Toby Hagon•19 Sept 2023

FEATURE

From Darwin to Sydney in a Porsche Taycan – via Big Red and Bathurst

carsales takes an epic myth-busting trip in Porsche’s EV, taking in Bondi Beach, Mount Panorama and the Simpson Desert

Cresting the Big Red sand dune on the eastern fringe of the Simpson Desert is an achievement in any car.

Moreso when it’s a Porsche – and an electric one at that.

The towering mound of red granules beams from the desolate Australian Outback with the sort of majesty that teases cameras to the horizon and draws adventurers the world over.

It’s spectacular country known for its stark brilliance, but is also known for its inhospitable nature to anything on wheels.

It’s the type of adventure that attracts toughened up Toyota LandCruiser and Nissan Patrol 4x4s and adventure bikes that look as though they’ve stormed from the set of Mad Max.

Not a Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo.

EV in the rough

That’s our weapon of choice in what is one of our most ambitious tests to date.

Our Taycan is as it rolled off the German production line, right down to the 20-inch low-profile rubber that would do a great job on an autobahn but is less suited to some of what we have lying ahead.

At the start line in Darwin, we were staring at more than 5000km of Australian roads traversing everything from endless bitumen stretches and unpredictable layers of rocks and gravel to mountains – and Mount Panorama – as well as the joys of Sydney traffic.

It’s designed as the ultimate test for one of the world’s fastest and engaging electric cars.

It’s also about taking the Taycan way out of its comfort zone to show just what an EV can achieve.

But as well as testing the car, this test will also test the EV charging infrastructure – as well as the mettle of the person behind the wheel.

In the beginning

Our adventure started in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, which officially has Australia’s lowest uptake of electric vehicles. It’s a land of LandCruisers and diesel, where knobbly tyres and years of permeating dust lay the foundations for trips as varied as a dash to Kakadu or a run to Coles.

Overlooking the Timor Sea and with Papua New Guinea and Indonesia closer than most of the rest of Australia, it’s not only a reminder of how vast this country is but also how seemingly limitless the thousands of kilometres of white lines stretching towards the horizon are.

The Stuart Highway

Heading south from Darwin is an easy drive along a highway initially created to transport military supplies to the north of the country. These days the only armies are caravans and road trains, the once speed derestricted road now a 130km/h zone.

At those speeds our Taycan Cross Turismo 4S feels as though it’s barely trying. The dual motors make a combined 420kW and 650Nm and can blast the five-door, five-seater to the national limit in 4.1 seconds.

At 130km/h, and with some enthusiasm passing other traffic, the Taycan is using almost 29kWh per 100km.

But back it off to 110km/h and that lowers the usage to about 25kWh/100km. Drop it further and the equation brightens further.

It’s an easy way to extend how far we’ll get out of the battery, which has a usable capacity of 83.7kWh.

Australia’s best Outback pubs

Melbourne and Sydney may want to duel it out over which does the best pubs (and food and weather). But the Top End has its fair share of impressive watering holes, not to mention some decent eating options (get used to steak sangas and chicken parmis!) and expanses of blue sky.

Early in the trip some of those pubs vaguely align with where we’re able to charge.

The Pine Creek Hotel had access to a three-phase outlet that provided 21kW of power straight to the onboard AC charger.

More than you think

And while we were utilising the PlugShare app to direct us to places to top-up, there were often signs to confirm you weren’t looking in the wrong place.

Years ago the Australian Electric Vehicle Association travelled the country scouting locations that EVs could utilise to charge. The small “AEVA” signs signal the location of power outlets, none of which we came across were proper charging stations. Instead, they’re typically three-phase outlets, some of which aren’t exactly at the Paris end of town.

One important point: make sure you’ve got the right hardware for charging. We had a Juice Booster with five different tails, or adapters. It meant we could use any of the three different three-phase plugs (yep, there’s nothing like simplicity…) as well as 10A (standard) or 15A (more powerful) household power points.

Early surprises

The Taycan is one of a handful of EVs that can charge at up to 22kW from AC power. Most others top out at half that rate, but the optional, more powerful onboard charger allows the car to utilise the full whack out of the most powerful three-phase outlets.

That was a trend noted early in our trip. It meant that we could add almost 100km of range per hour of charge. It also allowed us to tack on some side trips, safe in the knowledge that we’d be able to easily charge to full overnight.

It pays to have an extension cable for the three-phase plug, though, because those outlets aren’t always in an optimum spot; in caravan parks we visited they seemed to be near the laundry or amenities block.

But the Taycan also has another charging trick that regularly came in handy: it can be AC charged from either side of the car. While it may seem superfluous around the suburbs it’s suddenly a lot more useful tucking the nose into a well-used garage that hasn’t left any floor space untouched.

Getting noticed

If you want to turn heads in the Outback, then a Porsche is a good way to do it.

