Glamping with the Kia EV9

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Are you able to journey round Australia (a distance of about 10,000 miles) in an electrical automobile, towing a 2-ton caravan with out stinting on any of the luxuries? Despite many naysayers (together with our illustrious ex-prime minister Scott Morrison), you may! It’s going to tow your van, it is going to tow your boat, it received’t smash your weekend.

Final evening, I obtained to meet up with Tim McLennan, who generously shared the highlights of his journey round Australia (the large lap) with me over the telephone. His purpose was to recreate a childhood household journey across the large lap (finished in a diesel-powered automobile in 1993). This time he hoped to go all electrical. He and his spouse Renee determined it could be a household vacation with a desire to being environmentally delicate the place attainable, and thus, all electrical.

Tim is {an electrical} engineer and likes the idea of EVs. “I thought it would be good to check out the amazing natural places while they still exist. Hopefully my kids can do the same with their kids. I asked myself: ‘Can it be done all electric?’ A whole bunch of people said it couldn’t be done. I didn’t want to just do a tour of charging stations, with attendant range anxiety in between. I didn’t want to rush.” He proposed a household vacation round Australia in an EV. Vacation first, EV second. 9 months of environmentally pleasant glamping.

His van is a second-hand New Age Approach Finder with off-road functionality, modified to be all electrical and extra aerodynamic — web weight 2000 kg. Together with his background as not solely {an electrical} engineer, but in addition in aviation, Tim was in a position to design and do many of the work himself. The Kia EV9’s 2500 kg towing restrict gave him some wriggle room to extend the unique weight of the caravan. The additional weight got here from the addition of aerodynamic options, 2.5 kW of photo voltaic panels, and a 10-kWh battery.

He defined to me that the problem was not a lot the load because the aerodynamics. “If you can reduce the drag, you can reduce the range loss associated with towing.” Tim took the sq. again finish off the camper and inbuilt a triangular wedge boot (trunk). “It mimics the trailing edge of an airplane wing,” he explains, “The air goes over and under the van and joins up smoothly at the rear. This reduces drag by reducing turbulence. Much more energy efficient.”

“What about the air currents between the van and the camper,” I requested, pretending to know greater than I really did. “Between the car and the van? Well, the original plan was to have it enclosed by stretch canvas (similar to the canvas on trucks). Car and van would then become one body for wind resistance. But we didn’t need to go to that trouble and ended up with an adjustable roof deflector to keep the air going over the top of the van. The Kia EV9 is the same height as the van so helps keeps the upper air flow smooth.”

I commented that the “rig” is comparable in seems to the diesel ones I see pushed by Australia’s gray nomads. He agreed. That’s why he put the personalised plates on it “ElecTrek.” Although, there are nonetheless individuals who can not imagine it. “That’s not electric, is it?” is the frequent remark. An EV is surprising out in the course of nowhere. “How did you get out here?” He stated he discovered that Outback stations frequented alongside the large lap are realising they’ll generate energy via photo voltaic or wind and promote it to travellers in EVs. “It is much easier than shipping in fuel, storing it, and then selling it on. EVs will find it easier to refuel ‘off the beaten track.’”

Glamping and retaining the household pleased means Tim wished to do the journey as electrical as attainable with out too many compromises. He wished individuals to have the ability to relate to this type of electrical vacation travelling. “It’s not a huge step out of the travellers’ comfort zone to go electric. In fact, there are significant advantages. We fuel up when we are sleeping at a caravan park. If we stay 2 days in a caravan park, we are full. We didn’t need to use fast chargers as much as we thought we would. We do some local sight-seeing then fill up overnight. I think we spent less time at chargers than we would have done at petrol stations, just because the car fills up when we are sleeping. And we weren’t breathing in the fumes from idling when hitching and unhitching the vehicle.”

Tim commented on the behaviour of a number of the diesel-powered gray nomads. “Some like to leave early in the morning from the campsite or park, in order to get a good site at the next one, and they wake everyone up with their clattering diesel. While camping in non-powered areas, they are running diesel generators. They put these away from their vans and connect with a long extension cord because even they don’t like them. But you can still hear them in the silence of the bush. We didn’t need a generator because the Kia EV9 has plenty of battery power and V2L.”

