EV Charging Sydney, The Orange Albatross, and Tesla's V4 Rise

EV charging Sydney has always been a bit of a mixed bag, feeling like a cross between total societal collapse and a cynical capitalist plot. Back in 2019, the basement of my local shops at East Village Shopping Centre, Zetland, became a kind of shrine to the hubris of Australian engineering. Two gleaming, bright orange Tritium PK350 units were erected there—the “Orange Albatross”—standing as a sad reminder of what was meant to be the supposed “fastest” charging Sydney could possibly offer.

They were advanced, liquid-cooled masterpieces on paper, maybe. But years of PlugShare check-ins outed those orange boxes as little more than expensive anchors. For six miserable years, drivers experienced a dreary “lottery” with no winners while those liquid-cooling loops went tits-up in the stagnant air of the underground car park. Software handshakes frequently timed out, electronics glitched, and yobbos broke stuff because that’s why we can’t have nice things.

I’ve been there. Holding a plug into an IONIQ 5 with one hand while fumbling with a phone app in the other, waiting for the moody charger to finally grip the plug so I could let go. It was a total schmozzle. And the LCD screens? Blank for a laugh or displaying an out-of-order message just to spike your blood pressure. Worst of all, it relied on mobile service. In a basement. Car parks swallow signals like a granny at a buffet, so if you didn’t have a physical Chargefox card, you were stuffed.

Tesla’s Alexandria gerry-rig and the 250kW reality check

Down the road in Alexandria, at 118 Bourke Road, it’s a different kind of technical mess. A hybrid of generations where 6 taller, all-white Tesla Supercharger V4 pedestals fill you with hope, but they’re still hooked up to old V3 cabinets. It’s a gerry-rigged configuration that gives you longer cables but nobbles the power at 250kW. Remember, the theoretical limit is 1000kW, but we’re held back by conservatism and infrastructure that’s losing puff. Those longer cables are great for the non-Tesla crowd, but since those V3 cabinets share power, you’re looking at a mere 120–150kW trickle when the site is chockers.

It feels like the powers that be have been gotten at by oil tycoons and their insatiable minions. This disappointing capitulation to reliability mirrors a country-wide shift. Despite the rot, the federal government and the NRMA are nearly done with the “Driving the Nation” fund—117 fast(ish) sites every 150km. Hoorah. They’re prioritising lusty-busty hardware over extreme speeds, mostly to shut down the drone from right-wing nut jobs who arc on about EV unreliability as if their lives depended on selling more petrol. Actually, follow the money—they probably do.

Above: This Week’s VIDEO Review –2026 Haval H6 Ultra PHEV: Inertia Dampers at Warp 9.9!

#GWM, #HavalH6, #PHEV, #HavalH6PHEV, #SUV, #CarReview, #AnyAuto, #HybridSUV, #AussieCars, #InertiaDampers, #WarpSpeed

#GayCarBoys

ABOVE: Gone but sadly not forgotten

Location	Stalls	Status	Notes
Alexandria	6	0 Available	Tesla Supercharger V4 pedestals at capacity. Expect 20 min wait.
Waterloo	8	4 Available	Reliable EV charging Sydney option. 1.9m height limit.
Moore Park (EQ)	6	2 Available	Tesla Supercharger V4 + NRMA. Validated parking available.

Scavenger charging and the end of the Moore Park desert

Then you’ve got Moore’s Park Entertainment Quarter (EQ). We’re told to buy EVs because we can charge at home or work, but what about when we’re actually at play? For years, the EQ was an EV desert devoid of people. During events things changed, it turned into the Hunger Games, a culture of desperate “scavenger charging” where drivers would hunt for 10-amp wall sockets secreted in little nooks near lift shafts. I’ve seen it—unwanted friends showing up to a party at home expecting to plug in their $300k Tesla for a top-up, but at EQ, guards would tell such freeloaders to naff-off for “stealing” power. The hide of them.

That era of desperation ended in 2025. Now there’s a modern hub with 6 high-speed bays and overstay charges to punish the miscreants. A mix of NRMA units and Tesla Supercharger V4 pedestals that actually provide a service—for a price. It’s a primary “relief valve” for EV charging Sydney now, offering 2 hours of free parking so you can actually get a meal while you wait. But don’t try to catch a movie. A buck a minute kicks in at 100%, and there’s only a skerrick of grace for those running late. There should be overstay fees everywhere to stop people with wads of cash using chargers as cheap parking.

Infrastructure excuses and the data farm irony

City council is busy putting slow AC chargers on lamp poles, but fast charging remains elusive and they always blame the local infrastructure. Ironically, data farms in Alexandria and Macquarie Park use enough water and power for a dozen communities. Slathering every roof in sight with solar might make things less combative, but here we are.

At the end of the day, EV charging Sydney is only as good as the slowest part of the equation. You can park at a 350kW ultra-rapid beast, but if your el-cheapo EV is limited by 400-volt architecture or a stingy battery management system that throttles speeds to prevent you turning into a small sun, you’re sitting there, todger in hand, waiting for a happy ending. Neither you nor the charger are breaking a sweat. Slam your head against a wall if you want, but it’s a digital bottleneck. Sit back. Watch some Netflix—if you have signal and a subscription. Face the facts: you’re at the mercy of a car that refuses to drink any faster. It’s a joke. You get what you pay for.

#SydneyEV #EVChargingAustralia #TeslaV4 #OrangeAlbatross #NRMA #MoorePark #Zetland #ElectricVehicles #Supercharger #AustraliaEV #EVLife #RangeAnxiety #Tritium #DrivingTheNation

Other GayCarBoys EV Stories:

EV Charging Sydney, The Orange Albatross, and Tesla’s V4 Rise