The brand new 16-bay Supercharger in Albury is now officially live. As I’ve covered recently the site is the first location in Australia to feature Tesla’s new V4 Supercharger design, making it a little more special than the average Supercharger site.
As Electric Vehicle adoption continues to grow in Australia, having adequate charging infrastructure is important, even more so when it’s a strategic location like Albury Wodonga. The regional city is perfectly situated to break up the drive for those travelling between Melbourne and Sydney or Melbourne and Canberra.
As we approach the Christmas and New Year break, many EV owners will be travelling with their families and more than tripling the amount of fast-charging options in early December is perfect timing.
This morning I read online that the site had started showing up on the Tesla mobile app, and living 10 minutes drive from the location, I jumped at the chance to take a look if it was indeed live. Having visited the location on the weekend, the electrical work (done by Watters) appeared close and this morning it was officially completed.
I was the first person to charge at Albury’s new Supercharging site and the new location is great. The Albury Supercharger location is located on the first floor of the Commercial Club Albury, 618 Dean St, Albury NSW 2640. This location provides a great opportunity to charge while grabbing a bite to eat in the club, go to the bathroom, or proceed through to Dean Street where many cafes and shops are accessible. If you’re travelling with the family, there’s a park for the kids not far away and the Albury Botanical Gardens are about 3 minutes walk and well worth a visit if it’s your first time.
In 2016, Tesla installed 6x Superchargers (V2) in Wodonga and at the time this felt like overkill with few EVs on the road at the time, but since then EV sales in Australia have exploded, now accounting for close to 8% of new vehicle sales each month. With this increased supply, comes increased demand for charging networks and for a city the size of Albury Wodonga (population ~100,000) the amount of chargers had become far less than needed, particularly during peak times like Christmas.
Thankfully this new site addresses that issue and hopefully for some time ahead.
I had a chance to catch up with a member of staff from the Commerical Club who said they were looking at ways to attract new customers and EV charging seemed like a good option. When talking with Tesla, they discovered V4 chargers were an option and jumped at the chance to be the first in the country.
Version 4 chargers are technically capable of charging at up to 350kW, however, the panels on the charging cabinets, and the speed identified in the app, clearly indicate these are 250kW. When you consider the amount of power required to provide that speed to up to 16 cars simultaneously, it is seriously impressive what has been established here and the project started just 2 months ago in October.
V4 Superchargers also feature a panel on the side for payments by non-Tesla EVs, and while Tesla has been enabling charging for Non-Tesla EVs at an increasing number of Supercharger sites, it seems this won’t be one of them, at least not for now. These payment panels today are turned off.
Another attribute of the V4 Superchargers, compared to previous generations, is the increased length of the charging cables. These also help support 3rd-party brands, but given this is currently Tesla-only, I’m sure the extra length will be appreciated by Tesla owners.
Charging at the site costs A$0.70 per kWh and they’ve done one of the best jobs with signage to let people visiting for the first time, know how to reach the chargers in the multi-story car park.
Unfortunately, my car had close to a 50% state of charge when I arrived, so wasn’t able to experience the extra speed of the chargers today, but look forward to it in the future.
I am the 1st person to charge at Australia’s 1st V4 Tesla Supercharger site in Albury, NSW.
The site is 16x chargers at 250kW each and is now live !! Thank you @tesla and the Commercial Club.
*video by my daughter. pic.twitter.com/W4HJDLMm2t
— techAU (@techAU) December 7, 2023
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