Feasibility Planning

It has taken me around 2 months to work out if my circumnavigation of Australia on only electric power is possible.

To be a proper circumnavigation, CN (Carpe Noctem, my trusty black steed) and I must visit Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Broome, Darwin and Townsville/Cairns. There have been others that have made the trip in an electric vehicle, but have used a portable generator. I have decided to make this journey purely on mains electric charge, without a generator.

Some limitations

• kms per charge is about 450
• faster driving, use of air-con and less aerodynamical (roof/windows open) means less mileage
• time to charge at a Tesla supercharger from empty to full is about 2 hours
• time to charge at a Tesla destination charger (shopping centres, hotels, etc) 8 to 10 hours
• time to charge at a wall point from empty to full is round 17-20 hours

My initial check for Tesla power was less than hopeful. There are 20 or so Tesla superchargers in Australia all but one (near Perth) are between Brisbane and Adelaide.

Even using Tesla destination chargers does not look terribly good. There are three major gaps, across the Nullabour, Broome to Darwin and Darwin to the east coast.

To give some perspective of CN’s 450 km range

• 907 km from the Gold Coast to Sydney, at least 2 full charges
• 982 km from Sydney to Melbourne
• 745 km from Melbourne to Adelaide
• Adelaide to Perth is a whopping 2,694 km
• 2,229 km Perth to Broome
• 1,868 m Broome to Darwin
• 2,763 km Darwin to Cairns, even more than across the Nullabour!
• 1,838 km Cairns to the Gold Coast

This all means we (CN and I) will have to rely on accommodation for me and CN to recharge. With 20+ hours of charge required, we will have to stay in some remote spots for at least 2 nights.

Another decision is clockwise or anti-clockwise. Anti-clockwise means it is likely there will be more left turns than right. Also, someone told me it could mean as much as 300km less distance. Anti-clockwise it is then.

After hours of research I have a very preliminary plan.

  * using supercharger

There are four days which may not be possible

Tennant Creek to Mataranka           465 km

Katherine to Kununurra                    515 km

Fitzroy Crossing to Broome             461km

Ceduna to Port Augusta                   465 km

Gee, I’m forced do some driving to check possible mileage. Oh well, someone has to have all the fun!