Epic Polestar EV road trip - Part 1 - KI to Victoria border

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What better than to take a brand new, awesome electric vehicle on an epic road trip across the country.
This is the first section from Kangaro Island across in the Sealink ferry to Goolwa, where I do my first rapid DC charge and then aross the Murray River on the Wellington cable ferry to Tailem Bend for my first Telsa Supercharge. I then head across to Pinnaroo where I take a break and explore then town and then finally to the Victorian border.
Stay tuned and subscribe for the next leg in Part 2!
When my MY24 long-range, single-motor Polestar 2 was first delivered, I wrote an article headlined “I’m delighted with my electric vehicle”.
And now after this 6,200 km, 4,000 mile, epic road journey from Kangaroo Island to the east coast of Australia, I can now say that I am thrilled and amazed at the abilities of my electric vehicle.
Final stats from my epic Polestar 2 road trip from Kangaroo Island to the east coast and back - visiting Pinnaroo, Hay, Parkes, Dubbo, Armidale, Lismore, Canberra, Narooma, Mystery Bay, west Gippsland, the Great Ocean Road, western Victoria, Limestone Coast and Victor Harbor.
Trip Manual (TM): 6 221.7 km
Efficiency: 15.8 kWh/100km
Driving time: 92:09 h
Average speed: 70 km/h
Driving what I think is the best looking and add most capable electric vehicle with the official longest range in Australia of 650km mixed driving and with real world range of just under 500 km doing 100 or 110 km on Australia’s highways I achieved fish and I achieved an efficiency of 15.8 kWh per hundred kilometres kilometres and that was not driving for efficiency or hyper as they call it but rather driving as I saw fit spirit of driving enjoying the road with the air-conditioner on pretty much at all times.
Having the cutest collie dog - Twiggy on board, helped a lot with starting conversations as well. With a name like Twiggy, I could not help but make her my supermodel by posing her in front of each charger. The Polestar certainly was also a conversation starter both amongst non-EV users as well as more experienced EV drivers at stations, including Tesla drivers.
One common question was how much it cost to charge and how long it took.The simple answer is charging at fast chargers takes about quarter to half the prices of petrol, and takes on average about 30 minutes or less.
For the first leg of the trip from Kangaroo Island, crossing NSW from the Hay Plains to Lismore. Trip totals for the 3 days were 2279.4 km travelled, average consumption 16.2 kWh/100km, driving for 30:19 hours and an average speed 78 km/h.
There were a total of 13 fast/rapid charges costing $248. I stopped at so many chargers as I wanted to check out and also being a novice, following the mantra of “always be charging”.
Speaking of charging I would’ve done about 35 charges and only one did work and gave me charge. This was the NRMA charger in Bega and I was able to find a motel in Eden to do a quick 7 kW top up in order to make it to Cann Riiver in the end I made it with 30% and so it was all much to do about.
The bottom line is that the charging network just found the charging network worked just fine and much of the complaints overseas in America and in Australia seem unfounded, perhaps I was just lucky.
The hardest thing about an electric vehicle journey is having to have all the apps to make the charges work. This being said it’s not that hard to make them all work, and now having RFID cards makes it a lot easier. Let’s hope it continues to get easier to pay, even by just flashing a single card.
The Tesla supercharging network was fantastic, as it is quite widespread and help me in some remote locations particularly Tamworth. It wasn’t without glitches and a couple of times I had to move from charger to charger to get to work.
The Polestar is actually pretty good for camping and shows that electric vehicles do provide utility. It's a hatchback so I simply fold the back seats down and roll a swag out in the back, it fits one person and one dog nicely, although I do have to take out the fridge and I do travel light.
The car also comes with a retractable towbar which is handed to tie the lead on when camping. And the frunk up front housed not only charging cables and extension cord but also my small two-person tent, which came in handy in rainy Victoria. It amazes me that Australian still buy large SUVs when they don’t really need them and you can get plenty out of plenty of utility out of the current EVs.
Fantastic journey, Polestar performed flawlessly, an absolute pleasure to drive. Learned a lot about charging and told lots of people about EVs. Strange to be back home, it was only three weeks, but felt like a lifetime after not leaving the island for five years. Actually ready to hit the road again, to see my old haunts on SA’s west coast, and then in a few months to WA!

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