FLEETDRIVE
personal power points and other low powered
charging stations, but you’d need a lot of time
to make it worthwhile. Longer trips are very
much dependent on where the rapid chargers
are but with a couple of different grants and
government initiatives the teams at Chargefox,
EVSE, RACV, etc are placing a lot of chargers in
many new areas so it’s becoming less and less
of a challenge.
D: And how do you find the Kona runs as a
day to day operational vehicle?
K: I regularly drive up from Sydney towards
the Blue Mountains which is about 150km.
That’s where I’m driving right now. And I feel
comfortable because there is now a rapid
charger up in the Blue Mountains now, and
there are many more out there. By having those
roadside rapid chargers always popping up it is
nowhere near as hard as it once was.
D: Rapid is a relative term. What does that
look for you and are the current chargers
satisfactory?
K: My view is that for long road trips I think the
minimum you need is a 50 kilowatt charger and
they are the ones I look for. NRMA, RACV and
RACQ are all putting out 50 kilowatt chargers,
while Chargefox and EVSE have 50 and 350
kilowatt chargers. So for me on a road trip that’s
the minimum I’d look for.
D: How long does it take to charge? And
are you happy with that time?
K: I find it is very rapid to get to 80 per cent and
like with all chargers and systems it slows down
pretty drastically for that final 20 per cent. So
what’s interesting is if you can space out your
trip, you can charge to 80 per cent very quickly
and then get on the road straightaway. I don’t
think it’s much different from visiting a petrol
station on a road trip really. Drivers go to the loo,
get something to eat and within half an hour the
charge is back where you need it. And those
break times are similar to what most drivers of
traditional petrol vehicles would take anyway.
D: Would you have any general advice of
what sort of EVs that fleet managers should
be looking for?
K: Personally when we’re buying our fleet we
always say that anything under 400 km of range
is too little, because 400 km of range is almost
the equivalent to a tank of fuel. So some of the
vehicles that have 300 or 200 kilometres it is just
not quite enough and you’re always going to be
on that limit. Whereas anything over 400 kms
you start to feel reasonable and comfortable.
But of course, that’s just our experience, for
many small fleets the smaller vehicles will
provide plenty of kilometres and be a lot more
cost effective too.
ISSUE 21 2020 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU
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