Lack of charging infrastructure can give a Tesla Uber driver the blues.
By Adam Nelson, as told to David Waterworth
For over 6 years I have provided transportation services for Uber, Didi, Ola and my own company while accepting several other ride bookings. Last year I bought a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range. I have covered 70,000 kilometers (43,500 miles) in 12 months and drive between 250 and 500 km (155 to 310 miles) every day in a car limited to a range of 420 km (260 miles). If you want to earn more and go beyond 420 km, you need to go to the nearest DC fast charger for charging about 30-55 minutes. As a rideshare driver, it is very important to have a fast and reliable EV charging infrastructure. It means you can save time and plan more effectively – charging in quiet times and accepting the rides that make you the most money.
I live in Brisbane’s CBD and my apartment parking lot is not yet equipped with electric chargers, so I am forced to travel to the Fortitude Valley Superchargers (2km) every day. I can do this before or after a shift to get the car 100% ready.
In other locations, I can’t always find a load immediately because of the lack of available loading bays. Charging stations are sometimes used with Nissan LEAFs, plug-in hybrids or Mercedes-Benz EVs that use the DC fast chargers for extended periods of time. This can cause frustration and you will miss the usual start times for rideshare riders.
I’ve been experimenting with choosing different types of runways between local and intercity drop-offs. Usually on Uber you have 15 seconds before a task is passed or declined. You need to decide quickly whether short or long trips are worth it based on your overall battery health and weather factors that can reduce your range. In other words, imagine that you have a lot of numbers and equations floating around in your head and in 15 seconds you have to estimate the energy needs of the entire trip without canceling the passenger. The Tesla app and third-party apps such as A better route planner are sometimes used to estimate pick-up and return flights.
My experience with EV ridesharing over a period of 12 months was mostly without complaints. My most recent experience was in the past month. I tend to take the intercity on UberX, Comfort and Premier Jobs. Reading the bill of lading for a rate of $150-356 is fantastic. However, there is a downside risk as the car really needs to be charged at least 80-100% to complete the round trip without having to find a charging point. Intercity runs can be Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Caboolture or Toowoomba. Gold Coast is ideal because chargers are everywhere. Sunshine Coast could be worse unless your customer is near the Maroochydore Supercharger.
A recent example will demonstrate my point. I was at Brisbane Airport at 10:30 PM on a Sunday. I sit in the waiting area for 20-50 minutes without work. By chance, a trip comes up with a notification for a long trip 45+ for $200. This means the fare is longer than 45 minutes and the distance is longer than a short local ride from the airport to Brisbane city. I manage to uhm and Ah as I stared at the Tesla info screen for 59% battery status, and within 15 seconds I accepted the trip with the rider and decided to live with the consequences later.
The customer was at Brisbane Airport and I had to take him and his sons Lachlan and Tom to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. I spoke to the father and confirmed the drop-off location, then applied some planning ahead by checking the Tesla sat nav for an arrival time and battery estimate before proceeding. I found both Lachlan and Tom in the terminal and started the direct non-stop trip to Sunshine Coast in my Tesla with 59% of range in battery.
This is when you start having range issues and trying to get back home. It is winter in Australia and it is also raining. You can lose 5% of range due to cold batteries and driving at normal highway speeds. These factors will narrow the estimated range. I arrive in Sunshine Coast with 6-9%, or <60 km range, then watch PlugShare and several nearby charging stations for 5 minutes at 1:00 AM. If you've ever been to the Sunshine Coast and Noosa, you know you have limited options for recharging. I finally drove to Cooroy train station and used a Queensland Government Electric Superhighway charger (50kW) and spent 1 hour on a full charge, 100%. The route was hampered by road closures at the time.
By now it was around 3 am. Please note I accepted the ride at 10:30/11:00 and still have not returned to Brisbane. I got home at 4:30 am. It was a very time consuming and frustrating experience.
Now you probably think I should have paid before I left Brisbane. Your typical Tesla Uber driver doesn’t always have a 100% battery and 400 miles of range, especially when you have a daily routine and a random schedule – unless you can combine your planned day with recharges and clients using your own independent rideshare company. This is easy compared to playing snakes and ladders on Uber or other rideshares.
The simple solution would be to place a bank of 75 kW chargers in convenient locations where car-sharing drivers await their rates. Usually around Australian airports you will find car parks that have been converted into waiting areas for rideshare, taxi, limousine or other airport carriers. But in these parking lots they don’t have EV chargers.
After I bought my EV I tried to encourage the Brisbane Airport Corporation to include chargers in the Ground Transportation Operation (GTO) area for taxis, ridesharing and limousines (this is a geofencing geofencing area where you can wait and receive rides – if a Tesla Uber driver travels outside this area, he is not allowed to pick up airport rides). Brisbane Airport Corporation offers 4 EV chargers at DFO, initially intended for personnel. BAC said “we are not interested” and pushed the issue aside rather than extending this offer to a specific GTO area.
Even Teslas get the blues. Photo courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
My proposed solution is rows of DC fast chargers with a solar panel shade (carport) in the waiting area. This would allow fast charging while cars in the feeding and waiting areas wait for work. Typically, cars can be idle for 15 minutes to 1 hour in rideshare areas, which is enough to charge an EV to nearly 100% and resolve any issues with the range of rideshare, taxi, and limousine carriers.
Airports are missing a great opportunity for revenue and carbon credits. They can check and brand the chargers, or they can outsource the service. There would be many eager bidders – Tesla, Chargefox, Evie Network and more. As more EVs enter the ground transportation space at airports, there will be pressure to implement such solutions for Tesla Uber drivers.
If they do this, I can provide customers with a more effective rideshare service and go to bed earlier!
Featured photo courtesy of Adam Nelson.
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