In yesterday’s article I responded to an uninformed claim that short-range electric vehicles have no place in the current 2019 market. Today I’ll be taking you on an electron-powered adventure into the New South Wales Southern Highlands to appreciate an unconventional travel experience unlike any other.

When I decided to head out for the journey, it was very much a spur of the moment decision. Owning an electric vehicle, one might say, is not conducive to last minute travel plans, considering the considerable charging times of the traction battery (the large floor mounted array of batteries that provide energy for propulsion). Nevertheless, I decided to go.

The Sustainable Buildings Research Centre and Surrounds.

Living so close to Wollongong’s Innovation Campus means I have access to fifty grand’s worth of charging power for free. I discussed this briefly yesterday, but it is worth repeating that despite my efforts, I could not find a single news article on the internet regarding the addition of such a vital piece of infrastructure in the Illawarra region. When it was installed (sometime before May 2017, I know this because I started using the facility at this time), the Tritium 50kW DC Fast charger was only the second fast charger in the entire state.

While the vehicle was charging, I thought I’d head across to the Illawarra Flame House, just 100m away from the charging station. The entire house comprised the University of Wollongong’s entry into the 2013 Solar Decathlon. They collapsed the house and shipped it across to China for the competition. The hard work and dedication of the team secured them first place among the world’s top competitors vying to produce exceptional technologies and modes of thinking to spur the commercial world into sustainable ways of living.

Walk up to the house and surrounds to view it in it’s solar-powered splendour and read about the team’s journey on a signposted timeline of events.

To stay in the Illawarra Flame house, book here or contact the university at [email protected] or phone +612 42213351. The cost is $AUD 120 per night with a minimum of three nights stay.

You mentioned that Tritium charger, but ”What the hell’s a gigawatt kilowatt?”

Kilowatts are a measure of electrical power. It means the charger is capable of pushing through 50kW of electrical energy into a battery. More useful is the term kilowatt hour. This is the equivalent of how many litres of fuel a gas guzzler can carry in its tank. A low range EV like the iMiEV has a relatively tiny capacity of just 16kWh, allowing a travel distance of anywhere from 70km to 140km depending on terrain, whereas the newly released Korean Hyundai Ioniq electric has a capacity of 38kWh, more than double that of it’s tiny Japanese counterpart. After an hour of charging, a 50kW direct-current fast charger can add up to 50kWh of charge to a battery, slowing progressively as it adds charge. The low down is that for most new EVs today, you’ll get from zero to 80% of your batteries juiced up in about 25 minutes.

As I needed to shower and get my French lesson for the day complete before I left, I topped up the remaining bar at home to reach approximately 107km of range, based on my previous driving.

The facilities within SBRC.

A small model of the Illawarra Flame House gives a great view of the rooftop solar powering the building as well as the surrounding landscaping.

I made my way into the building to use the toilet located on the ground floor and to view some of the interesting models and technical designs that are displayed for the public. It is open from about 8.30am – 5pm Monday to Friday. There are some comfortable seats around, so if you'd prefer to bring a book or your portable gaming device into the facility while you wait for your vehicle to charge, it is an option.

Heading up Macquarie Pass to the popular fast charger in Mittagong.

Electric vehicle drivers have a love-hate relationship with mountainous regions. On your way up, you’ll see the battery indicator bars dropping off until you notice yourself pleading with the car to stop tormenting you. On your way down however, you’ll be wearing the biggest grin ever as the regenerative braking system reverses the function of the electric motor into an electric generator pumping power back into the battery increasing range the further you go downhill. “Self-charging”, eh Toyota?

If you haven’t seen Toyota’s latest deceptive advertising stunt for their hybrid vehicles claiming they self-charge, do yourself a favour and ignore them. They propel themselves using petrol, just slightly less than non-hybrid vehicles.

For those who are curious, here's a link to Bobby Llewellyn from Fully Charged ranting about "self-charging" hybrids.

The drive from Wollongong up into the Southern Highlands is gorgeous.

I’ve done this drive enough times now to know if I don’t drive erratically, I’ll get to Mittagong with two or three bars remaining. My goal was to enjoy the scenery within the serenity of an electric vehicle. Luckily, there were few cars heading up the mountain and on the narrow back roads I take toward Mittagong, so I wasn't pressured to drive quickly.

If you’re heading up this way, when you near the top of the pass, take the right turn off onto Tourist Road.

