An Australian man has been left stranded in the middle of the Nullarbor after multiple electric vehicle charging stations failed.
Jac has been documenting his journey in his Tesla from Sydney to Perth, a journey he says quickly turned into a “bit of a gamble” as key charging sites went offline across remote Western Australia.
He claimed several charging stations along the Eyre Highway, including sites at Madura, Balladonia, and Norseman, were offline, leaving him scrambling for power in one of the country’s most isolated regions.
“We’re plugged in to the back of a shearing shed,” he said.
“It’s going to take a few hours to get a full charge…but that’s okay because we can go to Norseman. Bam – Norseman is down.”
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Jac said he is now attempting to cover a 535km stretch between Caiguna and Coolgardie, well beyond his Tesla’s estimated 450km range, forcing him to slow down and conserve every kilometre.
“We’ve got to absolutely fill this thing with juice, sit on about 80, and hopefully we can make it,” he said.
In another video, he showed a charging site fitted with solar panels and a diesel generator, questioning why it was unusable.
“There’s a massive, brand new, government-funded genset…big expensive charge station. No one knows anything about it. I’m stuck in the middle of the desert,” he said.
Jac also took aim at charging provider ChargeFox, saying “the supercharge network is not bulletproof, and when it goes down, it goes down. Unreliable.”
Regardless of the setbacks, Jac said the journey proved electric vehicles can work across Australia, but not without risk.
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“This is obviously a new thing…it’s like going back 60 years in time when it used to be difficult to drive a petrol car across the Nullarbor,” he said.
“There’s definitely work to do to make this a mainstream, viable option.”
Jac said there are certainly positives to driving an electric car across the Nullarbor.
“All the petrol stations were closed last night. The charge stations are 24-hour…we just kicked off our journey while other vehicles were waiting,” he said.
“If every roadhouse on the Nullarbor had a big solar array and went fully off-grid…it would be amazing.”
