Opinion
The first thing to know about taking an EV on a family camping holiday – loaded up with kids, tents, eskies, camping gear strapped to the roof racks, and a fully laden trailer – is that you’d best be prepared.
Once I left the charging cable at home, assuming the public charger at our bush camping site would have a cable attached. It did not. We limped home days later on 6 per cent battery; hearts in mouths and windows down, air-conditioning firmly switched off.
But if you’re prepared, it’s not just possible to take an electric vehicle camping for eight nights – it’s actually fun. You just have to change the way you do things.
For the past three years, my family has joined a convoy of friends from Melbourne to a sleepy hollow (calling it a town would be overstating it) in south Gippsland for a week-long camping trip.
The first year was straightforward – our Volvo tank of a family wagon ran on diesel, and we powered down the highways with no need to refuel.
But our 10-year-old Volvo wasn’t just expensive to run, it was threatening to get very expensive – and soon. A growing catch and delay in the gears foreshadowed looming transmission issues. We agreed it was time to make a change.
Once we added the cost of loan repayments, diesel, insurance, repairs and upkeep, it was marginally cheaper to get a brand-new electric vehicle on a novated lease than to keep the gas guzzler. And so, the future beckoned.
For the past two years, our family has been the only contingent among our annual camping crew of a dozen families to arrive in an EV.
Figures released this week by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen show we might not be the only ones for long.
The sale of new EVs has almost tripled in the past three years to 13.1 per cent of new cars sold in 2025, helping to drive down the carbon emissions of the transport sector for the first time since COVID lockdowns forced people to stay indoors.
Remember the political brawl sparked over EVs in 2019, when former prime minister Scott Morrison claimed then-opposition leader Bill Shorten might “end the weekend” by wanting EVs to comprise 50 per cent of new car sales by 2030?
“I’ll tell you what – it’s not going to tow your trailer. It’s not going to tow your boat. It’s not going to get you out to your favourite camping spot with your family,” Morrison declared.
“Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend when it comes to his policy on electric vehicles where you’ve got Australians who love being out there in their four-wheel drives.”
Dear reader, I’m here to tell you that your weekend (or camping trip, for that matter) is safe with an EV.
It’s true that some things have changed. Gone are the sticky vinyl seats and swelteringly stuffy back seats of my childhood, when “are we there yet?” was less a cry for directions than a cry for help from an airless back seat.
EVs are quiet, comfortable and fast. Some, like ours, even come with a built-in fart-gag function to amuse children on long trips (less so their parents).
Even so, just as when Morrison was sounding the alarm on EVs, the main thing that consumes electric vehicle drivers’ minds is range.
Tesla says its 2024 Model Y – the model we drive – offers an estimated range of 455 kilometres to 466 kilometres before the battery runs flat.
This is probably true in city conditions when stop-start braking engages the regenerative battery. I suspect we got less than half that distance on the open road, weighed down by a loaded boot and roof racks, towing a heavy trailer and running the air-conditioning.
The weather being really hot, or really cold, also seems to affect battery performance.
Our maps app predicted our 200-kilometre journey would take us 3½ hours. It took more like five, but largely because we resolved not to push our range anxiety too far after my previous heart-in-mouth experience driving a near-flat car back to the city.
When we arrived at our first stop, 120 kilometres from home, the car – which had been on 100 per cent battery when we left – was on 30 per cent. We disengaged the trailer, plugged the car in, and went to find the closest bakery. So far, so good.
Once we got to the camping site, charging was a doddle. With powered sites all around, options for trickle charging overnight were everywhere.
On the road, too, public charging facilities were noticeably more plentiful than we remembered from last year.
As far as distances go, our trip wasn’t a patch on my colleague James Massola’s almost 4700-kilometre odyssey from Sydney to Perth, but we shared some of his frustrations – particularly when connecting to public chargers.
Most of the regional charging stations we encountered offered both CCS2 (Combined Charging System 2) connectors – the most common fast-charging connector for EVs in Australia – and CHAdeMO, a Japanese-designed connector.
For some bizarre reason, there was regularly just one of each connector attached to the stations, despite the fact CCS2 is the standard connection in Australia. As a result, we found ourselves waiting around for our turn to charge, while the CHAdeMO connector was covered in dust and cobwebs.
At these stops, we shrugged and went into town to find a bakery, or an op shop to pick up pre-loved books for the next leg of the journey.
For all the mental space taken up by range anxiety, driving an EV forces you to take it slow, and enjoy the journey.
Bianca Hall is The Age’s environment and climate reporter, and has worked in a range of roles including as a senior writer, city editor, and in the federal politics bureau in Canberra.Connect via X, Facebook or email.From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
