dnotion
When Sydneysiders Bernard Lagan and Jane Nicholls decided to buy their first EV, the plan wasn’t to pick it up in Tasmania.
But a Launceston dealership offered a decent trade-in on their six-year-old petrol Renault Megane GT Line and a great EOFY deal on a new Renault Megane E-Tech, thousands below mainland prices. Now to get the old ICE car there and the new electric car home.
This is their story, as written by Bernard and Jane.
Bern: The anxiety kicked in weeks before we were to collect our first EV in Launceston to drive it more than 1000km home to Sydney. At least it wouldn’t use any battery as it crossed the 400km or so of Bass Strait, neatly tucked into a prime position for EVs aboard the Spirit of Tasmania.
I knew from reading European reviews that the Renault Megane E-Tech’s claimed 454km of range was a pipe dream on a trip such as this, but what range could we realistically expect?
It was an adventure of unknowns. The only EV I’d ever driven was a Tesla Y rental, also in Tasmania. We’d never sighted any other Renault Megane E-Techs in the wild, much less driven one.
What would the range be like at 110 km/h on the Hume Highway from Melbourne to Sydney? In a car I knew Jane would want to load up with Tasmanian wine, cider and potatoes, and without the re-charge benefits of frequent regenerative braking we could hope for around town? No idea, really.
Jane: On a conservative estimate, Bern had read or watched 57 reviews of the Renault Megane E-Tech and every time I opened my email there’d be another link about its cool tech. I was more focused on how we were going to keep the thing powered up.
My EV naivete was such that I also thought charging would be mostly free or a few dollars at most. Before we left for Tasmania, Bern made a document with notes on distances between chargers on our route home, we each had multiple EV charging apps on our phones (PlugShare, Chargefox, Evie, BP Pulse, Tesla and NRMA) and we’d acquired a small pile of EV RFID charging cards (Chargefox, Evie, BP Pulse).
Bern: The drive was also a farewell to our 2018 petrol Megane, a nimble, compact 1.2-litre turbo that had strongly influenced the decision to trade it for Renault’s electric replacement. (That and our shared unease with Elon Musk’s politics, even if Teslas are cool.)
We made the 595km from Sydney to Beechworth in Victoria on one full tank of petrol ($77.43). The next morning, it cost $91.53 to juice it up just outside Beechworth for the short hop to Geelong and the Spirit of Tasmania ferry overnight crossing to Devonport.
Jane: Our shiny white Renault Megane E-Tech was warm and fully charged in the Launceston showroom. The deal had been done on the other side of last financial year but the salesman Joe theatrically pulled off a red shroud for the big reveal. Our first sight of an E-Tech in person!
Bern had watched all those reviews in their entirety. I’d focused on the parts about charging it, and Joe showed us its cable. We gave a last pat to our old Renault, parked on the street outside the dealership with half a tank or so from its final fill with us.
Bern: After Joe ran us through the key points of the E-Tech’s system we waved goodbye and eased it out of the showroom and onto the street. I was of course happy that Jane didn’t want to be the first to drive it.
However, I wasn’t expecting her to take us off-road almost immediately! She wanted to visit Holm Oak Vineyard and we soon found ourselves on a rough dirt track deep in the Tamar Valley. It was an early test of our nerve about the EV’s under-body clearance, but its oversized 20-inch wheels meant we were fine.
I am worried about the lack of a spare wheel and am already campaigning to buy a spare-wheel kit, which is pricey (but will seem like a bargain if we get a flat in some tiny town).
Jane enjoyed her guided wine-tasting flight while I had a Strangelove soda. I was starting to see the method in her “no, you drive” madness as I loaded up the nice deep boot with a case of wine.
Jane: I’d booked the new Novotel in Devonport for our single night on the Apple Isle, knowing it had EV chargers. The E-Tech was taken by a valet for its first top-up of electrons from one of the hotel’s two 7kW chargers. They’re free, though you do have to pay $25 for the parking. The chargers are in an open area of the carpark and Bern kept going to look at it like a newborn in a nursery.
The next morning, we took a 12km drive to the serene Tasmanian Arboretum, which claims 80 bird species can be found across its 66 hectares and that it’s the best place in Australia to find platypus in the wild. We joined a mum and her young sons in the platypus hide by the Founders Lake to see an astonishing number of platypus paddling and diving with their funny duckbills. Tassie never fails to deliver an awesome nature hit.
I kept letting Bern drive because I was genuinely a bit nervous about this whole regen braking caper … how jerky was that accelerator release going to be for a newbie?
Also, after the playful platypus I’d planned a tasting at Spreyton Cider Co on the way back to Devonport. After a fun tasting with Chris, we added a case of cider to the boot bounty. Bern was already fretting about the extra weight and the battery and the reduced range.
