Blaxland sits at the bottom of the mountains, close enough to Penrith to share its shopping and far enough up to escape the worst of its heat. For an electric car it is close to an ideal address, and the reason is charging.
Almost every EV in Blaxland charges at home, slowly, overnight. There is no public fast charger competition to speak of, no apartment towers forcing owners onto DC chargers, and a housing stock of detached homes with driveways and garages. That combination produces the gentlest charging profile a lithium pack can have.
Why it matters: DC fast charging pushes very high current into a pack and generates heat doing it, and repeated heat cycling is what permanently removes capacity. AC charging at home — even on a normal 10-amp power point — is slow enough that the pack barely warms. A car that has done four years of overnight AC charging and almost no DC has had an easier life than an identical car run off highway chargers, and it usually measures that way.
If you are buying a car in the lower mountains, this is a genuine point in its favour — but only if the car actually lived here. Plenty of Blaxland cars were bought used in western Sydney and moved up, and their first three summers happened somewhere hotter and on someone else's charging habits.
What the hill does
Blaxland's daily driving includes the climb up and the run back down, and on the descent the car recovers energy through regenerative braking. Over years that adds a lot of small charge events to a pack's history.
This is benign. Regen currents are modest compared with a DC charger, the energy goes in gradually, and the pack does not heat up appreciably. If anything, mountains driving is a good advertisement for how an electric drivetrain handles terrain — the thing that punishes a petrol car's brakes is the thing an EV converts back into range.
Where we come to
Blaxland, Glenbrook, Warrimoo, Lapstone, Mount Riverview, Springwood and Valley Heights. Home addresses, seller addresses, workplace car parks.
Booking
Online booking is open across the lower mountains. $249, no travel surcharge. Phone 02 7252 1390 if you would rather.
EV battery testing across the Blue Mountains · Glenbrook · Springwood · Book a test — $249