There are many fast chargers allowing open access to all brands or electric cars between Sydney, Canberra, Albury and Melbourne on the inland route.
I’ve used many of them and these are my thoughts about which fast charger locations I recommend for use during road trips with modern electric cars that have decent peak charging rates of at least 100kW.
There are also quite a few 50kW electric car chargers along the way but I don’t recommend these unless you are not in a rush as they will literally take an hour to add 50kWh to your battery, plus any time waiting for someone else to finish and leave.
Similarly 75kW locations are only recommended if you’re the only one using them. If 2 cars are plugged into the one 75kW charger you’ll both get only half the charge rate which is quite slow. Hopefully BP Pulse upgrades their 75kW locations to 150kW ones ASAP.
Note: if your electric car is only capable of peak DC fast charging charging speed of much less than 100kW eg: MG ZS EV, BYD Dolphin, Hyundai Kona 2021, Kia Niro EV 2022, BYD ATTO 3 … then you’ll get similar DC charging speed regardless of whether the charger you’re using is 50/75/150/350kW.
Tesla Campbelltown Catholic Club
This location has 12 x 250Kw CCS 2 charging bays so there’s lots of capacity and plenty of speed but that’s balanced by a high price of 0.85c/kW. Tesla lowers the price if you have a charging subscription with them.
For this reason I only recommend this location if you don’t care about the cost or don’t have any other options because other nearby chargers are broken, have long queues or you only have a few % of battery left.
Photos below are courtesy of Evan who has previously written an owners review of his Volvo XC40 Recharge 2022 on Electrifying Everything.
Evie Mittagong HomeCo and NRMA Mittagong RSL Club
Both of these locations are quite close to each other, have 4 charger bays each and a top charge rate of 150kW if you’re not sharing the charger with another car.
This choice between two 4 bay charging sites run by different charging network companies makes Mittagong a great place to stop South of Sydney to recharge your car.
The HomeCo Highlands shopping centre where the Evie chargers are located has some useful shops for a road trip including Subway for meals and Super Cheap Auto where I bought a spanner set on sale.
There are good toilet facilities 50m away next to Beacon Lighting.
There is also a nice new NRMA 4 bay charging stop quite nearby at RSL Mittagong where you could stop and have a proper sit down meal and use the toilet facilities at the RSL if you wanted to.
I was the first member of the public to use this charger.
Mittagong RSL requires non-members to scan their ID at entry in order to be able to use facilities like toilets or buy food. This is a pretty standard entry requirement for registered clubs.
The NRMA Mittagong Boost Charger 150 supports up to 150 kW output, only needs a 27 kW grid connection and has a 160 kWh battery capacity.
That means it trickle charges itself all day and night @ 27kW rate. If the battery has enough remaining capacity and you’re the only one using it with a modern fast charging EV capable of 150kW+ charging then you’ll get the top speed.
Worst case scenario if the charging site is very busy eg: hypothetically on Christmas Eve lots of EVs have recently used the charger which has depleting the battery, then you’ll get a minimum 27kW charge rate, which is what the unit is trickle charged at from the grid.
Ampol Pheasants Nest North and South
These twin sites on either side of the Hume highway each have Italian made Alpitronics HyperChargers with 6 EV charging bays (6 CCS 2 cables + 3 CHAdeMO cables).
This means 6 modern EV’s using CCS 2 ports can charge fast at the same time if no Nissan Leafs are using the CHAdeMO cables.
Chargers are under artistic partial shade structures which you can hide under if it’s raining, covered with solar panels that provide some of the necessary power for the site.
There are very good new, clean toilet facilities and lots of food outlets with a mix of fast food, proper meals etc depending on what you want.
There is a big risk of ICEing at this location as Ampol has placed the charging site right in front of the Foodary entrance. When I visited with a Kia Niro EV I was testing, two out of six charging bays had petrol cars parked there for quite some time.
There were no signs in the EV charging bays I could see with parking rules. Each charging bay surface says “
AMPOL AMPCHARGE” . There’s no clear sign saying “Only for Electric Vehicle charging”.
NRMA Chargefox Goulburn and Evie Sutton Forest
Until recently these were the most popular stops before Sydney going North as well as South of Sydney for those going on long drives, as both had 4 chargers as well as fast food restaurants and decent toilet facilities.
Of the two Evie Sutton Forest is the nicer location with newer 4x 350kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo chargers, plus fast food and toilet facilities within metres.
In comparison Chargefox Goulburn is in an ugly back corner behind a service station next to a return and earn bottles and cans recycling area. It’s mixture of dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo 350kW and 50kW chargers are getting old and so are broken down more often.
You can watch a video below of me charging a Hyundai Ioniq 5 Dynamiq at Evie Sutton Forest.
ENGIE Chargefox Royal Australian Mint and Tesla South Point Tuggeranong
These 2 charger locations are relevant if your trip begins, ends or passes through the ACT / Canberra.
ACT residents and tourists driving non Tesla electric cars didn’t have many options for properly fast chargers until August 2023 when Engie/Chargefox activated 6 charging plugs at the Royal Australian Mint and Tesla opened up their South Point Tuggeranong location for non Tesla’s.
Five of the Royal Australian Mint chargers are CCS 2 usable by the vast majority of Australian EV’s and One is CHAdeMo which will probably be only used by Nissan Leafs and EV’s imported from Japan.
Thanks to BMW iX1 2023 owner Brent and his doggo 🙂 for sending me great photos of the Royal Australian Mint chargers and pointing out a clever observation:
“The chargers look like they are dynamic depending on the available capacity – when I arrived they said 75kW, and at the end they said 150k”.
Tesla South Point Tuggeranong has six CCS 2 Tesla 250kW superchargers which are as usual more expensive than other charging networks but it’s still good they’re available as an option if the Royal Australian Mint options are all busy/broken.
