05-07-2025
Couple's 'wild adventure' crossing the Nullarbor in Tesla with 4 per cent battery
Crossing the Nullarbor is not for the faint-hearted. But imagine travelling the isolated 1,200km stretch in a Tesla that only has 4 per cent battery left.
That was the nail-biting reality for Perth couple Abby and Patrick Kearns, who had to travel 20km/h under the speed limit at one point to make sure they'd be able to reach their next charging station.
Incredibly, their journey across Australia was their first time ever driving a Tesla. After purchasing a Model S from Canberra, the pair decided to fly over at the end of May to pick it up and drive it back home to Roleystone, in Perth's southeast.
Abby told Yahoo News the road trip was "quite the inauguration" to the world of EVs, but they loved every moment of the "wild" adventure.
Their 3,700km trip was split up over four days and three nights, with the most challenging part 'definitely' the Nullarbor. One 460km stretch had no charging stations at all, with the couple putting their faith in their new car's long-range battery.
"It was a bit of a leap of faith really, and in order to make it there with the 4 per cent battery left, we had to drive 20 kilometres under the speed limit the whole way, just to save the battery," Abby said.
"We were both on the edge of our seats for the last maybe 10 kilometres, as we were watching the battery going down and the computer screen telling us to turn around and try to find another charger.
"I was like, 'Oh my God'. Because if you get stuck out there, there's literally nothing as far as you can see. So we'd have to end up getting a tow truck out to tow us somewhere. It would have been pretty wild."
The couple made it to the charging point just in time, but the low-voltage stations can take hours to charge a vehicle. By the time they were ready to continue it was night, and they were faced with a whole new set of challenges.
Once again they were forced to drive slow — but this time it was due to the wildlife.
"There are kangaroos jumping out of the middle of nowhere every couple of minutes. So we were in high alert driving in the pitch black across the Nullarbor, but there was also a fog along the road that meant we couldn't see past our car for more than maybe five metres. So at some points we're just crawling at like 40 kilometres an hour in the dark," Abby said.
At times, finding a charger wasn't the issue — it was getting phone reception.
"Your car will not charge if your phone signal and the app is not online," Abby said. 'We've never been so dependent on technology in our lives!"
One night, they were desperate for a bar of signal and Paddy managed to finally find a weak spot of reception by standing on a chair and propping his phone near the air conditioner.
"Both of us barely slept that night," Abby recalled, as they were consistently checking that both the phone and the car were still charging.
In another hurdle, Abby and Paddy were pulled over at the South Australian border after accidentally bringing fruit into the state.
South Australia has strict quarantine laws — mainly to protect the state from fruit fly — and it's illegal to bring fresh fruit and vegetables across the border.
"We crossed the border without even thinking about anything, and we had loads of fruit in the car," Abby said, adding that Paddy was taken into a demountable building and "questioned about his intention with the fruit" for half an hour.
She said they're expecting a fine in the mail, but even that couldn't put a dampener on their trip.
"It was just another hurdle that we overcame. Another crazy little moment," Abby said.
"All challenges aside, it was such an adventure for us, you know? We really loved it."
Their Tesla is now one of only two of its kind in the state.
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