When we first started planning our family road trip from Brisbane to Canberra and back — with plenty of regional detours along the way — one big question kept coming up:
Can we really do a long-distance road trip in an electric vehicle with kids in the back seat and our 40kg fur baby taking up most of the boot?
The short answer: yes.
The longer answer: yes… with flexibility, patience, and a sense of adventure.
The big picture: distances, time, and cost
One-way, our journey along the “coast road” from Brisbane to Canberra (via Cessnock) clocked 1,255 kilometres and cost us roughly $100 in charging. That’s not just competitive with petrol — it’s cheaper, quieter, and far more relaxed when you lean into the rhythm of EV travel.
While Google Maps said it would take ~13 hours, in reality it took us almost 22 hours over three days. For our first long-distance EV road trip with a few challenges, we weren’t too fussed by this.
Rather than racing from A to B, charging stops became natural breaks: food, toilets, playgrounds, coffee, and letting the skin kids and fur baby burn off energy. Instead of “Are we there yet?”, the question became “What’s at the next stop?”
The excitement guided our decision to take the inland road on the way back north, from Batemans Bay to Brisbane. This ~1,500km route through Goulburn, Orange, Dubbo, Tamworth, Armidale, Grafton, and Casino takes 18 hours according to Google Maps. Having learned from our south-bound EV road trip, we did it in 20 hours.
The reality of charging on your EV road trip
EV road tripping in Australia is improving fast — but it’s not perfect yet.
Some chargers worked beautifully. Others were slow, busy, or incompatible with our older-model BYD Atto 3. At Coffs Harbour we lost almost two hours after discovering that we couldn’t use some Tesla chargers and had to find a slower charger that had limited facilities. At Port Macquarie, all chargers were in use at one large service station, so we detoured to a local shopping centre with a charger and a cafe. And in Grafton, we arrived to find four cars already waiting — which pushed us into one of our more adventurous decisions.
Instead of queueing in Grafton, we drove on to the next charger in Casino, rolling in with 11% battery left. It wasn’t reckless (we’d done the maths) but it was a reminder that EV travel still rewards planning and confidence.
Check out our honest review of the EV chargers we used throughout NSW: EV road trip charging stops in NSW (the good, the challenging, and the ugly)
Reaping the benefits of EV road trips
The flip side of EV road trips? Charging rarely felt like wasted time. Instead, we got to see more of the unique regions we visited and discovered local gems we would miss otherwise.
We found that many of the NRMA chargers in regional NSW were brilliantly placed near local shopping centres, playgrounds, visitor centres, cafés and pubs. So, when we bought souvenirs or food, our money went into the local region rather than to a large service centre chain.
Interested in planning your own EV road trip in NSW? Check out the NSW Government’s EV charging map: Electric Vehicle Charging Locations
Hills, wind, and regenerative braking
Call us nerds, but we were very interested in how the EV road trip would go with the varied terrain. Climbing from Tamworth (400 metres above sea level) up to Armidale (980 meters above sea level) used a lot of charge — which is what we expected. But the long downhill stretches that followed gave us something petrol cars never do: battery regeneration.
We also learned that wind matters. A lot. Strong headwinds coming down the mountains made a noticeable difference to efficiency… and to the kids’ stomachs (motion sickness made a dramatic appearance more than once on our journey).
A key takeaway: EVs are sensitive in ways fuel cars aren’t. But once you understand those variables, you start driving with the environment instead of fighting it.
Travelling with kids changes everything (for the better)
Doing an EV road trip with kids forced us to slow down a little — and that turned out to be the best part!
We didn’t just charge and go. We explored towns we’d usually bypass, stopped at playgrounds, lingered over lunches, and leaned into the journey rather than enduring it. The kids didn’t notice the longer travel time because they were never stuck for too long. Even Merlin enjoyed the ride!
Ironically, our electric car made us better road trippers.
Would we do a long-distance EV road trip again?
If we have the time, absolutely. Without hesitation.
A long-distance EV road trip in Australia still requires thought, flexibility, and the occasional backup plan. But it’s entirely doable, even with skin kids and a fur baby, even on long regional routes.
And once you stop thinking of charging as an inconvenience and start seeing it as an invitation to pause, explore, and breathe… the whole experience changes.
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