEVs and wait for the Model 3. In March of 2016 they bought the Holden Volt and a couple of weeks later the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and on the day it was unveiled, Pete ordered the Model 3. After selling the Outlander, in September 2019, Pete took delivery of the Model 3 and despite still loving their Volt, Pete and his wife are now looking forward to ordering the Model Y as soon as it becomes available in Australia.

When he gets time, Pete posts videos on his ‘Tesla Ahead of the Curve’ YouTube channel. He is a long-term Tesla shareholder and over the last eleven years has been responsible for more commercial rooftop solar PV in Perth than any other individual. In 2016 Pete added grid electricity to his role and since October 2020 he has been Managing Director of Imppact Energy Consultancy. In July of 2011, Pete also installed one of the first ‘oversized’ 6KW solar PV systems in Perth, which to this day continues to power their home and both EVs with free sustainable energy.

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Tesla Model 3 Economics Compared to an Average Australian Petrol Car

Pete Petrovsky 26 Nov 2021

One of the comments that gets the most eyebrow-raising reactions when talking about Tesla cars, is the fact that, for most owners, a Model 3 works out considerably cheaper than an average Australian car. Although some people are beginning to understand that an electric vehicle (EV) is less expensive to run than an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle equivalent, it’s hard to come across a non-EV owner who isn’t surprised to learn that, if all major costs associated with owning a car are included, a Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive (formerly known as the Standard Range Plus) works out thousands of dollars cheaper over just a short three-year period of ownership.

I like to explain this with a second-person hypothetical. Let’s assume that you decide to buy a Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) today and your neighbour also buys a vehicle on the same day, but instead they choose an average Australian car, something along the lines of an average Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan, Subaru, Honda or similar. The longer the ownership period the more favourable the outcome for the Model 3, and even thought the average Australian car is more than 10 and a half years old, let’s assume that both you and your neighbour sell your cars after just three years. If we take into account all significant costs, including the upfront drive away cost, a.k.a. the sticker price, and if we include depreciation, fuel costs, maintenance, insurance as well as registration and licencing fees, after all is said and done, you will be left with almost $14,000 more in your bank account than your neighbour who bought the average Australian petrol or diesel car. That’s a substantial amount of money, it’s enough to buy a second new car. Many people are either astounded by this or they simply don’t believe the figures. I have therefore provided a summary table of my calculations, below.

Tesla Model 3 RWD versus average ICE car total cost of ownership table

As with all calculations, the devil is often in the detail and assumptions can make or break even the most robust models. Where possible, I have therefore, tried to only use robust figures from reputable sources which I can readily substantiate. For example, as the Model 3 has only been in Australia for a little over two years and with the current resale values being elevated by unique market dynamics stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, I have based the depreciation rates on the iSeeCars.com study which analysed 5.7 million new cars bought in the united states between January and June of 2017 and 1.2 million cars from the same model year sold between January and June in 2020. I have tested the model to the sensitivity of the inputs and, interestingly, even if we were to halve the depreciation rate used for the Model 3, while keeping the depreciation rate for the average ICE car unchanged, the Tesla would still come out more than $7,000 ahead.

I have also used Australian unleaded petrol prices averaged over a 10-year period from 2011 to 2020 inclusive, however, rather than using average Australian electricity prices for the same period, I have simply used the latest (and also the highest) average Australian tariffs even though, as most electric vehicle owners know, there are several EV friendly tariff plans available to EV owners. Furthermore, as is the case with many EV owners, the cars can be charged using electricity produced by solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Once the solar PV system has paid for itself, it can effectively provide free electricity for its owners who mostly either charge at home or at convenient destination chargers such as those located in shopping centres which are generally complimentary. It is, therefore, not impossible to fuel an EV at virtually zero cost.

For the servicing and maintenance costs, I have used prices sourced directly from Tesla, but I have used average logbook service costs which include capped-price service schemes as well as prices taken from lower-cost third-party service centres. For more information, please see the video below which reveals that the Model 3 costs about a third as much to service over a 5-year period than the cost of a single service for an average Australian car. In other words, it costs less to service the Model 3 over a three-year period than an average Australian internal combustion engine (ICE) car over six months.

Although, I have been conservative with the inputs in the calculations, with the Model 3 RWD (nee SR+) starting at a drive-away price of $63,626 as an average across all the states in Australia, versus approximately $40,912 for an average new Australian car, one could argue the analysis ignores the additional finance costs. As the table below shows, however, even after factoring in finance costs, the Model 3 still comes in $12,617 ahead of an average Australian internal combustion engine car.

Total cost of ownership comparison table

Whether it’s $12,617 or $13,679, either way, it is a relatively large sum of money, as I have mentioned, it’s enough to pay for a second new car, but amazingly this is not where the savings stop. You may have noticed, there is one category, namely insurance, where the Model 3 is more expensive. That said, while insuring a Tesla may be more expensive in absolute terms, mainly due to the higher car value, personally, I have found the premiums cheaper relative to the insured value of the vehicle and the Australian average figures seem to be roughly on par in this respect with the annual premiums accounting for between 3–4% of both of the cars’ drive-away price.

