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If you're wondering just how much money you can save on fuel by switching to an EV vehicle, take note of Sylvia Wilson's epic trip around Australia in her Tesla Model S.
The 70-year-old retired farmer has just finished a 110-day, 20,396km lap of the entire country. And she says it cost her just $150.90 in electricity to complete the journey. That's about a single tank of fuel in some of our bigger internal-combustion vehicles.
It was made possible due to the Round Australia Electric Vehicle Superhighway - a network of charging stations spaced, on average, 200kms apart, and that spans a staggering 17,000kms.
But it's not a government initiative, nor a manufacture rollout. Instead it's a people-powered network set up by EV owners tired of waiting for the infrastructure to be developed. The program is run by the Tesla Owners Club of Australia and the Australian Electric Vehicle Association.
“We’re endeavouring to show that there is people power behind the drive to EVs, and hopefully governments can follow,” says project coordinator Richard McNeall.
Wilson becomes the first woman to drive the new supercharged route, and just the second Tesla owner to compete the journey. She has initially planned the epic trip with her husband, Rod, who passed away before they could make their dream a reality.
Wilson says there were only moments of recharge stress on her journey, telling the Guardian Australia the EV trip was actually easier than if she had set out in a petrol-powered car.
“They call it range anxiety. That’s what everyone talks about. It’s totally valid to have that, to be thinking about the next charge, once you’ve got an EV," she says.
“But the reality is that if you can see the lights on, or that the kettle works, then you can charge. Even in the remotest places you can still charge the car. In a way there are more places to charge an EV than there are a fossil fuel car.”
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