Make it an electric one finished in Frozen Blue and you’re all but guaranteed to be the centre of attention among the sea of bull-barred 4WDs.

Throw in a second for good measure and a couple of support cars – all Porsches – and the convoy at one point even appeared to tease a stray emu from pecking the dusty ground.

OK, I may have been imagining things, which is easy to do in the expanse of the Outback.

Heading east

Leaving Tennant Creek provided our first big test. The easterly run to Camooweal in Queensland is an easy drive, but at 471km it was going to stretch the limits of the Porsche EV.

We topped up at a roadhouse 25km out of town and had also pre-arranged a backup charge at an Outback cattle station.

That created its own challenges in getting the car to accept a charge. While the station is soon switching to solar, for now it’s running a diesel generator that may not have been emitting the pure sine wave the car wanted to see.

All of which meant lots of plugging and unplugging to eventually get enough electrons on board for the final dash to Queensland.

It’s indicative of the challenges of taking an EV to such remote country. With fuel there’s often a nearby alternative. With electricity you may be very lonely…

Loads of options

That said, this trip naturally allowed plenty of time for thinking. It made me realise that you really can go almost anywhere in an EV – provided you have time.

Ultimately, anywhere with buildings or sheds has power, and even a slow charge will be enough to get you on your way.

For the most part, the locals were happy to help out. More than that, they were desperate to ensure we could keep moving, something indicative of the way things work in the bush.

Straight and narrow

One cool aspect of the Taycan is its driving position, which is almost identical to the iconic 911. That even goes for the wheel-arches you see bulging off in the corners of the bonnet.

But clearly a Taycan has not been designed for roads this straight, at least as its prime reason for being.

I lost count of how many times the car alerted me to take control of the steering, thinking I’d taken my hands off the wheel – when it was just that the road hadn’t changed for kilometre after kilometre.

Staying comfy

For the most part I was running the Taycan in its default Comfort mode. That pops the three-chamber air suspension in its most compliant setting and sets the two-speed rear-mounted gearbox in its tallest ratio (Sport and Sport Plus automatically engage first gear for snappier take-offs).

But for the longer runs, it was Eco mode that got the tick. As well as lowering the suspension and adjusting the throttle response, it also defaults to an eco mode for the air-conditioning.

Plus you can watch the range predictor add a crucial few kilometres, something that keeps building if you’re driving gently.

Getting remote

Heading south from Mount Isa initially transposed the flat plains with some mountain ranges. It’s a terrific change of pace, albeit one that brought with it more wildlife.

Kangaroos, emus and wedge-tailed eagles were all creatures to look out for.

Unlike high-riding off-roaders, the Taycan Cross Turismo has a ludicrously low centre of gravity and beautifully crisp steering, something that gives you confidence to give it a good shot avoiding whatever hurtles itself in front of the Porsche.

Solid brakes, too, add to the reassurance, although the reality is we’re barely touching them.

Off to Birdsville

South from Mount Isa takes us through classic outback Queensland towns. Charging typically involves finding a roadhouse or business that has a three-phase outlet, all of which is keeping us moving on schedule.

But it’s Birdsville where we strike a new challenge. The Birdsville Pub offers us their three-phase power, which works … initially. But after a few minutes the load the car is drawing trips a circuit breaker. Resetting it has the same result, forcing us to instead use a lesser-powered outlet.

We’re there for the night, so there isn’t a problem, but it’s a reminder that such a simple issue can have you rethinking.

Top speed in a Taycan

While there have been bursts of excitement, much of this trip has been spent below the speed limit to conserve energy.

But Birdsville was a chance to unload – and utilise the Sport Plus drive mode that had been largely dormant. We had brief access to the 1.8km airstrip, where the Taycan quickly demolished its claimed 240km/h top speed.

The best that flicked up on the digital instrument cluster was 248km/h, before lunging onto the brakes to pull up 2.3 tonnes worth of Porsche – as well as a few hundred kilos of human cargo.

It’s a brief but exhilarating experience that reminds what the Taycan has been engineered for: pace.

That it does it so easily is testament to the engineering of the core car.

Into the Desert

But Birdsville also provided a less familiar challenge to an electric Porsche: sand driving.

Half an hour west of town is the towering Big Red sand dune, our destination for the afternoon.

We lowered tyre pressures to increase traction, something that had some wondering if we were serious about taking an electric Porsche up the dune.

After all, this is the domain of the high-riding 4WD, not a Porsche. And certainly not an electric one.

I could almost see their smiles from afar when the first attempt failed because the chassis electronics were detecting wheelspin and quickly shutting it down.

Unlike an ICE machine, it’s almost seamless the way it pulls back power. There’s none of the groaning or pulsing, with the electronics smoothly dulling the effect of the throttle pedal.

