Charging in Rockhampton, with Marlborough still down

10 Jan 2023 Rockhampton City Council

NSW → QLD Road Trip 2022–23

Charging up at the RACQ Chargefox charger in Rockhampton, Queensland. We couldn’t charge in Marlborough, because that charger is still faulted, listed in the Chargefox app as waiting for parts until January 19, after being broken for a month!

I chatted with Bronwyn and Phil who (with two more of their family, not pictured) had driven their 2020 Model 3 from Brisbane to Mossman Gorge, currently on their way back. They said they had been caught at Marlborough, found the charger not working, and did not have enough charge to get to the next one. It’s a really long stretch out there – even the petrol stations have signs warning “99km to next petrol”, but the gap for EVs is more than twice that. So, they asked at the Marlborough Service Station if they could just plug into the mains supply for a slow charge, to which they said “Sure. We have an open kitchen”. We joked that maybe they broke the charger to increase food patronage 😉. But seriously, thank you for allowing the slow charge 😇.

They had to charge for SIX HOURS to have enough to get to the next charger. RACQ and Chargefox and Mark Bailey MP this is essential infrastructure. If it’s not working, travellers can be marooned. It’s not okay to be in a position where you are “waiting for parts”. You need to have everything needed on hand for repairs, when needed. And more than one DC charger or location.

Bronwyn also suggested that taking one of the indigenous led tours of Mossman Gorge makes the visit there more worthwhile. I’ll remember that for next time.

28 comments

Maton Bass via Facebook ↗ 11 Jan 2023

It’s a shame to hear more stories of the failed QESH government funded project.

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Ken Ng via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023

Did the entire QESH project fail just because of delayed delivery of parts over Xmas? Or is this a teething issue in a statewide roll out of EV chargers?

It's a new technology rolling out to the masses with large capex and unknown ROI. Reliability and availability will come when people figure how to make money off the chargers.

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1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au 13 Jan 2023
  
  Good questions. Locals tell me that these chargers have been around for years, but after the hype and headline passed for installing them, they don't seem to be a priority to keep running. RACQ told me that they're waiting for parts from the supplier. I cannot fathom how essential infrastructure does not have parts on hand. If the governments took credit for installing them, then surely they must take responsibility for maintaining them, hey Mark Bailey MP and Chris Bowen MP? With great power comes great responsibility.
  
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  1. Ken Ng via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Tesla Tripping to me it sounds like a issue relating to service level agreement (% uptime, response time, spare parts, repair timeframes, etc) and penalties.
    
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  2. Ken Ng via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Just wondering: are the petrol stations operating on a franchise system?
    
    I reckon there would be a SLA involved? How does the SLA look like?
    
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Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023

These BEVs sound like they should be only driven with a 100km radius so $100k is a lot for such an inconvenient vehicle

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1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au 13 Jan 2023
  
  Neale Gray Both those stats are completely incorrect.
  
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  1. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Tesla Tripping it is very accurate if you read the terrible experience of the author
    
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  2. Robert Arrowsmith via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Neale Gray but my $50k car can travel 200km. Weird huh.
    
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  3. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au 13 Jan 2023
    
    I am the author 😆.
    
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  4. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Tesla Tripping yes I was surprised at the honesty of how bad the trip was most early tsla owners are also investors so they avoid the reality to slow the investment losses
    
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2. Ray Virta via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
  
  No surprise that Tesla got over 50% of the NSW government subsidised charger contracts?
  Maybe QLD should be looking at the money invested in unreliable supply and maintenance networks and do some numbers regarding the Tesla supercharger network downtime in the last 10 years?
  I'm still happy to fork out the extra cost of using a reliable service.
  
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Thomas Brady via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023

The best solution to this ongoing problem is to have minimum 2 DC and 2 AC chargers at each location for redundancy.

Went to charge this afternoon where there is only 1 DC charger and was a Tesla Model 3 charging, then a Hyundai Ioniq, now another Tesla Model 3.

Thankfully 2 out of 3 of them checked in on PlugShare so I’ll just go back later.

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1. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
  
  Thomas Brady better to pay a realistic $3 per kw else chargers cannot be maintained, passenger ev seems to be a very expensive and inconvenient option.
  
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  1. Thomas Brady via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Neale Gray local one is still free that’s why it’s so popular
    
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  2. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Thomas Brady that's why there is no maintenance and no service for chargers. $3 per kw for maintenance included
    
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  3. Thomas Brady via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Neale Gray your just butt hurt cause fuel costs so much.
    
    Most of our charging is done at home from solar and costs 9c/kWh in lost exports it’s basically free.
    
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  4. Thomas Brady via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Was actually taking to a local electrician the other day that has been doing maintenance on the chargers was an interesting chat, so they are not going with out maintenance.
    
    Like many things parts shortages and labour shortage is meaning things are marking everything take longer.
    
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  5. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Thomas Brady there will be many aus families that face financial disaster from BEV purchase, soon $3 per kw and $0.40 per kw road tax, BEV is perhaps the most expensive and inconvenient energy source available, you have to remove the green wash coating to see the real costs.
    
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  6. Thomas Brady via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    most people’s charging is still done from home, with a solar system that costs around 9c/kWh or $1.35 per 100km
    
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  7. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Thomas Brady do the math, there is nothing being charge for maintenance because after the greenwash promotion "that we are doing something" the idea is just a poorly thought out plan.
    
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  8. Gay Ryan via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Neale Gray wtf??
    
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2. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
  
  Thomas Brady most people being a miserly 3% of the population that live in houses with spare carport, big roof for large solar array, about 80k for battery system, is that most people???
  
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  1. Thomas Brady via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Neale Gray you don’t need a home battery, just one sunny day a week that you can plug in.
    
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  2. Neale Gray via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Thomas Brady so even more inconvience as now I have to watch the weather and be home on sunny days if I want my $100k personal transport to function. BEV fail
    
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  3. Thomas Brady via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023
    
    Neale Gray for some one that sells charging stations and EV conversion kits you sure are negative towards affordable public charging, butt hurt much? Can’t compete?
    
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Brandt Campbell via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023

Im starting to wonder if Tritium is owned by an oil company as an excercise to make EVs look bad 😪

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Brandt Campbell via Facebook ↗ 13 Jan 2023

We have a similar key Tritium in our state (Campbell Town, Tas) thats been waiting to be fixed litterally months. A competition's charger was installed 50k down the road and all of a sudden the Tritium is fixed 🤨 We simply need more competition in the charging market.

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