EV drivers slam awkward reality of government-funded outback charger: 'Really stupid'

Australia's transition to electric vehicles and building out the corresponding infrastructure they require was never going to be easy. But maybe we didn't expect it to be this hard.

An innovative charging station in the outback of Australia funded by taxpayer dollars continues to frustrate EV owners, months after it gained national notoriety for seemingly relying on a diesel generator to charge cars.

The Australia government has partnered with the NRMA on a $78 million plan to build fast-charging stations in remote Australia. One of the earliest to come online is at a roadhouse and resort in Erldunda, in the Northern Territory, not far from the tourist hotspot of Uluru.

The off-grid site boasts two 75kw chargers powered by a large solar panel array, battery banks, and a backup generator in case the sun doesn't come out for a few days. However nearly a year after it was switched on, drivers say the system does not work properly, is forced to overwhelmingly rely on the emergency diesel generator and charges at a fraction of the advertised capacity.

Tesla owner and avid EV road tripper Rob Dean visited the site in June and says the charger was only capable of speeds about half the advertised 75kws when first plugging in, before dropping to as little as 16kw/h.

"It's got all these solar panels on the roof that don't seem to work," he told Yahoo News. "It also doesn't charge at anywhere near the speeds that it is supposed to."

Ongoing problems with viral EV charger: 'It's really stupid'

The charging station went viral in October after it was filmed appearing to run off the diesel generator, so much so that it was raised in a Senate estimates hearing in February by Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie who was questioning the federal EV rollout.

At the time, government officials, citing the NRMA, said the charger's diesel backup had not been used to charge any electric vehicles. But that is clearly not the case, Rob says.

"That is absolutely false, that is not true. This thing charges cars off a diesel generator," he told Yahoo.

Sharing a video with Yahoo, he described a recent trip in which he was forced to stop charging at about 52 per cent and plug into a regular phase 3 outlet at the nearby roadhouse due to the slow speeds of the NRMA charger and a concern that fumes from the generator's exhaust (seen in the video below) were bothering nearby tourists.

"What's really bad about this is the exhaust pipe points straight towards the accomodation block" of the roadhouse, he said. "If I was a tourist paying $175 a room, I wouldn't be very happy with this situation".

"It's very frustrating," Rob added. When you've got tourists coming up and filming your car charging and saying this is really stupid – and I can't disagree with them, it is very stupid."

A fellow EV driver, who has toured around Australia five times in his Tesla, has experienced the same problems at the Erldunda charging site. In February Harald Murphy found it wasn't working at capacity and the diesel generator was turning on "within 60 seconds of starting a charge session". Returning to the site this past weekend, he found little had changed.

"This Commonwealth Government substantially subsidised NRMA site is specifically not fit for purpose by any measure whatsoever," he tweeted at Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

"As soon as you plug in it will start the diesel generator," he told Yahoo. "And it runs for the entirety of the charging session."

Harald believes building out the charging infrastructure is vitally important but doing so poorly is counterproductive and actually adds to range anxiety among drivers if they can't trust the chargers — an issue commonly cited as holding back the EV transition.

"If you don’t maintain these sites, it’s actually counterproductive," he said, adding that he believes the Erldunda station should be removed from online apps which promote it as a fast charger – something it currently cannot provide.

"If you turn up to a charger to find it's broken or not working properly ... it spoils the entire road trip experience," he said.

No timeline for when 'world-first' charger will work properly

According to Rob, there is enough solar cells at the charging station to fully charge about four cars a day. The NRMA told Yahoo the site is currently only charging about one car a day on average. So it is unclear why the diesel generator is being consistently engaged but NRMA says it is working through the technical issues of the site.

"The technology at that site, it's the first time anyone has tried it anywhere in the world," NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury told Yahoo.

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Despite costing hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars, the organisation admits the charger it not working as intended but could not offer a timeline as to when it might be.

"They don't care, it's in the middle of Australia. They just don't care about it. They just don't think anyone would notice," Rob claimed.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen is quick to promote the chargers when they're installed and toured Northern Territory sites in March alongside then CEO of NRMA Energy Carly Irving-Dolan, who has since left the role after less than two years.

Chris Bowen's office did not respond to specific questions from Yahoo for this story but noted the national EV charging network was an "important project" and that the Erldunda charger was the first of its kind.

Both Rob and Harald applaud the ambition — and importance — of rolling out EV chargers in remote areas but say the execution needs to match the ambition.

"I'm a massive fan of the EV revolution. I want to see this stuff work properly," Rob said.

"These people are getting money to put in EV charging, they plant the flag, they declare victory and they walk off," he lamented.

"There's no follow up... They just don't give a s***".

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