Ths trip’s purpose was to spend a little time walking and camping on the East Gippsland coast of Victoria then catching up with some friends who live near Bairnsdale. My wife and I were away from our home in Canberra for 10 nights, two at a caravan park in Marlo (at the mouth of the Snowy River), three nights off-grid at the nearby Banksia Bluff Campground in the Cape Conran Coastal Park, then five nights at a caravan park in Bairnsdale. We were constrained by commitments on either side of those 10 nights and packed a lot in.
The particularly EV-specific details of the trip are the Canberra to Marlo drive on the first day towing our camper trailer (387km), using our car’s vehicle-to-load (V2L) feature while camping off-grid and the return trip from Bairnsdale to Canberra on the last day (462km, including a 1000m climb).
Our car is a 2023 AWD Hyundai Ioniq 5, which has 77kWh battery and a WLTP range of 454km. In practice, around town range is more like 500km while highway range is about 420km. On previous trips, we have found that towing our 2010 Jayco Flite camper trailer reduces that highway range by about a third to a bit under 300km if we also stick to a self-imposed speed limit of 90kph for most of the time.
The Ioniq 5 has a braked tow rating of 1600kg with a ball weight of 100kg which is more than ample for our trailer’s total mass of around 850kg and ball weight of about 75kg. The trailer is pulled very easily with ample acceleration, even on steep hllls.
Canberra to Marlo, our first night, is 387km so a charge along the way would be needed. Starting with a 100% charge from home, after 121km and an increase in elevation of 185m we arrived at Chargefox in Cooma with 56% state of charge (SOC). The oldest and slowest charger had been replaced with a new one that was not yet commissioned. Another charger had a car at 97% that had been charging for an hour and a half already and they had left a note to say they intended to charge for two hours! Fortunately, we only had to wait 5 minutes for the third charger (350kW) but the crowded car park meant the slight bother of having to unhitch the trailer. We got a quick coffee at the adjacent café while we charged to 90% in 18 minutes and continued on to Cann River.
At Cann River, we charged again (from 37% to 80% in 24 mins) while getting pies from a nearby bakery, although we could have made it the further 86km to Marlo without that charge. Cann River has one Chargefox 50kW charger and three promiscuous Tesla 250kW chargers. We used the Tesla charger at the end because it was easier to get the car in close enough without unhitching the trailer or leaving the trailer hanging out in the road or blocking other chargers. We did not need to wait but the other two Tesla chargers were soon being used.
As we plugged in, we noticed that we were attracting attention from some electricity network workers who were keen to see how much power we would pull. Those Tesla DC chargers are rated at 250kW but eGMP cars (certain Hyundai and Kia models) get cannot get more than about 98kW from them. At 800V chargers, which matches their battery voltage, eGMP cars can get up to 240kW but Tesla DC chargers use a 400V system. The eGMP cars use an on-board voltage booster to get 800V from 400V chargers, and that system has a power limit of 100kW. This limitation was probably just as well because the local electricity network was out and the chargers were running from a 500kVA generator. One of the workers had a graph on his tablet showing the generator output stepping up to 100kW when we plugged in, then the two Teslas arriving and taking a further 200kW each, adding up to the full capacity of the generator. They had brought in the generator because the Cann River chargers are in a crucial location and they didn’t want EVs to be stranded.
Overall, the 387km day from Canberra to Marlo used 25.1kWh/100km. With a 77kWh battery, that predicts a range of 307km while towing. However, this was with an overall 600m loss of altitude and I expected a worse result for the return trip.
At Marlo, we had booked a powered site for two nights. We plugged the trailer into the usual caravan park 15A supply and trickle-charged the car from the trailer’s 10A outlet, pausing charging when we were using higher powered devices in the trailer such as the kettle, toaster, induction cooktop or mini-oven. Charging at the campsite covered us for a one longer driving excursion and several shorter excursions during the stay. We could have charged at a 50kW DC charger when we passed through nearby Orbost but did not need it.
After Marlo, we arrived at our off-grid, national park campsite for the next three nights with 89% SOC. The trailer has a three-way fridge (gas/240V/12V) and a gas cooktop but we did not need to use any gas. The trailer has a modest 100Ah 12V lead-acid battery, which can keep the LED lights going for many days but it would be quickly flattened if it had to run the fridge. We have a small inverter (300W) that can be used for low powered devices needing 240VAC but neither it nor the 12V battery are able to run higher powered devices. Some people install a lot more battery capacity, higher powered inverters and solar generation in their campers. Instead, we plugged the trailer into our car’s 240VAC/15A V2L outlet – the car substitutes precisely for a powered caravan park site.
Over three days, the car ran the fridge continuously (0.1kW) except when we used the car to drive to the starts of a few short walks. We used the kettle to heat water for hot drinks and washing up (2.2kW), a toaster (0.9kW), a microwave (1.3kW) for reheating some prepared meals and steaming veggies and an induction cooktop (2.0kW) to boil water for pasta. Running the fridge, microwave and induction cooktop on full power simultaneously was not a problem (3.3kW). After three days, the car’s state of charge was reduced from 89% to 55% of which about 4% was from driving. So, camping activities used about 10% per day. That could be reduced with a more efficient compressor-type fridge.
We had the car set to cease V2L discharge if the SOC reached 50% but we could have stayed longer and gone much lower. We only needed to get to Bairnsdale next (124km) and there were DC charging opportunities on the way at Orbost (35km) and Bruthen (98km). As it turned out, the remaining 55% would have been only just sufficient to get to Bairnsdale with an estimated 6% remaining due to a strong headwind resulting in a higher-than-usual towing consumption of 29kWh/100km. We charged in Bruthen (50kW Evie) from 15% to 76%, while having lunch.
Evie’s ‘Autocharge’ feature was great. We just plugged in and charging started without any mucking about with cards or apps, and we were able to park side-on and avoid unhitching the trailer.
During our five-night stay in Bairnsdale, we used the car for various excursions (eg. Raymond Island, Mitchell River National Park, Lake’s Entrance) without the trailer and maintained 80% between trips by charging at 10A from the trailer’s external power socket, while the trailer was plugged into the campsite’s 15A supply. Bairnsdale has DC chargers but we didn’t need them.
We left Bairnsdale with 100% from overnight trickle charging for the return trip home to Canberra (461km). At Cann River, we were charged to 80% in 20 mins but continued to 100% in 45 minutes because 1) nobody was waiting, 2) we took that long for a toilet break and lunch, and 3) with a 1000m climb ahead of us, we want to be sure we had enough charge to get to Cooma comfortably. Surprisingly, the climb up from the coast did not consume very much more than the other legs of the trip: We arrived in Cooma with 36% having consumed 27.7kWh/100km over 177km vs 25.7kWh/100km average overall for the whole day. In Cooma, we added 30% in 8 minutes and continued on home to Canberra. As it happens, we could have made it home, a further 120km, without the Cooma charge but we would have had only 2% left.
Overall, towing on the first and last days averaged 25.4kWh/100km, which predicts a range of 303km. However, on other trips we have averaged 26.5kWh/100km and it was worse still on the day with a headwind (29kWh/100km). So, I plan for no more than 250km between charges.