Today we’re Tackling Tasmania’s capital city, Hobart. Before we get there, we’ve got a fairly big drive ahead of us though. It’s four and a half hours and there will be at least a couple of charge stops. As we drive through town to find some breakfast coffee, we notice the charger we used yesterday afternoon is occupied and we’re glad we used the granny charger overnight to get topped up. Not only have we avoided a wait this morning, I was able to relax in front of the TV while the car charged next to our cabin.
All coffee’d up, we set off towards Queenstown. It’s raining this morning, although not too badly and we’re winding our way uphill again as we head inland. We get to Queenstown and take a look at the charger. We’re a short walk from the centre of town, but it’s raining and we need both some snacks and a toilet stop more than we need a charge so we drive into town.
If it wasn’t raining we’d probably get a quick top up and walk a couple of hundred metres to the amenities. We’re at 63% that’s loads to get to Derwent Bridge and our first planned charge. We didn’t have any delays, but as electric cars become more common, these single chargers will need expansion.
Roadworks can be a good thing…
There are two things to note about Tasmania’s roads: 1) They are in very good condition and 2) They are probably in very good condition because there always seems to be road works going on. Winding and narrow at times, you can get along at a decent clip without being too concerned about the road being in poor condition. If there’s a problem the local road crews have it marked out and seem to be on to fixing it very quickly. Stopping or slowing down for road works is just part of the experience. Knowing that the next stretch is going to be a fun ride on a nicely maintained road takes the pain out of the small sections of roadworks.
We cross over Derwent Bridge and there’s the charger on the left. This is the first time we’ve pulled in to a charger on the entire trip and not got straight on to the charger we wanted. Two electric cars at the same time, unheard of! There are two bays, one is a 50kW DC and the other is a BYO cable AC 11kW charger. We pull into the slower bay and plug in to the 11kW charger. While we wait we start a chat with a couple of teachers from a Melbourne school on their Year 10 trip. This wouldn’t be the last time we’d see this group. If we’re stuck on this charger it will be a 4 hour charge, but our Nissan Leaf friend is rapidly gaining charge and won’t be much longer.
About 10 minutes later the Leaf finishes it’s charge and heads off after a quick chat. We stay where we are and simply change over to the other charger, figuring any other EV coming in can just pull in to the fast charger bay. The chargers are close enough for the cbales to reach either bay. We now only need about 40 minutes and set off to the pub across the road for lunch.
Heading on towards Hobart
After a light lunch, we return to the car at 73% and enough to get us in to Hobart. Sometimes at these slower DC stations it’s quicker not to wait around for the extra few percentage points, and move on to the next faster charger. We know we can get a good fast charge in Hobart, and there are chargers near our accommodation.
We’re off again, climbing up out of the valley, then back down into the next one. We pass plenty of lakes and there are some really steep parts. No prizes for guessing, this is prime hydro-electric country. Pipelines cascading down the slopes all lead into fairly small powerhouses with electric wires snaking out and over other hills into the grid.
After a while, the landscape flattens out a little and we’re getting in to farming country as we pass down into the Derwent Valley. We cross over the Derwent a couple more times and descend down towards Hobart. We’ve done a lot of up and down, but at the end of the day we’ll have gone from sea level to sea level. Poor economy uphill should be well balanced with all that regenerative braking on the downhill stretches for a nice average consumption.
ABRP Throws us a Curveball
As we get into the northern outskirts of Hobart, we have a charger stop planned at a local shopping centre, where we plan to get a few groceries for our 2 day stay in Hobart. our planning and navigation app “A Better Route Planner” (ABRP) has had it’s little quirks along the way, but this is the time it decides to really throw us a curve ball. We’re headed in to a charger at Northgate Shopping Centre and we’ve noticed a Tasmania Hydro Tesla heading in roughly the same direction since the highway. He turns off and ABRP hasn’t indicated we’ve reached our turn yet. We continue on and soon notice that ABRP has frozen when we realise we’ve actually passed the entire shopping centre. ABRP is still a very useful tool but we do need to be aware of it’s quirks. I’ve written an ABRP Review here.
We pull over, reset ABRP by restarting the app and backtrack to the shoppping centre, only to pull in next to our friend in the Snowy Hydro Tesla. He’s nowhere to be seen but clearly knew where he was going better than we did. Thankfully there are 4 bays, and we’re the only two EVs here. We plug in and head into the shopping centre for a few supplies. It’s always good when we can combine charging with another task. We return to the car around 30 minutes later with the car up from 37% to 83%. Plenty for the rest of the day and probably enough for tomorrow as well.
Constitution Dock
We head off to Hobart and pick up the keys to our accomodation at Constitution Dock. Our accommodation is in an old mill building at the other end of the dock, so we drive over and start to unload. We spot all three of the Ports Hobart free AC chargers on the way over, but as we’re well charged we don’t need to plug in yet. These 3 free AC chargers are all within walking distance of our “home” for the next couple fo days. This is a great place for electric cars. Salamanca Markets is also a short walk from our accommodation. Very handy as we’re arriving Thursday and plan to visit the markets before we leave on Saturday morning.
After a look around Battery Point and a drive down toward Wrest Point to see the sunset, we settle in for a “home” cooked meal. At 8:30pm the kids drag me out into the cold and light rain of an autumn evening in Hobart, as they’ve found a great place for ice cream only two blocks away. We walk past two of those three AC chargers to get to Mures for icecream. I’ve done the calculations and at 75% don’t really need a charge to get where we need to go tomorrow, so the car stays in the car park under our accommodation tonight. I just can’t be bothered in the rain, and I think my range anxiety is pretty much cured at this stage.
