Crossing the Nullabour is one of Australia’s great adventure drives.
Every year thousands of people enjoy travelling across the vast empty south coast of Australia enjoying the scenery, remoteness and the sheer challenge of distance. It’s a grand test of long distance driving, but doing it in an electric car with an operating range of 240km makes for a trip with an extra degree of difficulty, and possibly danger.
Our plan was to drive our two-year-old MG electric vehicle to Perth where we were selling it to a friend. Why were we selling the car? Ironically, because we were suffering from what the EV drivers (and some detractors) call ‘range anxiety’. On paper this model EV has a range of just over 300km, in reality, depending on conditions and driving style, this dials down to 240km on the open road. We were going to push this car’s range to it’s long distance limits on one of the remotest roads in the world.
Thanks to our fellow EV drivers and the information they share on the PlugShare App, we were able to plan charges with less than 200km between them. Unfortunately, the longest stretches existed between the most remote parts of the Nullarbor, between Ceduna in South Australia and Norseman in Western Australia.
Did the homework
So we did our EV homework. We created a spreadsheet with the charging stations, the distance between each and we booked accommodation, as I wasn’t keen to set up camp at night after a long day’s driving.
I had also taken out RACV extra assist in case anything happened and we needed towing somewhere.
We were realistic that the biggest risk on this adventure was running out of charge, which could have potentially been difficult with an electric car. The only person I know who has experienced this is my husband, driving this very car, running out of range just three miles from a charging station in Kyneton.
He loves to push the limits and was curious about how the car would respond … it wasn’t great. Although he had lots of warning lights and alerts, he was curious as to whether he could sneak a few more kilometres after the range. Dear reader, he couldn’t! So, stuck without charge, he was very lucky to have been able to pull to the side of the road to wait for MG Assist, which arrived a few hours later with a tow truck to take him to a charge point.
He had found that the stop without power was sudden and final. The electric car was almost impossible to push as it didn’t have a ‘neutral’ gear and was heavier than an ordinary car. So we were very concerned that we might stop on a dangerous part of the road, in hostile conditions, and cause problems not only for ourselves but other drivers.
Keeping it safe
I don’t think this is unique for electric cars but we didn’t have a spare tyre. There’s an air compressor and a tyre repair kit in the boot; we took a lesson in tyre repair from my brother-in-law and added a salvaged car jack. All these additions (like extra water in case we were stuck) make for extra weight and lower the range of the car, so we were really forced to consider what was absolutely necessary for safety.
So with just one driver and a 15-year-old logistics expert on school holidays, we set off on the Friday of the Grand Final long weekend. First leg Ballarat to Adelaide. Smooth sailing, good charging options!
One of the limitations of an electric car is that you need to stop to charge, but it can also be one of its big advantages.
The fast chargers, most often by Charge Fox on this trip (supplied by RACV, RAA & MRMA), are quick and charging takes just over an hour. The break gives you time to take a stop, stretch your legs, do some sightseeing (on foot) and refocus. It’s the the most difficult thing (finding a charger, hoping it’s free and works) and it’s also one of the joys of driving an electric car. Charging points do not need to be at petrol stations. Local councils and visitor centres have realised that people hang around to spend money while charging. I’ve never stopped to charge at a point near a café without buying a coffee, lunch or a snack and electric car drivers are usually enthusiastic about having a chat while they charge.
In the driving seat
With just one driver on this trip (my son is just four months away from being eligible for L plates), I believed this also made driving safer, being only able to travel 200km without taking a break.
We left Adelaide in a windstorm, with the high winds pushing up clouds of dust. We only had to make it to Port Augusta with a charge at the notorious Snowtown. It was while charging at Snowtown that we made a fantastic discovery! At the roadhouse, the Indian staff had cooked up incredible curries that were available alongside ordinary Chiko Rolls and pies.
