From time to time I’ll fire up the PlugShare app to see how the Australia’s charging infrastructure is progressing. Recently I found a new charging location identified by EV owners, in the cente of Albury.
Located on top of the multi-story car park at 441 Kiewa St, Albury, NSW, the 50kW charger offers both DC fast charger with CHAdeMO and CCS2 connectors.
This charger is part of NRMA’s expanding fast-charging network which is currently free initially, but will eventually be free to access for NRMA members or paid access if not an NRMA member.
The EV charging situation in the regional city of Albury Wodonga is fairly spotty, with the following locations available:
- 1x NRMA fast-charging in Albury (public)
- 6x Tesla Superchargers (for Tesla owners only)
- 1x Tesla HPWC at Atura Hotel Albury (for guests)
- 1x Type 2 connector at Middys Wodonga (public)
- 4x Chargefox (2x 50kW and 2x 350kW) Barnawartha North (public)
- 1x Veefil 50kW Fast charger (CCS/CHAdeMO) at Albury Waste Management Centre, Hamilton Valley (public at $0.25 per kWh)
The number of EVs around the town is growing, I’m passing one every other day. Given Albury Wodonga’s location between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, it’s a regular stop for those on a road trip.
You’ll also find plenty of destination chargers for Tesla vehicles at surrounding towns, with many wineries leveraging EV charging to attract new customers.
It’s great to see NRMA add their charger in Albury and the location allows an easy walk to the CBD. I hope many parking garages and even on-street charging options are added.
Naturally, I headed to the charger with my Tesla Model 3 to try it out. The process of charging is super simple, simply connect the charger, in my case, the CCS2 connector, then press the start button on the charger.
With the charging currently free, there’s no downloading of an app, no payment setup, it really is the easiest charging experience you could have and very similar to charging at home, just a lot faster.
With around 190km of range in the battery, I was charging at a rate of 250km/hr.
My car is set to charge to 90% and had to reach that, it would have taken around 55 minutes and I would have left with around 430km of range.
Taking the 10 seconds to connect the charger, is an easy trade off, to return to a fully charged car. If you go shopping with the family, grab a bite to eat, or go shopping at any of the dozens of retailers in the area, you could easily consume the hour required.
