July 23 - August 11: We drove to the centre of Australia in an EV.

Using the shortest range EV that Tesla currently builds.

If you like a long drive, the scenery is spectacular and sprawling. Wandering the sand dunes and spiniphex plains is very peaceful. Sunsets and Uluru are otherworldly.

The charging infrastructure in Australia is getting better, but the drive up the Stuart Highway isn’t quite there yet. Thanks to RAA / Chargefox and The NRMA for your work so far on chargers along the Stuart Highway. We need improved reliability. We luckily dodged a few outages. Pimba lost power for a couple of days that made the EV charger unusable, but it fortunately worked during our time there. Glendambo (between Pimba and Coober Pedy) has only a 7kW charger that runs off the town’s diesel generator, and would not initially start, both times we passed through. The NRMA charger at Eldunda Roadhouse, in Ghan, died a couple of days after we visited.

But, there’s almost always a plan B for an EV. Any power point will do, albeit slow. While we were getting the charger rebooted in Glendambo, the service station there had also just run out of diesel, so other motorists had to just wait.

Below are some stats for EV nerds.

For everyone else, look at the photos 😉. For details of each stop along the way, charging etc, see individual posts in our travel blog Tesla Tripping.

Total kilometres: 5,519km

Overnight stays:

To Uluru:
Vic: Emerald, Halls Gap, SA: Hahndorf, Port Pirie, Pimba, Coober Pedy, NT: Kulgera Roadhouse, Yulara

Returning home:
NT: Yulara, Ghan (Erldunda Roadhouse), Marla’s Rest Roadhouse, SA: Coober Pedy, Port Augusta, Lyndoch (Barossa Valley), Vic: Sea Lake, Emerald

Car details:
Tesla Model Y “Juniper”, RWD standard range, 2025. “Launch Edition” with 20” wheels.

How long have we had this car?:
Since May 14. 3 months, or 12 weeks.
Odometer: 9,864km