We have a saying in Australia, " Tell them their Dreaming, Tim, Renee and their family have "Nuked" that idea !!! Thanks for a Great adventure story, everyone.
I have driven the I-5 corridor up to Seattle Washington down near Bakersfield California in my 2014 Leaf. I was told I couldn't do it. It was an adventure. If you're not up for the adventure, don't.
When I worked at a restaurant there was a young man who would pick up fryer oil to use in his diesel truck. His neighbors would know when he was going by when they smelled french fries. Sounds like a great adventure. Perspective, attitude and recorcefulness are key in the EV adventure. You guys have it all.
I rode around Australia on an Indian Chieftain a few years ago in 4 weeks. Best trip ever. Plan to do it again in my Model 3 in a couple of years with my dog Jessie. Thanks Tim & Renee for leading the way.
I hitch hiked across to Perth from Sydney in 1980. And drove across in a 2nd hand sedan, Commodore Holden with a baby and my wife Dec 1983, return. Loved the adventure. Loved the cliff views of the Great Southern Ocean.
Having driven around a 'tiny corner' of W.A in a rented Holden Commodore in the 90s for the better part of a week (Perth, Freo, ferry to Rottnest Island to see quokkas, Bunbury, Manjimup and climbing the Gloucester Tree in Pemberton, Albany, Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie for a camel ride in the outback, Hyden for Wave Rock, and back to Perth - almost 2,200kms / 1,350 miles which is like driving from New York City to Tulsa, Oklahoma or from Madrid in Spain to Zagreb in Croatia via the Provence region of France and Slovenia's capital Ljubljana) I have to hand it to this family. What they're doing makes even a back-to-back Cannonball Run look like a walk in the park.
We plan to do an EV trip around Australia in about 2 years when retired. Maybe in our model Y, though considering a fully electric delivery van. If so, we'll convert to a camper with loo & shower. Thanks for great show & inspiring story!
Thank you Tim and Renee! Love seeing and hearing about your set up and adventures: very inspiring ❤ My family has done some (shorter) road trips NSW-Vic using our Model Y and motorcycle trailer (almost zero range impact!), swags and camping gear in the trailer, easy to roll it off to the verge for tight charging parking but also mainly used caravan parks to overnight charge, or charge mid-trip between National Park camping. So easy and lovely and FUN! Will be watching your trip on fb
What do the kids think about EVs in Australia? I was helping out a charity collecting donations at the parking entrance of a muscle car show in Goulburn. I had my Model 3 parked at the entrance. I had a number of kids drag their parents to the front gate to check out my car.
Such a great concept. Fascinating interview. Thank you. Love our little 2018 Hyundai IONIQ for the round town trips, but its 220km maximum range wouldn't cut this trip. But it was never intended to. Tools for the job, and the ingenious after-market modifications are testament to your talent, Tim. Great effort.
Sounds so nice to be able to do that. In Ohio if you live in an apartment complex where you can’t have level 2 charging, you’re completely out of luck. There are very few publicly accessible chargers. Most of the chargers that are publicly accessible are only limited either to when the business is closed since it’s restricted to employees and customers during business hours. Or they are only available to the public during business hours and the charger is unpowered outside of business hours. Ironically most of these in my area are at places I wouldn’t spend very long at (like 30 minutes at a grocery store) which is not going to get you much of a level 2 charge. It seems like the few DCFC units I can find are well over 50 miles from where I live/work. I’d have to go charge at no less than 25-30% charge just to be able to make it to the charger and use about a quarter of my range just to get home.
@@ElMistroFeroz adding more apartments without garages or outside outlets would help the housing issue but do nothing to address the EV charging issue. In fact, it might even make it worse. I am not denying that there is a definite housing crisis. But there is also a real problem with the EV charging infrastructure (at least in NE Ohio).
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. It has been incredibly valuable to me. I look forward to the opportunity to learn more from you in the future.