For added energy, Tim had fitted versatile fibre glass photo voltaic panels on the roof of the automobile and the caravan. 5 have been fitted on the van and one on the automobile. These are completely put in. Whereas driving, he obtained 2.5 kW from each units. If he left the van and went sightseeing within the automobile, the van collected 2.1 kW to feed into the 10-kW battery powering the home equipment.

Any extra energy left on the finish of the day (normally greater than 80% of that) can trickle cost the automobile, prepared to gather extra solar the following day.

A part of the modification course of was the elimination of all gasoline home equipment from the van and substitute with electrical — induction range, microwave, sizzling water, aircon, electrical blankets, and leisure (obtained to maintain the youngsters pleased). Glamping it definitely is. I enquired in regards to the prices of organising the rig. Tim tells me that the camper was purchased second hand for AU$32,000. The modifications price about AU$8,000. Apparently, Walkinshaw now makes a particular version of this camper. Tim saved prices low by doing many of the work himself. The Kia EV9 was AU$125,000. That is the “Earth” variant. It’s the lowest spec of 4 wheel drive with obligatory tow ranking. Test it out here if you wish to comply with Tim’s instance.

Spending AU$160,000 for this setup compares favourably to quantities spent on the rigs gray nomads are utilizing for comparable journeys. Then they should spend tons extra, as diesel isn’t low cost as soon as you permit the capital cities — however solar energy is free! Tim estimates that midway via his journey, he has spent about AU$1,128 to cowl nearly 19,000 km (that’s nearly 12,000 miles for my American readers). The Kia EV9 has extra energy and torque than a V8 Land Cruiser, but has price roughly 20% of what it could have price to do the journey with a diesel.

Tim tells me “We make 5 days’ worth of van power every day. So, we can weather 4 shady days if we have to. On the whole trip we never ran out. We had indefinite off-grid power. We would run out of water and food before we ran out of power. Other campers were making multiple trips into town with Gerry cans to fill up for their generators.”

I requested him about recommendation for individuals who need to emulate his instance. “Once you get going, it is less stressful than you might think. Start small with trips closer to home. There are lots more options for charging — especially caravan parks. That gets rid of the range anxiety.”

“Easy for you,” I interjected, “you had backup solar panels on the roof.”

“Ninety per cent of the trip we didn’t have to depend on the power coming from the solar panels on the car and van. That was plan B or C. The trip would have turned out exactly the same without the panels — maybe with a little more anxiety at the beginning. Because the Kia EV9 has so much power available, we haven’t had to skimp. We were truly glamping in the van with an induction stove, electric blankets, microwave, electric hot water, air conditioner, and the ability to charge all the electronic devices.”

Tim recounts a number of the humorous conversations he had when parked up. His youngsters obtained chatting with the opposite youngsters who have been travelling, as they do. “Why aren’t you doing it in an electric?” led to “Wish we were doing it in an electric.” Some dad and mom sheepishly confessed that their youngsters wished to try to do the large lap in an EV however the dad and mom didn’t assume it could possibly be finished, in order that they purchased a brand new diesel earlier than the journey. “You said we couldn’t do it in an electric!” the youngsters teased Dad. The Kia EV9 with a two-ton van exhibiting up in the course of nowhere was an eye fixed opener.

The Kia EV9 provides Tim a 550–600 km vary across the metropolis. Freeway cruising with out the van, he will get ~480km. With the van on the again, the vary reduces to 280–300 km vary. “That’s more than enough driving in a day. If you really want to do more and you are travelling between high-speed chargers on the coast, you can do 280 km in the morning, fast charge during lunch, and then repeat in the afternoon.” The Kia EV9 is a high-tech automobile however doesn’t but have the mature software program supplied by Tesla. “Kia hasn’t had the years of development. But is catching up quickly.” He gave the instance of the vary indicator which doesn’t bear in mind meandering roads, headwinds, or elevation. Renee ended up doing these calculations whereas Tim drove on the few events when vary was going to be tight.

You possibly can comply with Tim and Renee’s adventures on Facebook. And browse Renee’s wonderful first-hand account of their adventures at Caravan world.

Renee tells us: “Over the past decade, our family has made the transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to hybrids, to plug-in hybrids and finally to battery electric vehicles.”

Tim and Renee are constructing lifetime reminiscences for themselves and their youngsters with out sacrificing consolation nor including to GHG emissions. I’m positive that their instance will get many extra individuals to attempt the Huge Lap (and different shorter tourism drives) in absolutely electrical mode.