Tesla Trippin’ to the Vantage Dawn Towers Benowa
Glenn and Sue Hazeldine are very happily married and living at the Vantage Dawn apartment tower in Benowa, Queensland, Australia. However, Sue feels like she has been sharing her husband with someone else. Glenn has been obsessed with Elon Musk for years. Every bit of information and story that Glen could find, read, listen to, or watch, he would. Glenn has the utmost respect for Elon’s “way ahead of his time” thinking.
Glenn, his daughter, and Sue lived in a 3-bedroom house in Maudsland and it was Glenn’s dream to own a Tesla. When the Model 3 was first developed you could pre-order one, all you had to do was pay a $1000 deposit to secure one of the early deliveries. Glenn desperately wanted to be one of the first to own a Model 3 in Australia. However, Sue holds the purse strings. She is also known as the “hand brake” and she wouldn’t agree.
Fast forward through years of research by Glenn into different car manufacturers, models, etc., and he was still totally sold on Tesla as his number one choice. Glenn shared with Sue all the information that persuaded him that the Model 3 was the one car to own.
When they sold their family home and bought an apartment in Vantage Dawn Towers at Benowa on the Gold Coast, part of the agreement was Glenn would get to own a Tesla; his dream would finally be fulfilled. They chatted with the developer, Rayjon Group, regarding EV charging at the apartment, but were informed that the developer wouldn’t be installing it. However, this matter could be raised after the building was handed over to the owners. It would be a residents/body corporate decision.
They purchased their Tesla Model 3 in late June 2021 and brought it home to the apartment after showing it off to friends and family, demonstrating all the amazing features it has on offer. It really is a very cool car!
The whole process of buying the Model 3 was easy. They selected the exterior and interior colours and the model. The car was available shortly after — no delays in those days.
The issue they are now having is charging. Body corporate is slowly working through the issues, and should have a solution soon for Vantage Dawn. In the meantime, they are using public chargers and it is getting more and more difficult, as there are so many EVs being purchased (the market has tripled in the last 12 months) and the installation of public chargers just isn’t keeping up with demand.
Ampol has announced that they were going to offer EV chargers in their petrol stations in October 2021. They couldn’t believe it took petrol stations so long to want to come on board! It’s a massive opportunity for them. EV drivers stop for up to an hour — think of the food and drinks they could sell them! It’s a huge opportunity missed in this respect, huge!
Who wants to pay $1.50 to $2.00+ per litre of fuel ($80–$100+ per tank) when you can pay about $11–$12 to fully charge your car, or less if you have a charger at home! Glenn and Sue get just over a week of ’round-town driving from one charge!
One of the other issues Glenn and Sue are currently facing is that the 10 Tritium chargers installed by the Gold Coast City Council (managed by ChargeFox) are frequently breaking down or charging at lower kW due to software or hardware issues. They have found that at least 4 to 5 of the 10 Tritium chargers are faulty at any given time, making it harder to find an available charger. This issue is multiplied by the increase in uptake of more and more EVs on the Gold Coast.
If you talk to other Tesla owners, they all seem to be incredibly excited by their vehicles, and incredibly happy! You always get that knowing “Tesla wave” from every Model 3 owner on the road, which is fun.
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