This EV had an outback adventure powered by cooking oil

The biggest barrier to serious adventuring in electric vehicles is the absence of chargers in remote parts of the planet. But thanks to an enterprising off-grid, bio-fuelled charging station Australia’s Nullarbor Plain has just opened up to EV explorers.

A Polestar 2 has become the first electric car to cross the plain after stopping to juice up at the Caiguna Roadhouse on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. While there’s no shortage of sun in the Aussie outback, the price of solar panels is still prohibitive so the roadhouse installed a Biofil charger which uses waste vegetable oil from the restaurant to generate electricity.

Invented by retired engineer Jon Edwards, the charger is said to be carbon neutral because the amount of CO2 emitted when producing power is the same as absorbed by the seed crops that make the oil. Oil that’s already been used for cooking would go to landfill if it wasn’t re-used like this an it takes about 20 litres or a week’s worth of frying to charge one electric car.

The Caiguna Station adds to Australia’s estimated 3,000 EV charging stations easing the range anxiety of EV tripping Down Under just a little .