I'm sorry, speaking as an American here, I'm more interested in the "long service" leave (i.e., sabbatical) that was mentioned at the beginning of the podcast than anything else. That is freaking amazing compared to our country which has zero paid vacation (or medical leave) requirements.
it's a foreign concept to people overseas. In Oz, we get 4 weeks paid minimum vacation leave per year plus, after 7 years of service you get around 7 additional weeks bonus accrued (long service) that continues to accrue at 1 extra week for every additional year. Plus circa 10 days paid sick leave per year and paid maternity and paternity leave all legislated. I left my old work and had over 6 months salary paid out with a few of the above benefits accrued. Quite a cost to the company but does mean additional productivity due to a better work/life balance
It's really so cool to see this awesome setup and how it made this type of trip possible. Renee you are a genius. The average road tripping family in a standard Model 3 or Y that aren't staying at camp sites are still struggling to drive most of these highways especially where you have only one charger and its a Tritium. It's not fun spending extra days where you didn't want to and this stops most people from going electric. There are still some major highway stretches on the east coast like the New England Hwy where you need good luck to get to one and only charger and its working in places like Muswellbrook / Scone. Hopefully one day the problem will be solved and well see the rate of adoption of places like the USA who have great infrastructure. I would love to see Kyle do some of these roads in a Model 3 🙂
In Australia, the average dwell time in a Caravan Park is actually 3 days, so we see Caravan Park are going to need to be a big consideration to "Solaraise" as EV tourism becomes mainstream...
Nice to see they made it work. I tried two long trips in my BYD (without towing) and had both good and bad experiences. Fortunately, time wasn't an issue. If it was, both trips would have been big failures. The longest trip was Brisbane to Adelaide and back, or nearly 6,000 kms including days driving around Melbourne and Adelaide. Each trip made for boring videos, but not as boring as our waits at chargers where there was nothing interesting to do. Yes, most of them are 50kW and the BYD had a pitifully slow charge speed, with a short 300km range. Too many broken chargers around, as well. That's strange, since chargers are so new. I got the feeling they were just being turned off.
Not yet. GM is basically limited to Corvettes and Silverados in Australia since Holden closed up. GM says they will be launching Cadillac in Australia soon with and EV only (for now) lineup.
I saw a Kia EV9 with the number plate "Electrek" charging on the Gold Coast in Queensland a couple of days ago. I wonder if this was that family? I didn't see a camper there but it could have been parked off to the side somewhere while they were charging. I was trying to look for the number plate of their vehicle in this video but couldn't see it to verify if it was the same one.
Weren’t Rivian considering an RV, perhaps what they should be building is a camper trailer that is aerodynamically optimised for one of the R1 trucks and could share power between truck and trailer powerpacks
There are hills and hollows, dry creek beds. For miles. The police would park at the end of a long straight with radar speed guns, or in a hollow with just the top of the vehicle above as a speed trap. Many vehicles a day travel the road so it is isolated but also has traffic. Absolutely spectacular and worth the drive. Petrol is expensive in comparison with the cities. Americans have little experience of isolation.
There must be a way to go from the dc batteries charged by the solar panels and go direct DC to the dc port on the EV9 eliminating the loss of power to invert to AC
You are trying to create a portable DC fast charger. The challenge is matching the EV’s pack voltage and I think Kia is over 800 V. His solar array probably runs near 48v. There are loses in stepping up voltage and complex control that make this approach impractical. However, an EV could be designed for charging from solar. That’s an Aptera and I’m hoping my order is delivered in 2025.
1% ev adoption? You are confusing % of sales VS total vehicles on the road. You have got your stats wrong. Australia is one of the few western countries with zero tarrifs on China and we are getting a lot of affordable Chinese evs and they are really taking off. Uptake is similar % to US.
Well I just thought I’d tell you that everyone that I know here in Western Australia is complaining because everywhere they go they’re charging stations have broken down and not working. In fact is one woman in Busselton who recently tried to get her car charged up around Busselton and everyone failed was not working so she went to Bunbury and the same thing happened there so she gave up so after buying the car two months prior she went and got rid of it and traded it in. I’m assuming and bought herself another petrol, because she was so sick and tired of being let down and being unreliable with these charging stations so you have to take these sort of things into account as well when you buy electric cars
Australia's takeup of Electric vehicles is now approaching 10% and we have new emission standards. Unfortunately their information seems to be very out of date.
