A 'NO TANK' Tesla at the Daylesford Chargefox
We tried out the Chargefox charger in the main street of Daylesford. Very popular, with several EVs charging while we were there, including a white Tesla Model 3 (performance model) with a “NO TANK” license plate.
Positives: Prominent and easy to find. It’s a DC charger (although it’s slow, it’s still twice the speed of the fastest AC charge we can get). Close to all the shops and cafes.
The usual positives: No fumes. A fraction of the cost of petrol per km. Park and fill up while you go to a shop or cafe.
Negatives: Only 22kW (typically 50+kW for a DC charger). Only one CCS2 charging cable (the other one is Chademo, which is less commonly used). The cables fall onto the street, so get run over. The best parking for a Tesla to charge is in the front spot, which blocks the rear Chademo charger for anyone else.
As technology improves battery energy density, the weight (or range) will also improve.
On the plus side, the battery in the Tesla is distributed evenly, under the floor, giving it a very low centre of gravity, so the car sticks to the road and the handling is fantastic (as you’ll recall from our joy ride).
We chose the standard range Tesla Model 3 RWD (rather than the long range or performance models), in part because the weight is less and the efficiency (distance per energy) is better. The range and acceleration have been fine for us. It’s also the cheapest Tesla, at $64k (or about $44k if you can claim all the incentives and tax breaks).
It will be a 32 Amp, 3 phase AC to DC converter. No need for a massive mains upgrade. Still 3 times faster tank BYD and MG charging on AC, and twice as fast as my Model Y on AC.
To fast and you don't have time to shop before you have to unplug and move.
This is a typical failed location for a charger. They must have put it there to give it visibility, otherwise it is often ICEd. It has been out of order for a lot of the time as well. It would be nice if they put a bank of chargers in the next street back, there are a lot of EVs that visit Daylesford and it'll only get better.
The original charger was installed in collaboration with the wind farm and was free to use. That was an old AC Charge Point and worked well for a number of years. Great to see it has moved up to DC.