Was this going to be our life now – would I need to do my grocery shopping in doll-house quantities? Could I never even offer a mate a lift lest they drain my battery?
At Devonport’s chichi Hill St Grocer, I was permitted a 1.5kg bag of apples and a few potatoes rather than an entire sack, foiling my plan to load up the car with Tasmanian goodies as I’d done on two previous trips across on the ferry in my good old petrol Renault. It had never once baulked at the load, nor complained about its boot being a permanent mobile locker for swimming and snorkelling paraphernalia. Was the E-Tech up for that?
Back in Devonport, PlugShare had shown us there was a 50kW fast charger in the multi-storey car park near the Paranaple Arts Centre. It was our first time feeding the newborn ourselves but we managed to plug it in and while I couldn’t get our Chargefox RFID card to read, I waved my ApplePay and it sprang to life.
The battery, by the way, was barely depleted – we left it on charge while we ducked into view the art exhibition next door and the sum total was $4.15, paid to Jet Charge. When we boarded the Spirit of Tasmania a few hours later, the battery was showing a husband-mollifying 99 per cent.
Bern: Having come across to Tassie with the car deep in the bowels of the ship, we were directed along with all the other EVs to their own special section – pole position which made for a smugly rapid exit after we docked in Geelong.
Technically, we had just 246km to travel that day, to lunch in Ardmona with old friends. But Jane had plotted a somewhat more circuitous route on the Midland Highway via Ballarat and Bendigo, reasoning that we would miss the Melbourne traffic.
The car showed a range of about 350 km (presumably having adjusted to my newbie EV driving style), and the long way was about that, so we weren’t risking the journey without a charging stop.
Jane: Or two, as it turned out. We covered a measly 88km before – guided by my discoveries on the PlugShare app – Bern pleaded to stop in at the Shell Coles Express Evie chargers in Warrenheip, outside Ballarat, for a top-up, “just in case”. In case of what? An undiscovered mountain? An unforecast tempest? The little blue battery icon on the dashboard was still showing a healthy 70 per cent.
Our first Evie charger showed no recognition of the Evie RFID card, but a chap charging his Tesla at the other bay took pity on us and showed us how to start it from our Evie app, which I’d already set up with payment. On which note, at 0.73kWh we paid $13.59.
It was a cold morning but there was a loo and a passable coffee in the servo. I was realising that an EV road trip (at least for us) means never having to say you’re busting…
Bern: The car took around almost an hour to return the battery from 63 per cent to just over 90 per cent. It was allegedly a 350 kW fast charger, so the time surprised me since Renault claims the Megane E-Tech will charge from 15-80% in as little as 35 minutes using fast chargers.
As we lamented our miserable charge rate drop from 28kW to 16kW, a Mercedes SUV pulled in next to us and began charging at well over twice our pace.
Jane: That’s when we learned EV101 the hard way. Charging a full battery is like dripping treacle into a pipette. The Mercedes driver had snuck in with only 10 per cent charge, meaning the electrons were pouring into his battery at firehose rate.
We were slow learners. We could have easily made Ardmona, now only 223km away. But Bern’s range anxiety rose as the battery level dropped and we stopped again at a Tesla Supercharger (open to others) in Strath Village Shopping Centre in Kennington, on the outskirts of Bendigo. (Thanks again, PlugShare!) It was Saturday morning and while all the chargers were free when we arrived, they filled up as we over-filled our battery. Again.
Bonus: the shopping centre had nice clean loos, a Saturday paper and a piping-hot spinach mini quiche from George’s Bakehouse. Maybe stopping was growing on me. We took on another 20kWh of charge over 44 minutes for $0.72/kWh from the 125kW Tesla supercharger for $14.40.
Bern: We rolled up our friends’ driveway an hour later than planned, embarrassingly bloated with range. After lunch (over which we possibly talked about charging a little too much), he offered to lend us his diesel generator to strap on the roof for the rest of the trip. Ha ha.
Jane had chosen the hotel – Quality Hotel Parklake – on the basis that it had chargers in the carpark. A savvy business model. It was the first time we had to use our own cable and also had to break out another app she’d downloaded and set up in advance – this time SmartCharge. The Renault was the lone EV in the crowded car park and racked up $14.70 @ $0.40/kWh from the 22kW charger overnight.
Day two on the mainland was 510km to Canberra, much of it on the 110 km/h Hume Highway. I’d resolved to conquer our range anxiety. It didn’t last. After about 100km, I negotiated another charge.