Interestingly, however, this is one of the areas where Tesla continues to innovate. Two years ago, Tesla introduced its own insurance product in California, named Tesla Insurance. As Tesla begins to slowly roll out the product across other US states, the company is pairing the policies with its Safety Score telematics which, as the name suggests, provide the driver with a safety score based on their driving behaviour which is designed to statistically predict the likelihood of a future collision. Tesla bases the monthly insurance premiums on each driver’s Safety Score, and as the score changes the insurance premiums also change from month to month. Tesla calls this Real-Time Insurance. Naturally, the higher the safety score the lower the premiums. For example, there can be more than a 56% premium discount based on a 98% versus an 88% Safety Score. It remains to be seen when Tesla introduces the Safety Score to Australia or when Tesla enters the Australian car insurance market but when it does it will make the economics of the Model 3 even more compelling not only for new owners but also for existing ones.

The only other area where a Tesla Model 3 is more expensive than an average internal combustion engine or ICE car is the upfront cost or the sticker price. This is where state and federal governments should play their part, it’s crazy that we’re still subsidising fossil fuels while taxing electric vehicles.

Model 3 RWD on-road taxes, fees and chargers by state in Australia

That said, Tesla is working on a US$25,000 model commonly referred to as the ‘Model 2’ but Elon Musk has already confirmed this won’t be the car’s name, perhaps it may end up being named the ‘Model A’. Once it is unveiled and when it eventually goes on sale in Australia, it may retail below or roughly at around the price of an average petrol or diesel car thereby not only putting the economics of an entry-level Tesla even further beyond any question, but it will inevitably become the final death blow to the internal combustion engine as a means of powering a daily commuter.

It is fairly amazing that the Model 3 has economics which are superior to an average Australian car because implicit is the assumption that the two are a like-for-like comparison when, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is that a Tesla Model 3 is superior to an average internal combustion engine vehicle in pretty much all aspects including:

Furthermore, unlike most cars which are the best they will ever be the day they are driven off the dealership lot, the Model 3 continually improves via mostly free over-the-air (OTA) software updates.

The impressive yet not exhaustive list below outlines just some of the additional features which have been added to my Model 3 since I bought it a little over two years ago:

  • a boost of approximately 5km more range,
  • approximately 5% more power,
  • single pedal driving,
  • dog mode,
  • camp mode,
  • side camera video feeds,
  • Netflix,
  • YouTube,
  • a long list of new voice commands including voice keyboard,
  • ability to have incoming SMS messages read out and the ability to dictate a response,
  • driving visualisation updates including displaying humans, stop signs, traffic lights and even objects such as traffic cones or witches hats, rubbish bins, traffic barriers and so on,
  • automatically save dashcam footage on honk,
  • ‘Caraoke’ and a raft of new video games,
  • driver profiles,
  • ability to adjust the charging rate via the app,
  • app customisation,
  • car-wash mode,
  • Smart Summon which enables the car to drive itself from up to 50–60 metres away in a car park,
  • and a raft of driver assistance and Autopilot improvements such as the ability to monitor the speed of traffic in surrounding lanes and, if required, overtake other cars. The car can also stop on traffic lights, stop signs, roundabouts and so on.

These are just some of the additional features added over the last 2 years, but it doesn’t stop there, as innovation and improvement seem to be a continual ongoing process at Tesla. There are many new exciting updates on their way including the Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability beta button, the Safety Score beta, the FSD subscription service, the ability to detect wet road conditions, remote live sentry view, in-car purchases and these are just some of the upcoming features we currently know about. I’m sure there are dozens of more improvements in the pipeline which we are yet to find out about.

Furthermore, this is just what I either happened to notice or read about in the software release notes, but the car has also been improving its already unmatched safety with undocumented updates like safer airbag deployments adjusting for occupants’ weight and seating position. In other words, the airbags now adjust when, how fast and in what direction they deploy depending on where on the seat the driver is sitting. The algorithm also considers the pressure distribution on the car seat to determine if the passenger is a baby, a toddler or an adult and it even tries to calculate the probability of a person’s gender.

In addition to the over-the-air updates, the cars are equipped with all the hardware necessary to enable full self-driving (FSD) in the not-too-distant future. One could argue that this makes the cars themselves but perhaps also the economics largely future proof. Perhaps this and the potential that FSD may one day be worth US$100,000 is an important factor contributing to the Model 3 showing a depreciation rate that is 25% lower than an average car.

Does this mean that a Model 3 or a Tesla for that matter is the right EV or even the right car for everyone and for every situation? No, of course not, but taking into account FSD improvements, in the majority of situations, the Model 3 and Model Y superiority, not only in economic terms but also in terms of both the quantitative and the qualitative value they offer their owners, makes one wonder if we haven’t already reached the point which Elon Musk referred to when he compared driving anything other than a Tesla to owning a horse or as he further elaborated, it is “financially insane to buy anything other than a Tesla”.