About ten minutes before I arrived at Mittagong, there’s a gorgeous little stretch of road that meanders up and down and weaves around some acreage providing access to a yellowing autumn vista. The owners of many of the properties in this area have provided the rest of us some gorgeous hedging to admire at no expense to us. Thank you, lovelies!

Yellow-tipped conifers at a bend in the road provide a gorgeous backdrop to the iMiEV.

The Mittagong Charger.

Comfortably arriving in Mittagong, the iMiEV had three bars remaining and an indicated 19km of range left. I have recently been in communication with another EV driver through the PlugShare app who had just bought an Ioniq electric. His range allowed him to travel all the way down from Sydney to the ski slopes in the Perisher Valley (currently out of my range). I recall him telling me of a fleeting feeling of range anxiety as he too, finished his journey with 19km of range left. As an EV owner, we all have to adopt a different approach to range. While your journeys do focus on the next charger in the case of a low-range EV, that shouldn’t detract from your experience. You only need to get there. Having any range left is a bonus. And nineteen kilometres is actually a fair distance, even in a country who claims its sparseness. We aren’t talking outback Australia, here. We are talking just beyond Sydney. It really isn’t a big deal.

The location of Mittagong’s fast charger is smack bang in the middle of town within the RSL club’s carpark. It forces you to “Stop. Revive. Survive” – the police mantra to reduce fatigue-related road fatalities. The key is to stay relatively near the car until it approaches 80% charge. In the iMiEV’s case, despite selecting the “charge to 100%” button, it automatically stops at 80%. In this case, I just reconnect, press start again and it will top it right up for me. Many people stop in for a coffee or a meal at the club. I’m not a huge fan of club meals as many don’t offer vegan options. I prefer to take a book or go for a walk instead.

After strolling up toward the train station, I noticed this beauty. A Porsche from yesteryear is a special sight. This prime example of a (roughly 1960) 356 SC made me smile. My first car was a Porsche 944. A far cry from a 356, but sexy nevertheless.

Look at the ventilation grills! I can only imagine the wealth needed to procure a car of this vintage, then or now.

The drive into Morton National Park: Gambells Rest.

Source: NPWS NSW

Gambells Rest is a popular camping location within the Southern Highlands as it gives visitors access to gorgeous scenic walking tracks and inspiring views out over Fairy Bower Falls. Just a short drive from the campsite, you can visit Glow Worm Glen or head out to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Visitor Centre at Fitzroy Falls.

Given a night’s stay, I would certainly venture out and do some exploring, but my primary goal was to make my mark on the PlugShare app for this particular location. See, in June 2018, while our car was being repaired due to the inability of an elderly driver to discern the difference between R and D on the gear shift lever in a parking lot, we were given a petrol banger rental to use while the iMiEV was in the shop. I took the Corolla up to Gambells Rest along with my charger after preliminary investigations and enquiries with the NPWS alerted me to the fact they had electrical outlets under their cooking shelter. At the time of enquiry, it had been some time since I’d been out there and I couldn’t recall if there was power or not and the last thing I wanted to do was head out only to find I was out of luck. The NPWS told me that the electricity was suitable for phones and hair dryers. I decided it could theoretically be used to charge my car. When I arrived last year, I was delighted to see not one, but four outlets.

I plugged the charger in to see if the green “ready” light blinked on. Success!

The 2018 incident, which led to my investigation of the electrical outlets available at Gambells rest.

Fast forward to current events, and it was finally time to suck some juice and put this outlet to work. Of course, there were no claims anywhere that the electricity came from a renewable source nor did it have to. The mere fact I was using electricity to power my car means that CO2 emissions per kilometre are halved simply by using coal over petrol due to manufacturing and travel related emissions before a single drop of the final product is even burned. Think of all the electricity that is used to transport and refine crude oil from vast distances. Even in the worst case for an EV where coal is used to generate electricity, it is still cleaner than petrol and light years ahead of diesel. Plus, in this instance it was also free.

To the left, right and behind the shelter there were at least ten campers with families. The ground is very hard and camping with a tent on such a hard surface isn't my idea of fun. When I stayed here with my cousin way back in about 2007, we camped adjacent to the toilets on the grass. It isn't allowed but no one was there to tell us otherwise.