Francie is confusing the overall uptake as a % of total vehicles on the road (1% in Australia) with the average monthly sales rate (about 10%). US and Australia are about the same as far as monthly EV sales go last I looked.
If we were pushing the range limit of the vehicle (e.g. in more remote areas of northern WA) we would stick to 80 km/hr to maximize the distance. Where charging options are more abundant we have stuck to the speed limit of up to 100 km/hr which is the maximum allowed when towing.
Okay so you driving at 80km and most road trains and car's pulling camper trailers are going 110 to 120km on outback roads and still have a drop your camper trailer 30km before and rolling to the power on 2% battery level.@@ReneeMcLennan
@@wraith277most ppl tow at 90km. Seems to be the speed for safety and fuel consumption. Some large cars with small vans seem to go faster… Btw. Suburu has an 80kmh limit on towing
11:20. No government intervention. Just let the free market work? Sounds great. And I love my model 3! But not agreed that my neighbors should help me buy it.
Apartment management here is newly required to allow tenants to install a personal high power charger--at their own expense. So home apartment charging is now feasible, if you want to sink $20-50,000 into trenching and repaving to the street mains with no real expectation of getting it back. And that's an exceptionally rare and generous policy. EVs won't take over the 80% of the US market that is urban, until someone gets a 300-400 mile range into a 10 minute maximum fuel station stopn.
Its a bit of a grift.... (cool they did it thou) You can drive the coastal blacktop from caravan park to caravan park and do the not so interesting lap of australia. The real outback and routes ppl who do go off grid camping and touring are largely out of reach. And the best part of camping is offgrid not in a trailer park
This adventure isn’t possible in US unless leaving your job and home schooling children. When completed, returning to the workforce is another challenge.
EV9 is the ultimate roadtripper EV. We took ours on a 4000 mile loop of the Western US. Wish we had that camper!
wow, awesome
I’m just setting off tomorrow on my own lap of Australia in my Polestar 2. Listening with interest!
Wonderful, good luck!
I should have been an electrical engineer! What a cool set up! Well done!
We have a saying in Australia, " Tell them their Dreaming, Tim, Renee and their family have "Nuked" that idea !!! Thanks for a Great adventure story, everyone.
I have driven the I-5 corridor up to Seattle Washington down near Bakersfield California in my 2014 Leaf. I was told I couldn't do it. It was an adventure. If you're not up for the adventure, don't.
When I worked at a restaurant there was a young man who would pick up fryer oil to use in his diesel truck. His neighbors would know when he was going by when they smelled french fries.
Sounds like a great adventure.
Perspective, attitude and recorcefulness are key in the EV adventure. You guys have it all.
Great story Thank you Tim and Renee.
I rode around Australia on an Indian Chieftain a few years ago in 4 weeks. Best trip ever. Plan to do it again in my Model 3 in a couple of years with my dog Jessie. Thanks Tim & Renee for leading the way.
Bravo loved this and hello from Melbourne Australia
I have had my BYD Seal since Dec 2023 and love it and will never go back to ICE car
Do you think people are brainwashed in this country by big oil and auto? EV is the way to go
What a fun family, thank you!
I hitch hiked across to Perth from Sydney in 1980.
And drove across in a 2nd hand sedan, Commodore Holden with a baby and my wife Dec 1983, return.
Loved the adventure. Loved the cliff views of the Great Southern Ocean.
Having driven around a 'tiny corner' of W.A in a rented Holden Commodore in the 90s for the better part of a week (Perth, Freo, ferry to Rottnest Island to see quokkas, Bunbury, Manjimup and climbing the Gloucester Tree in Pemberton, Albany, Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie for a camel ride in the outback, Hyden for Wave Rock, and back to Perth - almost 2,200kms / 1,350 miles which is like driving from New York City to Tulsa, Oklahoma or from Madrid in Spain to Zagreb in Croatia via the Provence region of France and Slovenia's capital Ljubljana) I have to hand it to this family. What they're doing makes even a back-to-back Cannonball Run look like a walk in the park.
low drag and unfolded mass density, golden.
Awesome interview. Going to follow the rest of their journey. Would love to do something like that myself. Maybe an adventure when retirement kicks in
We plan to do an EV trip around Australia in about 2 years when retired.