Together across Chargefox and Tesla charging networks the new availability of these 11 CCS 2 ultra fast chargers will make public rapid charging much easier for residents of Canberra who own a non Tesla electric car and also tourists visiting the nation’s capital in a non Tesla EV.
Tesla Yass 68 Lead St
During my Christmas 2023 EV roadtrip I stopped to try out the new Tesla Yass location which had opened a few days before and has 12 x 250kW charging bays.
Note Tesla supercharger locations in Australia are generally the most expensive of all our charging networks but also the most reliable. So I recommend using them only when absolutely necessary and there aren’t any other options.
Had to park a bit sideways as the cable was too short to reach the Kia EV6 back right corner charging port. My car wasn’t in anyone’s way because the charger next to mine was out of order.
Maximum charging rate was 97kW which is a known limitation of E-GMP 800V Hyundai/Kia EVs at Tesla 250kW chargers.
Used toilet facilities at the Club House hotel next to the carpark where the Tesla chargers are located.
Note if the NRMA Chargefox Gundagai 350kW chargers weren’t so unreliable then I would have used them to save a few dollars and would have only stopped at Yass briefly to see the Tesla chargers.
Unfortunately the NRMA Chargefox Gundagai 350kW chargers have been unreliable for over a year eg: when I drove past during my Christmas 2022 EV roadtrip all the NRMA Chargefox Gundagai chargers were down at the time for many days.
NRMA Chargefox Gundagai
All the chargers at Chargefox Gundagai were broken down the first time I drove past so I haven’t used this location. At time of writing only the 50kW charger was working and the 350kW was broken.
I would avoid this charging location if possible. Like NRMA Chargefox Goulburn the chargers are getting old and they are often slow or broken.
Evie Ampol Tarcutta
This is a much nicer location than Chargefox Gundagai with two 350kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo chargers.
The service station has decent toilets and snacks for sale etc. I enjoyed standing under the shade at the servo with some ice cream while topping up my car during my Christmas 2022 EV road trip.
Tesla Albury – 1st floor of the Commercial Club Albury
This is a huge 16 x 250kW charger bay location. I haven’t used it yet as the last time I was in Albury I charged at my accommodation charger.
My good friend Jason who lives near this charger was the first person to use it so read his review: Albury’s 16-bay V4 Supercharger is now live, just in time for Christmas.
Note Tesla supercharger locations in Australia are generally the most expensive of all our charging networks but also the most reliable. So I recommend using them only when absolutely necessary and there aren’t any other options.
RACV Chargefox Barnawartha North
This four charger location is a great spot to top up 22km before arriving at Albury heading North / after you leave Albury heading South.
It is a very rare example of an Australian electric car highway fast charging station that has shelter nearby as well as a picnic table. Shade and a place to sit underneath should be made mandatory as part of government funding grants.
It’s also a rare example of a charging station with mixed brands of charging units. The two 350kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo ultra fast ones are ABB and the two 50kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo ones are Tritium.
The BP Service station a short walk away has fast food options and good toilets.
BP Pulse Glenrowan South
Didn’t really need a charge here during my Christmas 2023 EV road trip, it was hot and I wanted ice cream 🍦 which I bought from the servo.
Charging worked on the 2nd attempt at 99kW maximum rate, even though the app said the chargers were 75kW.
There was a $25 preauth temporary charge on my credit card.
Helped an elderly couple setup the bp Pulse app on their phone and start a charge as they found the cable quite heavy. BP Pulse now supports RFID to start / stop a charge which is much easier.
Note if the RACV Chargefox Euroa 350kW chargers weren’t very unreliable then I would have used them to save a few dollars and would have only stopped at BP Glenrowan South briefly to see their chargers.
PS the bp Pulse app has a very annoying habit of automatically logging you out of the app even if you’ve only used it a week ago.
RACV Chargefox Euroa
This four charger location is very popular because there are several cafes and fast food eateries here as well as a service station and good toilet facilities. There are two ultrafast 350kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo and two 50kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo.
Unfortunately like NRMA Chargefox Gundagai and NRMA Chargefox Goulburn these chargers are old and have issues. At time of writing the two 50kW were out of order and the two ultrafast 350kW were restricted to 100kW each.
The chargers are poorly located at the busy entrance to the car park so it can be hard to safely enter and exit. Surely further down the carpark in a quiet corner would’ve been more sensible?
In the middle of the Christmas summer peak driving period I was lucky to get the rightmost 50kW charger, which is the only one shaded by a tree.
Even if it was working despite the great food and toilet facilities I would skip this location during peak road trip times of year because of the high chance of a queue and people charging slowly to 100% while eating. My family is self catering from our esky so we don’t need to buy food.
Evie Ampol Avenel
Located 39km south of Euroa this is a good option if there are charging queues at Euroa and you have enough battery capacity left to go a bit further.
This two ultra fast 350kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo charger site has one front on and one side on which means it will be awkward for some drivers to charge depending on where your charge port is located (left/right/front).
During the times I’ve stopped there in a MG ZS EV Excite (front charge port) and Kia EV6 GT-Line RWD (back right side charge port) it was really easy.
The service station has good toilets and there’s a small table partly shaded by a gumtree where I usually have my own BYO lunch while watching the car charge.
Evie BP Epping
Depending on whether you’re headed North or South this is the first/last ultra fast charger location on the Northern edge of Melbourne.
There are two ultra fast 350kW dual CCS 2/CHAdeMo chargers with space clearly available next to them for several more units in the future if this location is popular.
This location has a reputation for being a bit unreliable as of late January 2024 both were out of order.
The service station has good toilets, is modern, clean with healthy as well as traditional fast food cafe options and plenty of seating space.
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