Pete Petrovsky

Pete Petrovsky is an active TOCWA (Tesla Owners Club of Western Australia) committee member and a long-time EV enthusiast. He placed a $6,000 deposit for a Model X (#39) in 2014 but when it came to taking delivery he couldn’t justify the cost, so instead, he and his wife decided to buy two PHEVs and wait for the Model 3. In March of 2016 they bought the Holden Volt and a couple of weeks later the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and on the day it was unveiled, Pete ordered the Model 3. After selling the Outlander, in September 2019, Pete took delivery of the Model 3 and despite still loving their Volt, Pete and his wife are now looking forward to ordering the Model Y as soon as it becomes available in Australia.

When he gets time, Pete posts videos on his ‘Tesla Ahead of the Curve’ YouTube channel. He is a long-term Tesla shareholder and over the last eleven years has been responsible for more commercial rooftop solar PV in Perth than any other individual. In 2016 Pete added grid electricity to his role and since October 2020 he has been Managing Director of Imppact Energy Consultancy. In July of 2011, Pete also installed one of the first ‘oversized’ 6KW solar PV systems in Perth, which to this day continues to power their home and both EVs with free sustainable energy.

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100% a Waste of Time: Why charging to 100% is defeating the purpose of Superchargers

Pete Petrovsky 21/10/2021

Supercharging Karrinyup

As most EV owners will know, there are two main ways to charge an EV, AC or DC, but there’s also another less known and slightly more nuanced distinction.

A charger’s main purpose can be for rapid top ups or for longer perhaps even overnight charging and it’s important for EV drivers to understand this difference as it will not only save a lot of time, but it will also result in a better ownership experience for the entire EV community.

The main purpose of ultra-rapid DC chargers such as the Tesla Superchargers is rapid top-ups to facilitate convenient travel between built-up areas. This is critical in winning over the broader driving public who have concerns about charging downtime on long trips away from home. The problem is many new owners have misunderstood this and are in fact wasting a lot of their time charging at high battery percentages. How much time are they wasting? It depends on the vehicle’s next destination but as can be seen from the graphics below, it’s more than many drivers realise.

Test conducted with a Tesla Model 3 Performance charging from a V3 Tesla Supercharger at a 14-degree outside temperature with a pre-conditioned battery.

As the chart above shows, a long-range battery takes about the same time, roughly 14 minutes, to charge from 10% to 60% as it does to charge from 90 to 100%. In other words, you can spend the same 14 minutes topping up 50% at a lower state of charge (SoC) or 10% at a higher SoC. 

50-60% SoC is a key level because not only does the time to charge each 5% increment begin to lengthen to charging speeds attainable at slower (non-ultra-rapid) DC chargers but generally it’s enough battery capacity to cover the distance between Superchargers on long road trips.

What is not illustrated on the graph is what happens once the state of charge reaches 100%. Once at 100%, the charge time jumps off the chart as it took me at least a further 19 minutes of trickle charging the last few watt hours and balancing the cells before I lost patience and quit the test.

TezLab power chart.

As can be seen in the graphic above, at roughly around a 14% state of charge (SoC) the car reached its peak charge of 244kW but then this began to taper off down to 192kW at 30% SoC, then to 110kW at 50%, 81kW at 70% and 42kW at 90% before dwindling down to 5kW once it remained at 100% for almost 20 minutes.

Once at 100%, the time the car takes to completely finish charging is dependent on how long it has been since the battery was fully charged to 100%. The longer the period between full charges the longer it takes to balance the cell groups and the longer the battery takes its time at the 100% level.

Powered by a lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) battery chemistry, once at 90% or above, it is best to begin driving the Model 3 Performance (and Long Range) to ensure minimum long-term battery degradation. It’s not ideal to keep this chemistry above 90% or below 20% for extended periods of time. In fact, the above 90% charge level should be reserved only for times, when necessary, on longer stretches between chargers on country road trips. However, that said, it is also a good idea to balance the cells once every 3-6 months. The added benefit is that the battery management system (BMS) will also get a chance to recalibrate itself to ensure accurate battery range readings.

In contrast, it is ideal to charge the lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery chemistries, found in the Shanghai built and soon also in the Fremont built Standard Range Plus Model 3s, to 100% at least once a week and it’s also perfectly fine to charge to 100% on a daily basis.

Irrespective of the battery chemistry, however, to save wasting your time at Superchargers and unnecessarily taking up this important infrastructure, please be mindful of how busy the charger is. If you feel the need to charge to 100% and if you have plenty of time, during off-peak times when Superchargers are hardly used, it is perfectly fine to squeeze in every last watt but at busy times, vehicles taking up much needed charge bays while charging at a fifth or less of the charger’s potential is a burden on the infrastructure and not helpful to fellow EV owners.

243kW charge rate.

Therefore, please consider only charging to a lower percentage and leaving the charging at the top state of charge levels for your home, BNB, or at overnight AC destination chargers such as those allocated to your room at hotels and EV-friendly resorts. You’ll only be doing yourself, your EV community and even potential new EV owners a big favour.

P.S. Special thanks to TOCWA Chairman Rob Dean for not only helping with this article but also for coming up with the idea for the test.