Full of homemade samosas, we cruised into Port Augusta for the night. When we went to crunch our charging numbers we started to worry, the two stages of the drive were Adelaide to Snowtown 142km and Snowtown to Port Augusta 159km. When we recorded our range at both charging points we were down to the last 50km. It seemed that travelling in windy, hot conditions we were running through charge much faster than expected. We rang and spoke to my husband in a bit of a panic.
We knew we’d have reasonable charging stations for the next day to Ceduna, but the following two days were where we really needed the range to get us safely across the long uninhabited stretches of the Nullarbor.
We reset the system and the car comfortingly gave us a bigger range, but could we trust it? The advice from the EV forums was suggesting that 80km per hour could be a sweet spot where we’d get longer range by driving slower.
Testing speeds
I could only imagine what a pain that would be on the long stretches where we’d be holding up road trains. So we decided to test slower speeds on the trip to Ceduna to see if there was a difference. We made it to Kimba (156km) with just 43km left on the car. Going at 80km/h wasn’t going to make a difference.
Then on the road to Wudinna (101km) we made a fantastic discovery. Setting the car into Adaptive Cruise Control and Traffic Jam Mode, we knew the car could maintain a constant distance behind the vehicle in front. With cruise control set at 110km an hour we tucked in behind a road train. Suddenly we had our solution. Drafting behind a truck or even a caravan would give us an almost 25 per cent increase in range, and this was what we needed to go the full 240km distance to the Nullarbor Roadhouse.
There’s always a worry when you set off on a trip like this – you’ve done the sums, you’ve tested the theory, you’ve got a plan but will it work?
Although as I write this there’s a brand new charging station at Yalata Roadhouse, we couldn’t risk trying to make a 296km stretch without a charge. Our only option was Penong Caravan Park.
Penong was our first experience of three-phase charging. The incredibly kind people at the caravan park have a three-phase power source and you can charge at 32A, so while not a proper ‘fast charge’ it’s definitely speedier than an ordinary power point.
On the highway
So we got to explore the windmill museum and spend some time at the post office sorting out a Telstra SIM card, because although our phones use the Telstra transmitters (ALDI) we were ‘out of range’ from Penong to Norseman. We also took advantage of the caravan park and finished a load of washing. After four hours we took a deep breath and headed out to the highway looking for a road train going to the Nullarbor Roadhouse.
The scenery was amazing, and we were grateful to the fast-moving truck that pulled us along the highway in its wake. We travelled the 222km with just a few kilometres to spare. We were so relieved and grateful to see the high bank of solar panels and the powerful NRMA Chargers at the Nullarbor Roadhouse.
I was pleased to be staying the night there because we were exhausted. We checked into a room, and then drove out to see the whale sanctuary lookout at the Head of the Bight. Was it a whale or a rock, definitely a whale, no probably a rock. Luckily, we saw it move and confirmed that there in the intense turquoise water there was a whale and its calf.
Keeping us company at the roadhouse were scores of motorbike riders, mostly over-50s (all men) who had done multiple crossings. The caravan numbers were starting to climb too – lots of couples making the big lap around Australia. Dinner at the roadhouse had reverted to normal outback fare, steak, sausages, lamb’s fry … with the corresponding prices, which considering the freight distances was understandable.
We woke up to a pea soup fog across the Nullarbor. Good, because there was no wind, but we were facing one of our big challenges today; 184km to the Western Australian border and another three-phase charge at the Border Village Roadhouse. This is the real blackspot of the trip.
No vacancies
We had planned to stay at this roadhouse and the ideal would have been to charge overnight, but there were no vacancies and we had no choice but to spend the day charging before heading to the Madura Pass (193km) for the night.
We set out hoping for a road train but also wanted to squeeze in a couple of stops to marvel at the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight.
We were so pleased we could stop and tried to limit ourselves to the points where the highway went close to the edge. The views were spectacular – the sea an incredible turquoise – but the stress of wanting to make Madura Pass before nightfall and the ‘unknown’ of the charge at Border Village spurred us back on the road to find another friendly truck.