Jane: I’d made the mistake of telling Bern there was a BP Pulse 75kW charger on the Hume at Glenrowan North. PlugShare for the win again. I’d also acquired a BP Pulse card and set up the app before we left Sydney, which made getting it going easy.
We arrived with 73 per cent and it took just 25 minutes to almost charge back up to 81 per cent, for a total of $4.17. There was time for a loo stop in the truck stop’s Maccas for me and perhaps a small burger for Bern.
I’d originally planned our next stop – the Tesla superchargers in the car park of the Albury Commercial Club – to be our first for the day, but after another 85km on the Hume aka M31, it was time for Sunday lunch. Another bouquet for PlugShare’s directions to find the 16 superchargers on level one.
Despite teasing Bern about his range jitters, it’s been decades since I’ve taken the time to stop for lunch in a country town. After a pretty good roast pork roll and a stroll around town while the Renault finishes charging, I’m coming to the conclusion that EVs might be saving us in more ways than the all-important emissions reduction. They’re making us – well me, at least – slow down. Also, the elation every time we successfully begin a charge is strangely fun.
Over 59 minutes, the Albury 250kW Tesla supercharger delivered 26 kWh for $.075/kWh, a total of $19.50.
Bern: We had by now confidence that the predicted range the E-Tech showed after each charge was pretty much bang on for the range we were getting (if I ever allowed us to explore that far).
We had wanted to arrive in Canberra in daylight but at Gundagai I insisted we get close to 100 per cent. Jane had been mellowing on the frequent charge stops but after an hour and two minutes on the NRMA/Chargefox charger outside the large Oliver’s restaurant, she was finding it a little less charming.
Especially when we realised we’d chosen a bowser (old habits die hard) that was a ‘fast charger’ and the one right next to it was labelled ‘ultra fast charger’. Hmmm.
It delivered 37.35kWh over that time for $22.40, less the NRMA Electric Highways discount of $2.24. We drove through a beautiful dusk down the Hume and crawled the last 50km along the Barton Highway lest a roo decided to surprise us.
Jane: The battery had around 40 per cent charge when we finally pulled into the driveway of the Mercure in Braddon. I love this sprawling, historic hotel at the foot of Mount Ainslie. It’s been my preferred place to stay in Canberra for a few years and I’d noticed the electric chargers in the car park when I was here a couple of months ago, so it ticked that new prerequisite box, too.
Another new app – Exploren – brought the total of EV apps to eight. This one I had to download and set up in the carpark. Again using our own cable on the tiny 7kW charger, we plugged in and the car sipped up 36.34kWh over the next 12 hours, for precisely $11.99.
The next morning, our newborn had its first icy windscreen when Bern unplugged it and moved it off the charger. We walked to the nearby Mount Ainslie Nature Reserve where there are always birds galore.
This morning more king parrots than I’ve ever seen together, along with sulphur-crested cockatoos and crimson and eastern rosellas and pied currawongs. The freezing morning also delivered a ‘lifer’: my first ever sighting of gang-gang cockatoos in the wild. Dozens of them were making their strange growling calls, the fiery-red fluffy crests of the males bouncing as they fed on the acacias. Heaven.
As we set out to drive 284km to the E-Tech’s forever home in Sydney’s inner west, I reflect that future journeys will include many more stops, and more time to revel in the nature that we too often whiz by.
A rowdy busload of high-schoolers heading to the snow was the only ‘nature’ to be found during the final 57-minute charge stop at the Evie charger behind the Maccas at Sutton Forest (27.021kWh for a total of $19.73), but even they brought back fond memories.
Bern: What have we learned? The first is that Melbourne to Sydney is pretty much a breeze in an EV (yes, others said that before, now I’m a believer). Second, that I can trust the car’s range estimator and don’t need to juice up quite so often and lastly, that we love our first EV.
With regenerative braking set to full, the E-Tech’s range around Sydney has been surprisingly hearty. We’re easily surviving on a home trickle charger. And the car’s brisk, quiet acceleration – several motoring sites have clocked the 100 kmh dash at 6.9 seconds, besting Renault’s claimed 7.4 – makes for a fun ride.
After almost a month running around Sydney where Teslas abound, we’re yet to see another Megane E-Tech. Judging by the attention the car gets, few people have. That may be a bad omen, but I’m working on my anxiety.
Total charging costs on a circuitous route from Launceston to Sydney: $122.39 (plus $25 valet parking in Devonport for the ‘free’ charging)
Bernard Lagan is Australasian correspondent for The Times (UK) and Jane Nicholls freelances for Qantas magazine, The Weekend Australian, CSIRO and others. They live in Sydney with two adult daughters, two dogs and two cars. They remain married after the epic EV trip.