Maybe in our model Y, though considering a fully electric delivery van. If so, we'll convert to a camper with loo & shower.
Thanks for great show & inspiring story!
We see you too, Francie!!! Tell us all the awesomeness! You rock!
I hope they're vlogging little bits of their trip - I'd watch the heck out of that if they had time to edit them together in the future.
very interesting podcast, really enjoyed listening to this, EV's are here and the right thing to do/use
Popup design makes a lot of sense. Cool to see, and thank you for sharing this story Francie!
Love the ingenuity and resiliency to do this trip be great if more of us had the same spirit thank you for the podcast
Thank you Tim and Renee! Love seeing and hearing about your set up and adventures: very inspiring ❤ My family has done some (shorter) road trips NSW-Vic using our Model Y and motorcycle trailer (almost zero range impact!), swags and camping gear in the trailer, easy to roll it off to the verge for tight charging parking but also mainly used caravan parks to overnight charge, or charge mid-trip between National Park camping. So easy and lovely and FUN! Will be watching your trip on fb
Great podcast Francie. What an incredible adventure.
We will all miss you, Francie!
Thank you for tuning in and so glad you’ve found the pod valuable 🙏 I miss the pod too but I have moved onto new projects outside of Out of Spec! 😊
@@heyfrancie Was wondering why I haven't seen any new podcasts. Really enjoyed your show, wishing you good luck on your new adventures.
What do the kids think about EVs in Australia?
I was helping out a charity collecting donations at the parking entrance of a muscle car show in Goulburn. I had my Model 3 parked at the entrance. I had a number of kids drag their parents to the front gate to check out my car.
Such a great concept. Fascinating interview. Thank you. Love our little 2018 Hyundai IONIQ for the round town trips, but its 220km maximum range wouldn't cut this trip. But it was never intended to. Tools for the job, and the ingenious after-market modifications are testament to your talent, Tim. Great effort.
what a memorable adventure
19:25 hahaha Francie is so pleasant to listen at. Huge fan of the podcast for that reason (also cause I love EVs I guess 😅)
Also the fact that she doesn’t interrupt people and let them talk 👌🏻👌🏻
Interesting trip, great work bringing us stories like this 🤟❤
Great interview Francie ! Thank you.
Sounds so nice to be able to do that. In Ohio if you live in an apartment complex where you can’t have level 2 charging, you’re completely out of luck. There are very few publicly accessible chargers. Most of the chargers that are publicly accessible are only limited either to when the business is closed since it’s restricted to employees and customers during business hours. Or they are only available to the public during business hours and the charger is unpowered outside of business hours. Ironically most of these in my area are at places I wouldn’t spend very long at (like 30 minutes at a grocery store) which is not going to get you much of a level 2 charge. It seems like the few DCFC units I can find are well over 50 miles from where I live/work. I’d have to go charge at no less than 25-30% charge just to be able to make it to the charger and use about a quarter of my range just to get home.
The problem isn’t superchargers. It’s the housing crisis.
@@ElMistroFeroz adding more apartments without garages or outside outlets would help the housing issue but do nothing to address the EV charging issue. In fact, it might even make it worse. I am not denying that there is a definite housing crisis. But there is also a real problem with the EV charging infrastructure (at least in NE Ohio).
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. It has been incredibly valuable to me. I look forward to the opportunity to learn more from you in the future.
Should convice kyle and jorden to come and do a complete round trip around Australia in the out of spec way, would make a great video or 2...
I'm sorry, speaking as an American here, I'm more interested in the "long service" leave (i.e., sabbatical) that was mentioned at the beginning of the podcast than anything else. That is freaking amazing compared to our country which has zero paid vacation (or medical leave) requirements.
it's a foreign concept to people overseas. In Oz, we get 4 weeks paid minimum vacation leave per year plus, after 7 years of service you get around 7 additional weeks bonus accrued (long service) that continues to accrue at 1 extra week for every additional year. Plus circa 10 days paid sick leave per year and paid maternity and paternity leave all legislated. I left my old work and had over 6 months salary paid out with a few of the above benefits accrued. Quite a cost to the company but does mean additional productivity due to a better work/life balance
@@Vass122 absolutely love it, sounds great
yeah, me too
It's really so cool to see this awesome setup and how it made this type of trip possible. Renee you are a genius.
