Cross-Canada Highway Journey in 2019 Hyundai Kona EV


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“We expect you’re loopy!”  “Wow, we’d by no means strive that!”  “What are you going to do should you get stranded?”

Nearly each time we broached the thought of driving our 2019 Kona EV throughout Canada, we bought these responses in return. Besides as soon as. “You’re actually apprehensive about local weather change, and also you wish to do one thing about it, proper?” mentioned my brother. “So should you determine to drive your fuel automotive to go to us, what message does that give? Go for it!”

So we did. On Could 28, we (my spouse, our poodle, and I) boarded the early ferry from our house on Vancouver Island, BC, and drove to spend time with household in southern Ontario. In US phrases, that’s equal to leaving San Juan Island, Washington, and going to see household in New York. And after 56 days and 10,358 kilometres (6,436 miles), I’ve realized fairly a bit about long-distance EV journey.

For the needs of this text, it’s necessary for American readers to know two issues about Canada. Each international locations are massive, however not like touring throughout the States, Canada has large expanses of, properly, nothing besides wilderness — no cities, no lodging, no eating places, simply the occasional fuel station. Second, there’s loads of political division from one province to the following. Some have fairly progressive provincial governments, like our province of British Columbia or Quebec, which acknowledge that local weather change is actual and have applied insurance policies to mitigate it. Others like Alberta consider that all the financial system is linked to grease and fuel, and subsequently are typically much less sympathetic in the direction of options like electrical autos. Lastly, there are provinces like Ontario, merely conservative by nature, the place monetary incentives to create social change are seen with suspicion, no matter how necessary these modifications could also be.

Why are these political variations necessary right here? As a result of infrastructure like public charging stations must be forward of the demand curve. Why would anybody contemplate buying an electrical automobile if there aren’t any locations to cost it past their house? And why would any for-profit company go to the expense of putting in and sustaining public charging stations if there have been few if any electrical autos to make use of them? EVs (together with electrical warmth pumps and rooftop photo voltaic) may be an incredible local weather answer, however what’s the rooster and what’s the egg? Voters decide that by selecting what sort of authorities they need in energy.

With these details in thoughts, listed below are the principle takeaways from our practically two month journey throughout three time zones:

  1. With just a few exceptions detailed beneath, stage 3 quick charging stations have been available all the best way, and solely as soon as did now we have to attend for an additional automobile to complete charging. One exception was in a significant metropolis the place somebody goes round reducing the cables — most likely for the worth of the copper wire. By the point I discovered a charger that was working, we have been down beneath 50 km of vary (a stage that might put my spouse into coronary heart assault mode, however fortunately she wasn’t within the automotive on the time). One other exception was in a small Ontario city the place all the station had been eliminated, however nonetheless confirmed on the app.
  2. Then come those which can be presupposed to be working, however if you get there, aren’t. Vary nervousness comes from conditions the place you merely don’t know. Perhaps the territory is new, you haven’t skilled it, and you’re relying on and trusting the data obtainable to you in your cellphone. Or possibly you’ve used the station earlier than and are relying on it once more. In our case, the place a lot of our return journey was on the identical highway as our eastbound portion, we knew the place the stations have been situated and had used them just a few weeks earlier. Twice on our return journey we arrived and found that no stations have been working, and the consequence ranged from panic to vital disruption of plans. Fortunately, with some analysis, stage 2 stations have been obtainable, however the time delay was quite inconvenient.
  3. Some stations cost by the hour, others by kWh consumed. Older autos like ours can not settle for cost higher than 70–75 kW, so we’re penalized at hourly stations with capacities as much as 350 kW.
  4. The price of energy for EVs varies extensively throughout the nation and appears to not bear a relationship to residential electrical energy charges. For instance, British Columbia and Ontario have roughly comparable residential electrical energy charges, at about $0.12/kWh. BC stage 3 stations promote energy between $0.34.8 and $0.39/kWh, or at about thrice the residential charge. (Some nonetheless promote by the hour, however at a 50 kW station, the fee per kWh is about the identical). Ontario is a unique story. If bought by energy used, the fee there’s $0.62/kWh, about 5 occasions the residential charge. The hourly charge is $30 at 100 kW stations, aggressive to BC in case your automobile can take up that stage of cost, however punitive for these of us who can not. For us, the price of charging in Ontario was practically double that in British Columbia.

The underside line is that with sufficient time, planning and persistence, a prolonged cross-country journey by EV just isn’t solely attainable, however can be enjoyable and rewarding. All of us want rest room, lunch, and occasional breaks, and the canine has his personal set of causes to cease. With a little bit of advance planning, most if not all stops to cost could be tied into different actions — generally to the place the place we wished we had longer to cost, not chomping on the bit to get going. On unfamiliar roads, our rule was to by no means move up a charging station. This meant that we have been stopping each couple of hours, however it prevented the danger of the one we actually wanted being both in use or inoperative.

Having mentioned that, the EV infrastructure has a protracted technique to go if vary nervousness is to be eradicated. I needed to obtain 10 apps on my cellphone, both to seek out or to activate charging stations. No single app confirmed all of the stations, not to mention supplied a technique to activate the stations or pay for the ability used. On high of that, except I used to be prepared to scroll throughout the map, discovering stations alongside the best way, I needed to enter the identify of a city or metropolis to seek out them. The issue is that those we actually wanted have been typically nowhere near any inhabitants centre in any respect — definitely no inhabitants centre that I ever knew existed. It will have been far more handy to easily enter the freeway quantity we deliberate to journey that day, and have it present each stage 2 and stage 3 charger inside × kilometres of that route. I did discover Google Maps to be of some assist on this regard, however contemplating the distances concerned in comparison with the scale of the cellphone display screen, they have been straightforward to overlook even when they did present up at larger zooms.

In a single province, however one province solely, many Tesla stations have been required to incorporate no less than one CCS and CHAdeMO unit. We discovered these stations to be extraordinarily useful, primarily due to the sheer variety of Tesla stations there are, and the way they fill in places not adequately served by different suppliers. The issue is that on a nationwide stage, Tesla stations don’t have CCS plugs to suit our Kona. There they’re, six brilliant purple and white chargers all in a row, they usually’re completely ineffective to the remainder of us. That has to alter.

Lastly, there’s an crucial for stations to be monitored and maintained in order that they’re operative 100% of the time. There are too many places throughout the nation the place a single charger or pair of chargers is the one choice — completely important, not solely to the journey, but in addition to the consolation and security of the folks concerned. It’s one factor to seek for after which drive to a Degree 2 charger just a few kilometres away and be compelled to attend as much as 4 hours to get a adequate cost. But it surely’s one other a lot scarier situation to seek out that charger in the midst of nowhere inoperative, however then with no different for charging, no lodging to remain in, no restaurant for a meal, and no straightforward technique to get assist. There aren’t many of those throughout Canada, and fortuitously for us, they have been working. However like airplanes, 99% isn’t adequate. It’s bought to be 100% or one other airplane shut by may trigger a catastrophe.

So, would we do it once more? You wager we might! Superior surroundings, great folks, nice meals, and many journey. There’s additionally the satisfaction of travelling with out all these emissions contributing to the local weather disaster. However right here’s the most effective information that I’ve saved to the tip. Our whole electrical energy charging price was C$757.68. The fuel mileage on an ICE Kona is rated at 31 miles/US gallon, or 7.6 litres/100 km. At a mean value throughout the nation of C$1.56/litre, it’s a straightforward calculation to indicate that if we had pushed a fuel Kona, our price would have been C$1,228. For bragging rights and practically $500 in my pocket, I’d do that each time.

By John Laing


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