Over the last few years, a conga line of EVs has darkened my door. Without question, charging has been the bane on my life. Each brand promises to make life easy by allowing fast charging.

What bollocks!

For starters you have to rope down Hubble to find a charger, then schlepp around to it, and watch the grass grow while the interminable filling of the battery takes place. And that is if you’ve found a charger available, and it has the right plug. The whole thing is a cock-up in a tin cup.

I took my Audi E Tron for a run down to a friend’s cottage in Picton. On a home socket, you need a full 48 hours to get a lousy 250km. The drive down saw us lashed by biblical storms, and a high in the single digits. One good thing about electric cars is the heating is instant. However, imagine running a one-bar fire on a battery. The whole thing was turning turtle.

There is a scandalous lack of public infrastructure about the place, with bucolic centres particularly poorly presented. So, I took a chance that a few short side trips wouldn’t have me on the side of the road like a shag on a rock.

Above: This Week 2022 Kia Cerato (model refresh) Video Review

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ABOVE: 2021 Audi E Tron 50 QUATTRO and Chargefox Zetland

After a weekend of riparian delights, and a quite decent bottomless claret, I headed back in to town. For a $150,000 car, E Tron 50 Quattro doesn’t get far on 250km worth of range, because the 250 is strictly fair weather. 250km range quickly becomes 100km range in as little as 50km. You stand Buckley’s of actually ever doing what they say you do. Oh dear! To make matters even worse, Audi claims the actual range is 310.

By the time I got home, I was running on the digital equivalent of fumes, with my nails down to the beds.

I arrived at East Village to avail myself of a Chargefox Ultrafast 350kw. Of the 3 bays, one is much slower, and that would never do. I had to wait a few moments to bag a good bay, and once I had, I made a discovery. Remembering my Kia experience that left me cold, I checked the plugs. All the chargers are type 2. Audi takes type 2, AND type 1. There are 2 sockets. One doubles as both type one and type 2, and the other side of the car has a type 2. Is that as clear as mud?

I plugged the E Tron in, flashed my card, and watched the metre spin like a Drag on crack. After I was sure it had started, I went up to the food court to fetch a take away latte. I was only gone a jiff, and on my return, the Audi was at 82%. Hoorah. in less time than it takes to catch a coffee, i was ready to do it all over again.

All E Trons get 6 years free Chargefox, if you can find one. Normally I would be doing only 250km a week anyway, but as a reviewer we have to do at least double that. Once into the swing of charging, you could get a full battery every time you stop at Coles for a sliced loaf. Suddenly it is all doable.

I could really get used to this lark.

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