The signs were not promising. It was early summer, the middle of the holidays, and it seemed that everyone wanted to go to Tasmania, and to hire a car. The few fossil fuel vehicles still available has an asking price of more than $400 a day.
And you would need a big one, because the shortage of accommodation meant you would probably have to sleep in one too. At least that might justify the price.
A year earlier we had enjoyed a two week leisurely drive around much of Tasmania’s east coast in a borrowed Nissan Leaf, but that car had now been sold. What to do? Can you even rent an EV, or a Tesla in the island state.
It turns out you can. Car rental company Drive Car Hire had just taken delivery of its first four Tesla Model 3 long range EVs, becoming the first car rental company in the country to diversify out from the usual offerings of petrol, diesel or hybrids.
And as it turns out, Tasmania is a pretty good place to go driving in an EV. It’s relatively small size means that a car with the range of around 450kms (in real conditions), such as the long range Model 3, probably doesn’t need much more than a top up along the way to reach any destination.
And because many of the roads are hilly and windy, what better place to enjoy the superior handling and comfort (in terms of noise) of an EV.
Charging in Hobart.
We picked up our brand new red Model 3 long range in Hobart, and because we are experienced Tesla drivers we were allowed to be the first to use our Tesla app as the principal key for the car (you also get a hotel-like smart card too).
The first part of the trip was to duck down south to visit a friend, and then drive around the area for hours looking for the precious dogs that had jumped the fence. (They eventually came home six days later, and got a front page photo in the local paper, but that’s another story).
We hiked back up to Hobart and up the highway to Lake St Clair, and then it was off to stunning Stanley in the north-west via Queenstown, and two days later back towards Davenport, with a quick trip back to Boat Harbour beach to pick up some swimmers and towels we left drying in the sun, (and which were still there!) and then two days later back down to our friends in the south, just in time for the dogs to be disovered and delivered back home.
What did we learn? Well, there’s really no problem charging, but it does help if you bring an extension cord. We charged at public fast chargers at Hobart (where the charging is free but the parking for the EV space is outrageous), at Derwent Bridge near Lake St Clair, and at Burnie.
On the way back to Hobart we stopped in at the extra vast V3 Tesla super charger in Davenport, thanks to the rescue trip for the swimmer.
We trickle charged (just using a regular power point) at Lake St Clair – where we used the extension cord to plug in to another cabin because we couldn’t park in front of our cabin, and at the Ship Inn in Stanley (where they have gone out of their way to make EVs welcome), and at our friend’s home.
Again, the extension cord came in handy. And trickle charging is just fine. It would drive you crazy if you were watching and waiting for it to fill up, but if are dining, drinking, sleeping and breakfasting while all this is going on, it’s really no issue.
And that’s important. Tasmania is pretty well served with fast-chargers, thanks to the excellent work of people like Clive Attwater at Electric Highway Tasmania, but it’s still the case that most stations have just one or two charging spots (with the exception of the Davenport Supercharger).
So it’s good to have the option of charging overnight. Most motels, and friends, are OK with that. Just make sure you ask first. Some motels may ask for a small fee.
The Tesla V3 charging station at Davenport ferry terminal.
Drive Car Hire says the Tesla Model 3s have been extremely popular, and a fifth car has joined the fleet and another five are on order. Anna Donovan, the general manager of Drive Car Hire, says it’s been going really well, and bookings for April are higher for the Tesla fleet than they are for the fossil fuel cars.
“We’ve been quite surprised by how it’s going,” she tells The Driven.
“We were a bit cautious at first, taking a leap into the unknown. But it’s gone well. We’ve got people who already own a Tesla, and once you drive one it’s hard to step back into anything else, and plenty of people wanting to experience them for the first time. Others just love the carbon neutral aspect of it.”
The price per day is not cheap. It works out at just over $300. In the last holidays, that ended up being cheaper than even a hybrid Camry, but as the volatile Tasmania market settles down, it is now around 30 per cent more expensive.
Donovan’s long term goal? She wants the car rental company to be fully electric or hybrid by 2025. But that will depend on supply, and right now – for so many buyers of electric vehicles in Australia, that’s a problem.
Note: The Driven paid its own way for the Model 3 rental.
Keyword: Around Tasmania in a rented Tesla. Yes, you can actually do that