EV Ballina to Sydney

Picking the car up from SIXT in Ballina, Rosh talked me through how to start the car, how to plug in to charge, explained how to access free Chargefox charging using the RFID card provided, and how to set up Bluetooth for phone.

She reassured me it was totally fine to drop off with a low charge (though as I wasn’t rushing to catch a plane upon return, as a courtesy I charged up before returning!)

As I was only heading around 365km down to road to Port Macquarie on the first day, I left at around 1pm.

When I picked the car up it said it had 432km on the battery. The BYD Atto 3 Extended Range is rated for 480km WLTP, but I know this figure is based on a lab test. Real world range – particularly on the highway - would be less, and I’d have to stop along the way.

The Atto 3 more than easily fitted one large and one small bag, plus a heavily loaded beach bag in the rear cargo space – impressive for what is a relatively small luggage area compared to my Tesla Model Y.

As the BYD Atto 3 from SIXT came with free charging from Chargefox, I was naturally keen to see if I could drive all the way to Sydney without paying for charging.

First stop was the NRMA-owned Chargefox charger at North Boambee – it is south of the main drag but I was pleasantly surprised to find the charger tucked away behind a huddle of food joints, including an Oliver’s and a café.

On arrival, the Atto 3 had 26% battery charge – almost 16kWh – left. Since it had been averaging 16kWh/100km on the highway,) this meant I had around 100km range left.

After plugging in, the charge rate topped out at around 88kW. I estimated I needed to charge for no more than 15 minutes, which would add about 20-22kWh to arrive in Port Macquarie with a comfortable buffer after the remaining 160km of the trip.

Arriving in Port Macquarie it was easy to find the Breakwall Holiday Park down by the river entrance. The first thing I noticed – apart from the iconic Norfolk Pines along the breakwall – was the EV charger out in front of the park.

I wasn’t intending on using these chargers, but as it happened, I wasn’t able to stay in the studio cabins that had chargers installed on the wall outside (see below.)

Instead, park management were happy for me to park overnight at the communal chargers so I could leave with a full charge the next morning.

The riverside village of Karuah north of Newcastle is a great stopover, with an NRMA charger positioned not far off the highway. As it’s not a high-traffic stop I was fairly confident there would be no wait to charge when I got there.

I stopped around 40 minutes to charge up to nearly 90 per cent because the weather app said I was heading into some rain. I knew this meant the car would use a little more energy, but I wasn’t sure how much (it ended up averaging about 18kWh/100km.)

While the toilet facilities at the local service station leave a lot to be desired, there is a great little op shop, a pharmacy and other convenience stores a short stroll away in town.

I then set off on the last leg of the trip – destination Sydney, 200km down the road!

With about 290km real world driving range up my sleeve, I arrived in Sydney with about 90km left on the clock.

The apartment I was staying at had Tesla destination chargers that could be used by other makes in the basement carpark, so I was looking forward to recharging both myself and the car overnight.

Theoretically I could activate these through the Tesla app but as there was little phone reception I could not load the locations in the map interface.

I worked out that I could photograph the QR code on the charger and send it to another device, or note the ID number listed next to it and enter it manually, when the phone was in a better reception area. Then, I returned to the vehicle and once the key was in range, the charging activated.

After another stop at Karuah, we hightailed it to Port Macquarie for lunch. As the NRMA-owned Chargefox at Port Macquarie Service Centre was out of action, we happily decided on NRMA’s Sovereign Place Town Centre charger. Located in a carpark near a village shopping centre that features two great little cafes, we pulled in, checked in to Plugshare and went for a bite. It was my first time using the paid EV charging feature in the MyNRMA app, which had I already downloaded.

Next stop was North Boambee again, just south of Coffs Harbour. However, this time around we found two chargers already in use, and one EV owner waiting. As yet another EV pulled up, I did some calculations and figured we could use our Plan B: Grafton, 85km north.

The NRMA charger under the Grafton library is a well-positioned stop that is out of the rain and across the road from a local shopping centre.

Keen to finish our last leg we recharged for around 15 minutes and grabbed some chocolate to recharge our brains and bodies as well.

Thankfully being a Sunday afternoon, it was quiet also, with nobody already charging or waiting as in this photo below from a previous visit!

All in all, driving the Atto 3 on a long-distance, well-travelled route was no trouble.

I was thoroughly impressed by the lane keeping assist, which is a one up on Tesla because you can change lanes without deactivating it.

It would equally be suitable for routes with larger distances between chargers, so long as you were prepared to spend a little longer stopping as the car’s 80kW top charge rate means it takes longer to top up than EVs that can charge faster.

However, there were little quirks that I found annoying, such as the placement of the USB-C and USB-A ports under the console, and the fact you can’t use just one of these cables both for CarPlay and charging.

Also, the drink holders in the console and the doors were too small for a normal-sized drink bottle.

That said, we did fit in a decent amount of uni student belongings in the back once the seats were down – five 450 x 300 x 295mm packing boxes, two baskets of clothes and other sundries, as well as my own luggage I had brought down for the week.

Would I do it again? Definitely – and next time I think I’d try one of Parks and Resorts glamping experiences and stay longer, knowing I could get there in zero emissions style.