Dylan J Stone
The 2041 Far West Regional Draft Plan reckons electric vehicles (EV) will grow in popularity in our region but is that likely given the large distances between our centres of population?
Is it really feasible to own an EV in our sparsely populated area where travelling distances are long and recharging options limited? Yes, implies the recently released Far West Regional Draft Plan, but it’s short on detail and locals say there are major hurdles.
Janette Bussell, from Trappers Dugout in White Cliffs, says, “it has been challenging for those who have an EV to visit and access outback NSW, because of the lack of available charging stations.
“In White Cliffs, there is an EV charging station at the Underground Hotel, but this is a private business, and in Wilcannia, the EV charging stations are in front of the hospital, which is not on the main road and not easily located for travellers.”
Because of this, “there was a time where I’ve provided my customers with a big extension cord so they could charge their EV at night from my business, but this was neither cost effective for my business, nor energy efficient for the customer,” Ms Bussell says.
And not long ago, says Ms Bussell, neither of the two ports at the Wilcannia EV charging station were working – both were broken.
“This doesn’t help people who have driven many kilometres who are trying to get through to Broken Hill,” Ms Bussell noted.
Indeed it doesn’t because if you have just driven from Cobar to Wilcannia, for example, there is currently no EV with the range to then travel on to Broken Hill without recharging.
Locals Anika Molesworth and Corey Stenhouse purchased an EV recently, a Tesla Model 3 Long Range.
“We selected the Tesla Model 3 because this vehicle allows us to travel out of Broken Hill, and while there are cheaper EVs on market, most have a shorter driving range,” Ms Molesworth said.
“Corey loves power and speed in a vehicle, and so he naturally gravitated to this car for performance reasons. On the other hand, I gravitated toward it for environmental reasons, as I hate driving cars that burn poisonous fossil fuels.
“We love the car, as it’s silent, its one of the safest cars on the road, and the 0-100 speed is phenomenal at four seconds! We drive past dirty expensive fuel stations and charge our EV up with sunshine from our solar panels, it’s great.”
Mrs Molesworth says she has travelled to Adelaide, Melbourne, and the NSW South Coast, “with some extra planning to get to the available charging stations”.
With a range though of around 500km maximum before the batteries run down, there is a degree of range anxiety in an EV compared to a petrol-powered car.
“Charge time depends on how depleted your car’s battery is and how fast the charger is,” says Ms Molesworth.
“You can charge through a normal wall socket, which will get you about 17 kilometres per hour of charge, and the NRMA chargers provide around 300 kilometres per hour of charge,” Ms Molesworth says.
Super-fast EV charging stations are now being rolled out, such as in Goulburn, which charge at 1000 kilometres per hour of charge.
Ms Bussell says the crucial issue is to install more charging stations and make sure they work and of course to place the stations where they are easy to find.
There also needs to be liaision between different state governhments.
“We have a lot of people who travel through from Queensland and South Australia,” says Ms Bussell, “and there are no major centres near any of their internal borders.”
So, even if NSW lead the world in EV charging stations, if there are no EV chargers on the other side of these state borders, “then we are back to square one with the issue of travellers coming out to outback NSW in their EVs,” Ms Bussell said.
Ms Molesworth says that while she and her partner are “over the moon with the electric car, we’d love to see more charging stations”.
“There’s no doubt, the two largest obstacles are the need for additional charging stations and they need to be powered by renewable energy. I want to make sure I am refuelling my EV with clean energy that isn’t damaging our planet like fossil fuels are.”