The average road tripping family in a standard Model 3 or Y that aren't staying at camp sites are still struggling to drive most of these highways especially where you have only one charger and its a Tritium. It's not fun spending extra days where you didn't want to and this stops most people from going electric. There are still some major highway stretches on the east coast like the New England Hwy where you need good luck to get to one and only charger and its working in places like Muswellbrook / Scone. Hopefully one day the problem will be solved and well see the rate of adoption of places like the USA who have great infrastructure.
I would love to see Kyle do some of these roads in a Model 3 🙂
In Australia, the average dwell time in a Caravan Park is actually 3 days, so we see Caravan Park are going to need to be a big consideration to "Solaraise" as EV tourism becomes mainstream...
I love the way Francie says "petrol" 🥰
Nice to see they made it work. I tried two long trips in my BYD (without towing) and had both good and bad experiences. Fortunately, time wasn't an issue. If it was, both trips would have been big failures. The longest trip was Brisbane to Adelaide and back, or nearly 6,000 kms including days driving around Melbourne and Adelaide. Each trip made for boring videos, but not as boring as our waits at chargers where there was nothing interesting to do. Yes, most of them are 50kW and the BYD had a pitifully slow charge speed, with a short 300km range. Too many broken chargers around, as well. That's strange, since chargers are so new. I got the feeling they were just being turned off.
Thank You for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth....
Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste .. 🙏🏻 😊 ✌ ☮ ❤ 🕊
Lucid got to make their way to Australia, and Rivian. I wonder do GM got a few of their EVs there?
Not yet. GM is basically limited to Corvettes and Silverados in Australia since Holden closed up. GM says they will be launching Cadillac in Australia soon with and EV only (for now) lineup.
What happened to Francie?
It is time Kyle take a real road trip challenge across Australia.
There have already been 400 round trips of Australia mainly by Tesla and BYD cars.
There have been many EV laps, but exploring beyond the highways and towing is an entirely new adventure.
😂intro still has me smiling.
50:00 Driving the Australian coastal highway is equivalent to driving from LA to NY via Seattle. What a great description for us in the US.
Indeed. Wow that is a ton of miles.
It's really unfortunate that in NA the V2L adapter only can output 1800 watts instead of 3600 like in the EU or Australia. Silly split phase power!
I saw a Kia EV9 with the number plate "Electrek" charging on the Gold Coast in Queensland a couple of days ago. I wonder if this was that family? I didn't see a camper there but it could have been parked off to the side somewhere while they were charging. I was trying to look for the number plate of their vehicle in this video but couldn't see it to verify if it was the same one.
yeah, maybe!
What happened to the out of Spec Podcast?
I listened to the podcast already, but I was hoping to find it on youtube to see the pictures and video if there is any.
It's been nearly 4 weeks since a new episode. Is there trouble in paradise?
She quit out of spec to pursue other projects. It was on her X profile. So the podcast is in limbo.
@@doomsday9973sad to see Francie go.
People do not realise how good they are.
Tim this set up maybe can get around the globe as long as their is a CCS charging interface.
It's only going to get better from here to the future
Is the out of spec podcast gone, I'm used to dailies and it's been almost a month
Its in limbo because Francie moved on.
@@doomsday9973 oh no! That's sad to hear. She must have been really heartbroken about losing the Vin fast, huh?😉
@@jamesrshumaker lol I think she said goodbye to it on Twitter lol
@@doomsday9973 well thank you for the heads up, I didn't even think about checking Twitter
I'm beginning to think the whole "Out-Of-Spec" is fading😢
Australia is the sunniest continent on the planet.
Sahara desert latitudes. 😊😊😊
Weren’t Rivian considering an RV, perhaps what they should be building is a camper trailer that is aerodynamically optimised for one of the R1 trucks and could share power between truck and trailer powerpacks
Interesting to hear Aussies call their campers "van" short for caravan.
~1:07:00 Another virtue of FSD: It doesn't suffer from highway hypnosis.
There are hills and hollows, dry creek beds. For miles.
The police would park at the end of a long straight with radar speed guns, or in a hollow with just the top of the vehicle above as a speed trap.
