Tuesday 14 June 2022 08:31 AM Electric car owner struggles to charge on road trip between Sydney and Canberra ... trends now
An electric vehicle owner has shared the brutal reality of going on a roadtrip in his $72,000 car - taking a full day to drive from Sydney to Canberra and back again after repeatedly struggling to find spots to charge it.
A video posted to TikTok by user Suthocam on June 10 showed the issues EV drivers who do not have access to the Tesla supercharging network face.
Suthocam detailed his charging port debacle after a Sydney to Canberra round trip in a Hyundai IONIQ 5 using only third party chargers.
'The car itself is a great road trip vehicle - it's super spacious, great seats, great speakers and has a cool big sunroof,' Suthocam said.
Suthocam said the $71,900 vehicle, with an estimated range of 450km, was able to make the trip to Canberra in one charge but he decided to give it a top-up which would allow him to drive the car around the city once there.
His first stop was a charging station in Goulburn, 196km from Sydney, where the only available port was out-of-order.
The NRMA ChargeFox charger screen notified the driver that the 'station had faulted' and had not been fixed since the beginning of the year despite an 'estimated' repair date of January 14.
Suthocam waited until a working charger became available and then had to park halfway in a disabled parking spot for the cord to reach his car's battery - a scene he described as 'just a bit sketchy'.
An electric car driver shared his charging station ordeal, which included parking his vehicle halfway in a disabled car spot for the cord to reach his car's battery (pictured), on a road trip from Sydney to Canberra
'Once we got going again we made it... so worth it,' Suthocam said.
'It was pretty in Canberra but we had to get back on the road so we had to go find some chargers.'
The first charger the EV driver found was located in a carpark and did not work.
The Tesla wall chargers did not work with his Hyundai and the other chargers that did work were often taken up by other cars.
'Finally we found a free charger (in an Ikea carpark) in what felt like a really long time but it was super slow,' Suthocam said.
'I didn't want to wait four hours to get 100 per cent so I had to find a fast charger.'
Suthocam drove to a third charging station but to his frustration it was blocked by a petrol ute.
He then drove to a fourth charging port but was unable to locate it despite it appearing on the car's map. He found a fifth, but it was being used by a Tesla.