Thankfully, the shelter is before the sign that says you must pay for parking within the National Park (park use fees). And because I was not staying for the night and occupying a camp space, I also didn’t need to pay a camp fee. The only thing I was concerned with was the potential visitation of a park ranger out to the site. Having a ranger ask me to unplug would certainly have dampened my spirits. However, if I felt I needed it, a quick pit stop back in Mittagong for 15 minutes would have been plenty to get me home.

After plugging in and charging up for an hour and twenty minutes, I recouped much of the energy it took me to drive the 32km out from Mittagong to the campground.

If I were staying here overnight, I’d have no concerns about driving with a bit more zip along the encouraging rural roads and driving out to some of the other lookouts. A full charge only takes the small traction battery about 4-5 hours using a 240 volt household plug, which is certainly achievable while you sleep, or have lunch and a bushwalk. In this instance, I took the Trangia cooking stove, made some green tea and read comics.

A quick example of how to maximise your day with an EV at Gambells Rest.

1. Wake up early with a full charge. Drive out to a boutique café for breakfast (try the Raw and Wild Market Café in Bowral). [Around 65km in total.]

2. Head back to the campsite, plugging in. Chill out, read a book and have a cup of tea for an hour before heading out with a packed lunch for a bushwalk. Since plugging in, it’s likely been 3 hours or so.

3. Head out again for a stroll around Bundanoon or Exeter Village. There’s a pizza place there that I’m sure isn’t half bad (although, I’ll confess I’ve never been).

4. Head back to camp and plug in during the evening. If you’re lucky, the battery will have topped up to 100% before bedtime, if not, leave on overnight. It stops when it needs to.

5. Next day and you’re back up to 100%. So what’s the deal?

The alternative is just chill out at Gambells rest for the whole day or two. There’s more than enough space to stretch and all the driving and additional expensive meals sort of detract from the camping experience. Heading out to Fitzroy Falls would be worth it as a replacement to a drive back into Bowral, though!

Time to head home.

While my range-o-meter confidently told me I had 115km before I was in trouble, it wasn’t long before the 100km/h zones heading towards Robertson accompanied by a few uphill jaunts reduced my range to startling levels. At one point, Google maps told me I had 50km until I was home and my car was telling me I had 51km of range. Even for me, that’s close. However, I had an ace card in my hand. Macquarie Pass. At an elevation of 622m, the downhill run added electrons into my batteries despite adding another 10km to my odometer. As my distance to destination dropped to 35km, my range until empty catapulted up to 70km. Once at the bottom of the mountain, my confidence levels were high and my foot was itching to unleash some EV torque. I planted my foot to the floor and the tiny 47kW (63 brake horsepower) watermelon-sized motor whistled to life, much like George Jetson’s flying car. Understand that this little car is limited to 130km/h, but it handles brilliantly given its low centre of gravity and the position of the wheels on each corner of the car. Upon returning to the motorway, I resumed highway speeds (and beyond) to claim victory as I nipped past petrol-heads returning home from work.

Can you have fun and explore Wollongong and surrounds in a low-range EV?

Absolutely!

Every experience you have comes with a set of expectations. If you hit the road on a motorcycle, prepare for bugs. If you prefer international travel, start saving. If you’re a four-wheel drive nut, fit those beefy tyres and stock up on the jerry cans. And if you’re a Porsche 356 owner, cough up the insurance money and repair costs.

None of the travel and motoring enthusiasts above begrudge the fact they’re going to get bugs in their teeth or a flat tyre. As an EV owner, I embrace the pit stops and the opportunities to share my experiences with those who’ve never seen one before, after all, short-range electric vehicle ownership should be viewed through a lens of possibilities, not limitations.

Become a Patron here.

As you all know, none of this gets paid for aside from your generous upvotes. I have created a Patreon account to fund the publishing of my manuscript, but all Patrons will gain access to a range of exclusive benefits including early access to Steemit content. If you like what I do here and could spare as little as a couple of bucks a month, it would make the world of difference to me to keep bringing you my best work, week in, week out.

All the best,

Nick.

All content is original and belongs to @nickmorphew [29 April 2019].

Disclosure: This article was not a paid promotion and was not self-upvoted. Nor were there any affiliate links.

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I’m currently working on my debut fantasy novel based on my early work, Adventures in Elowyn Glade. Click the link to get an idea of where my first novel is headed!

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You didn’t think you’d leave here without me shamelessly plugging my other work, right?

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