At Border Village, the WA Border looms large.
Yes, it’s fully staffed 24 hours, and they really do want to see what you’ve got in the car. At the roadhouse (before the border) we were ushered around the back to the massive diesel generator and invited to plug in our three-phase charging cord. We had to dial back the charge to 20A and we knew this would be a long day.
We ate at the roadhouse, and examined ALL the souvenirs. We played their golf hole (there’s a great set of fun golf holes across the Nullarbor). We walked across to stickybeak at the quarantine station. We watched some videos we’d downloaded and we sat around. Seven hours later we calculated we had enough charge to get to Madura Pass but not with air conditioning, and we’d really need to find someone to sit behind.
Into the sunset
We crossed the border but couldn’t stop at Eucla, and watched amazed as the road before us dipped off the cliffs of the Bight and levelled out onto the plain.
Headed west into the sunset, we realised all the smart transport operators would be long gone to avoid the setting sun in their eyes. We limped into Madura Pass and their portable charger (193km) with just 28km range to spare. What a relief.
I didn’t even mind that we were going to have to pay $2 per kilowatt or that the petrol station wanted to close in an hour. This was the end of the real blackspot, from now until Perth (with one exception) we would be back in ‘civilisation’ with fast chargers and smaller manageable distances between charges.
Caiguna had a diesel generator running a fast charge but, before you roll your eyes (EV haters, I see you!), the generator ran on used cooking oil, something I imagine every road house has an excess of. Balladonia had a smaller charger with only one plug, so we ran into our only wait of the trip (a Tesla driver who we’d been passing along the way beat us into Balladonia because he didn’t need to charge at Caiguna with his longer range). However, we got to see the big chunk of Skylab that landed in the area in 1979 and caught up with some seriously expensive fruit.
Back in range
We arrived in Norseman with a 58km range and got our phones back, so we were able to explain to friends and family who we were planning on chatting to through the trip that there actually is no mobile coverage for most of the Nullarbor region.
From Norseman, we stayed the night at Kalgoorlie and were looking forward to making it the last 534km to Perth.
We charged at Southern Cross (185km) and Merredin (108km), checking out some truly spectacular vegetation, wildflowers and incredible trees growing in the arid landscape.
After a bit of a fright again with range, between Southern Cross and Merredin (air conditioning and no drafting), we realised we were about to face another big range challenge to get into Perth.
The next charger in Midlands was 241km away. Could we chance it? We were headed to Perth, hopefully it would be a downhill run, though a tow truck would be easier to access than out in the Nullarbor. We were now experts at drafting and the most logical charger between Merredin and Perth was still another two weeks away from opening.
The last leg wasn’t a pretty trip. No air conditioning, tucking in behind trucks, and the last kilometres were very tense with the range just dipping below what we knew we needed to get to the charging point.
Just scraped in
We scraped into the outskirts of Perth as the sun was setting, arriving at Office Works and our charging station with just 7 per cent on the dial.
I’d like to say we celebrated with stationery, but we just wandered around Office Works in a bit of a daze. We’d made it.
One of the more epic trips with a thrilling degree of difficulty! I’d like to think we were lucky and, of course, we were. There were no punctures our car’s range held up, the 15-year-old was great company and a meticulous planner, and nothing went terribly wrong.
But we had made good plans, we allowed time for something to go wrong, and we had a few days spare if we really did have to wait for help to get to us.
We did miss out on a couple of what I’m sure were spectacular side trips, and we did almost exclusively eat fast food for the duration of the trip!
But we do have spectacular bragging rights, and with the new charging stations coming online and electric car ranges getting bigger I’m sure that in the near future there won’t include anywhere near the ‘range anxiety’ of this trip. It was fun to imagine us following in the footsteps of the early petrol car pioneers who definitely had similar concerns about the distance to their next petrol depot.
Would you try to cross the Nullarbor by EV? Why not share your opinion in the comments section below?
Also read: Private golf club member test drives the Nullarbor Links
