Future car charge station investigated
A REPRESENTATIVE from international electric car company Tesla Motors will visit Dubbo next month to assess whether the city could be a suitable site to build one of the company's distinctive charging stations.
Earlier this year, Tesla Motors announced plans to launch 16 high-powered supercharger stations between Melbourne and Brisbane, which theoretically would allow customers to travel between the centres without paying a cent for electricity.
The planned visit by Tesla's Australian Supercharger Program Manager comes after avid electric vehicle enthusiast Dubbo Mayor Mathew Dickerson contacted the company to discuss what Dubbo City Council might have to do to be included on the network.
At the time he said if it involved a large investment of money then he would say no, given the number of Tesla vehicles in Australia at the moment was low.
But if it was the case of helping find some land at zero or minimal cost, Cr Dickerson said, when the vehicles became more popular it could provide a reason for people who might not previously have gone via Dubbo, nor stopped in the city, to do so.
Cr Dickerson told the Daily Liberal after speaking with the company, he understood it would cover the cost of building the charging site and the electricity, provided council could offer a suitable parcel of land.
"There are two requirements from council - one that we can provide land big enough to put four car parks, it can be any land, even industrial land, and secondly somewhere near enough to a transformer so they can get the load requirements they need," he said.
"The good part about Dubbo is we are halfway between Brisbane and Melbourne at an intersection of the Mitchell and Golden highways.
"I understand that with the charging, Tesla aims for a 200-kilometre or so hop at a time, so it could benefit a nearby city if one went in there as well.
"Ideally it would be located centrally in the city, and Tesla said near a visitor information centre works well.
"You want people to park their car and while it charges be grabbing food or coffee in the city. At the same time, car parks are at more of a premium in the centre of the city.
"Also, we might find a great spot then it might not be near enough to a transformer and therefore it's no good.
"It is early days yet, and even if our Tesla representative comes and says Dubbo's a fantastic spot, there would be a way to go."
Cr Dickerson said while the idea of there being four Tesla vehicles parked at Dubbo at any one time was difficult to imagine at the moment that was no reason not to lodge an expression of interest to host one of the charging stations.
"Some people might be thinking a month in advance but we need to think long-term, perhaps years in advance if we want to be part of this."
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