Having backed down the dune it was off with the traction and stability control for one more try – which it did easily.

The low centre of gravity prompted some sandy celebration and some time to reflect on what this car had just done. To our knowledge it’s the first time a battery-electric vehicle has driven itself up Big Red.

The scale of the achievement was rammed home when a 200 Series Toyota LandCruiser struggled twice before giving up.

Rocks, gravel and more

Leaving Birdsville the next morning saw the road turn from harsh greyed and faded coarse-chip bitumen to deep red dirt. It also exposes one of the Taycan’s few flaws out here: tyres.

They’re designed to do 250km/h and deal with the punishment of racetrack hot laps. They’re less inclined to resist the sharp edge of a rock or the thump of a pothole.

So looking after the rubber was a major focus, as was the desire to ensure we’d have enough electricity in the battery for the dusty trip ahead. So we backed the pace off to 80-90km/h, which also gave more time to soak up the vastness of the surrounding country.

Rolling into Betoota also gave a chance to consider old and new. The pub’s owner has a Holden FJ that’s still driven regularly, and it makes for a stunning contrast with our Taycan.

As does the surrounding landscape, which is about as removed from a Taycan’s natural habitat as anywhere in the world.

Expect the unexpected

The run to Windorah had us expecting to rely on caravan park power, which makes for a very slow charge. But the only hotel in town also had a three-phase outlet – and it was one added primarily for the role of charging any stray EVs that made their way into town.

So it was a full charge again in heading to Longreach.

Back to civilisation

While it’s known as one of the early home bases for Qantas and also houses the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, Longreach is also like a metropolis compared with where we’ve been.

And it’s got something we haven’t seen in a long time: a fast EV charger.

It’s indicative of the expanding network that is (eventually) making it easier for electric cars to venture beyond their suburban bases.

But there’s one thing that doesn’t change between EV and ICE: bugs. Turns out they gravitate to the electric variety just as enthusiastically. But because we weren’t visiting service stations we ended up with a very buggy windscreen.

It was the one time I caved and headed to a servo to give the screen a decent clean.

Home run

That ease of charging follows us through Charleville and into NSW. The charger in Blackall is at the opposite end of town to the local aquatic centre, which is fed by bubbling hot springs. It wasn’t enough to stop us having a dip.

That’s the thing with travelling to places like this with an EV. We would have stopped there anyway, it’s just the trek to the pool from the fast charger was a tad further than ideal.

Driving through country NSW sees the vegetation thicken and the roads undulate more.

All that early planning for charging is out the window now because of the relatively frequent fast charging options, many of which are still free (which creates its own challenges from local EV owners grabbing a free top-up).

Sure, it’s not as carefree as pumping petrol, but knowing you’ve got a few hundred kilometres of range available from an hour or two of charging certainly makes progress easier.

Up the mountain

Of course, we couldn’t drive through Bathurst without a lap (or two) of Mount Panorama. Australia’s most famous racetrack is an easy 6.2km scenic drive for most of the year.

Sure, it’s at 60km/h and you’re not attacking the racing line, but it’s still an experience – and one that reinforces how steep parts of the track are.

From the roar of racing V8s in October to the near-silence of an EV is surreal, as is the realisation that I’m creating electricity through regenerative braking on the way down the mountain.

Finally, corners

The final dash into Sydney takes us through the Blue Mountains. It’s here we can finally use those 20-inch tyres for more of what they were designed for.

Despite the nuggety 2.3-tonne body, the Taycan feels impressively agile. Fluid and communicative steering helps, as does its planted stance.

Dial up the pace and there’s a sense you’re only scratching the surface of a car that – as we’ve learnt – has a broad talent base.

Scything through Sydney traffic is also a snip with the near-instant torque delivery.

There’s one thing I’m not a huge fan of: traffic. After upwards of 5000km of remote roads, it’s slightly frustrating to have to share a patch of bitumen with other vehicles.

Still, it’s all in the aim of reaching the finish line, which is the famous Bondi Beach.

Granted, we can’t take the Taycan on this sand, nor does it turn heads as much as it was previously.

But to me seeing a dusty and bug-ridden Taycan Cross Turismo roll up to one of the most famous stretches of sand in the world is a fitting end to an epic adventure.

The finish line

In many ways, though, this trip was about proof of concept. If you want to drive an EV to any part of the country today it can be done – with some planning.

You couldn’t have done that a century ago in the early days of petrol, all of which makes you realise what should be possible in decades to come.

Sure, if you want to do 800-1000km a day to places like Birdsville and Betoota then an EV isn’t for you, at least not now.

Slow down the pace, plan the journey and enjoy the sensational views that the Outback dishes up so regularly – and the people and places you encounter along the way – and the occasional pain of charging quickly dissipates.

The big challenge now, though, is coming up with something that will top one of our most epic adventures to date.