Many vehicles a day travel the road so it is isolated but also has traffic.
Absolutely spectacular and worth the drive.
Petrol is expensive in comparison with the cities.
Americans have little experience of isolation.
Francie come back!
We're currently at about 8.5% EV adoption.
Australia even has more Brands & models than the US right now.
There must be a way to go from the dc batteries charged by the solar panels and go direct DC to the dc port on the EV9 eliminating the loss of power to invert to AC
You are trying to create a portable DC fast charger. The challenge is matching the EV’s pack voltage and I think Kia is over 800 V. His solar array probably runs near 48v. There are loses in stepping up voltage and complex control that make this approach impractical.
However, an EV could be designed for charging from solar. That’s an Aptera and I’m hoping my order is delivered in 2025.
Who makes the original camper?
I haven't seen an episode lately. It's the channel taking a break?
Yes it's in limbo because Francie left.
1% ev adoption? You are confusing % of sales VS total vehicles on the road. You have got your stats wrong. Australia is one of the few western countries with zero tarrifs on China and we are getting a lot of affordable Chinese evs and they are really taking off.
Uptake is similar % to US.
Yes, about 8% of sales. 1% of total cars on the road.
@@alanwardrop9575she said US is 8% VS Australia is at 1% which isn't true for either stat
Agreed! Not correct
Australia and usa are at the same place in terms of adoption ....
Well I just thought I’d tell you that everyone that I know here in Western Australia is complaining because everywhere they go they’re charging stations have broken down and not working. In fact is one woman in Busselton who recently tried to get her car charged up around Busselton and everyone failed was not working so she went to Bunbury and the same thing happened there so she gave up so after buying the car two months prior she went and got rid of it and traded it in. I’m assuming and bought herself another petrol, because she was so sick and tired of being let down and being unreliable with these charging stations so you have to take these sort of things into account as well when you buy electric cars
I so wish EV advocates would stop reiterating fossil fuel talking points. The framing is range confidence, no anxiety needed to be incepted.
Australia's takeup of Electric vehicles is now approaching 10% and we have new emission standards. Unfortunately their information seems to be very out of date.
Francie is confusing the overall uptake as a % of total vehicles on the road (1% in Australia) with the average monthly sales rate (about 10%). US and Australia are about the same as far as monthly EV sales go last I looked.
What was the average speed on the roadways?
If we were pushing the range limit of the vehicle (e.g. in more remote areas of northern WA) we would stick to 80 km/hr to maximize the distance. Where charging options are more abundant we have stuck to the speed limit of up to 100 km/hr which is the maximum allowed when towing.
Okay so you driving at 80km and most road trains and car's pulling camper trailers are going 110 to 120km on outback roads and still have a drop your camper trailer 30km before and rolling to the power on 2% battery level.@@ReneeMcLennan
@@wraith277most ppl tow at 90km. Seems to be the speed for safety and fuel consumption. Some large cars with small vans seem to go faster… Btw. Suburu has an 80kmh limit on towing
Swimming with wild sharks @ 1:04:18? Are you kidding us?
Whale sharks :)
@@ReneeMcLennan Sounds dangerous.
Swimming with salties now that's certain death!
11:20. No government intervention. Just let the free market work? Sounds great. And I love my model 3! But not agreed that my neighbors should help me buy it.
Apartment management here is newly required to allow tenants to install a personal high power charger--at their own expense.
So home apartment charging is now feasible, if you want to sink $20-50,000 into trenching and repaving to the street mains with no real expectation of getting it back.
And that's an exceptionally rare and generous policy. EVs won't take over the 80% of the US market that is urban, until someone gets a 300-400 mile range into a 10 minute maximum fuel station stopn.
Its a bit of a grift.... (cool they did it thou) You can drive the coastal blacktop from caravan park to caravan park and do the not so interesting lap of australia. The real outback and routes ppl who do go off grid camping and touring are largely out of reach. And the best part of camping is offgrid not in a trailer park
This adventure isn’t possible in US unless leaving your job and home schooling children. When completed, returning to the workforce is another challenge.
That's why he used his long service leave.
For just 600k you too can do what can be done for 100k otherwise!