Canadian Roadtrip

[gokujou]

Hello all,
Going to be taking a road trip shortly across Canada, leaving from Minnesota in the States. I have the CCS adapter and have it entered in ABRP, though it thinks charging at Superchargers will be the best still. Made me curious if there is a reason, are they cheaper or faster than other chargers like Electrify Canada and etc?

Thank you!

 

[Canada_dude]

You should have no worries. I have done across from Vancouver to Montreal and back and there are plenty of Superchargers for you.
Having the CCS1 adapter is good because (assuming your car is CCS enabled) some of the L3 chargers such as Petro-Canada's (when they are working) you can draw 100+kW over the CCS and pay only $0.33/min. Most of the L3 are not tiered payments like Tesla's Supercharger. I think the Superchargers are charging $1+/min for the 100+kW. Hope that helped.
One more thing to consider, if you are doing this close to Winter, it is better to have winter tires.

 

[gokujou]

Nice! So it could be worth stopping at a Petro-Canada and trying to save a few bucks if it looks to be working?

 

[Vawlkus]

Nice! So it could be worth stopping at a Petro-Canada and trying to save a few bucks if it looks to be working?

With petrocan you can’t always tell if they’re working before you get there. Make sure you have an alternative in range.

 

[sckor]

I will shortly be driving from Ottawa, Ontario to Victoria, British Columbia.

Looking at PlugShare for DC fast chargers along the route, it seems like the Petro Canada chargers are really, really dicey. And even when they do work, and claim to do 200kW, it seems many are actually limited to 50kW. So you might save some money, but make sure you have a sense of humour, patience and a backup plan.

There are some Electrify Canada chargers on the way as well, but they are mostly only relevant when I get to British Columbia. Much better ranked on PlugShare and I think a little bit cheaper than the Superchargers.

I believe there are also some Ivy network chargers that are ranked decently well, but it seems most of those are limited to 50kW (at least they advertise them as such). So are those really fast chargers at this point? Better than L2, but not supercharger worthy. Not sure how the Ivy costs compare.

I suppose if you are at a higher state of charge such that you wouldn't pull more that 50kW anyway, but need the top-up then one of the slower but cheaper providers could fill a need.

If I have a lower-distance day, I might consider giving one of the alternatives a try, but it looks like in general Superchargers are going to be the way to go.

 

[Shaz]

Great thread! Will be doing this same drive next year July in my 2017 Model X 75D from Toronto to Vancouver and back. Hoping I can get the CCS retrofit by then but am very interested in everyone's results here once they've completed their trip. Will be watching this thread any info is appreciated.

 

[Canada_dude]

With petrocan you can’t always tell if they’re working before you get there. Make sure you have an alternative in range.

Exactly, there are times that even though the plugshare app says it is up, I had issues to get it to work. I recall one time that I thought it was just me but an Audi pulled up with me and he tried and it didn't work for him as well. The Petro-Canada EV stations are not reliable so best make sure you have the Tesla Supercharger nearby.

Also, to pre-condition the battery for fast charging it is best to pick a Tesla Supercharger on your navigation so as you approach one, it gets the battery ready but instead use your phone GPS to direct you to the Petro-Canada EV charger. This usually helps me to get the 100+kW charge instead of the slow 50'skW.

 

[Canada_dude]

I will shortly be driving from Ottawa, Ontario to Victoria, British Columbia.

Looking at PlugShare for DC fast chargers along the route, it seems like the Petro Canada chargers are really, really dicey. And even when they do work, and claim to do 200kW, it seems many are actually limited to 50kW. So you might save some money, but make sure you have a sense of humour, patience and a backup plan.

There are some Electrify Canada chargers on the way as well, but they are mostly only relevant when I get to British Columbia. Much better ranked on PlugShare and I think a little bit cheaper than the Superchargers.

I believe there are also some Ivy network chargers that are ranked decently well, but it seems most of those are limited to 50kW (at least they advertise them as such). So are those really fast chargers at this point? Better than L2, but not supercharger worthy. Not sure how the Ivy costs compare.

I suppose if you are at a higher state of charge such that you wouldn't pull more that 50kW anyway, but need the top-up then one of the slower but cheaper providers could fill a need.

If I have a lower-distance day, I might consider giving one of the alternatives a try, but it looks like in general Superchargers are going to be the way to go.

You are right about Ivy being only 50kW, at least the ones that I saw along the TransCanada highway. I recall stopping by the Ivy and Co-op chargers and they are all limited to 50kW and I believe the price was $0.37/min if memory serves me right.
However that being said, if there isn't a Tesla Supercharger nearby (or one that has been vandalized and you can't charge) then getting the slower L3 50kW is still better than nothing and at that point if your SOC is low, you are not thinking about the cost at that moment.

Plugshare is a great tool but don't depend on it as the only tool.

The other point to consider is time. While I do find Tesla Superchargers the most expensive method (in Canada) but it is the quickest and most reliable of all of the EV chargers available. I recall one time wanting to make sure I arrived at my hotel before the sunset because I can't stand having the autopilot constantly flash the high beams now that it is on camera only. sigh... Autopilot now during nighttime is just horrible.

 

[Vawlkus]

Some of the 50 kWh limitation on the petrocan chargers comes from the limitations on chademo plugs in general, and the Tesla adapter in particular.

A couple people with CCS adapters have reported higher than 50 kWh using that, but it’s still hit or miss IMHO.

 

[taurusvega]

Haven't done across Canada (hopefully next summer). Across Ontario from the southwest to the northwest, made the 1300km trek this past weekend. Used CCS chargers where possible, as others have mentioned they're hit or miss in terms of reliability and cost. Definitely can be huge savings over Supercharging.
I'll give my specific experience below, but like was mentioned it's always great to have reliable supercharger near by as an alternate. Still new to all this, 3 week old M3 RWD . Total spent was $46 vs. $150ish with hybrid Lexus CT earlier this summer. Supercharging is the way to go if you're in a time crunch, but if you aren't in a rush and want to save money CCS can be great. Really feel bad for non-Tesla EVs, I don't think I could handle the anxiety not having the Tesla charging network as a backup.

Flo CCS (Dufferin County) 50 kw - $5/hr - steady 45kw, gained 22.8 kWh for $2.53 (11c/kWh)

SWTCH (Parry Sound) 50 kw - FREE! - stayed here and charged to almost 100% - 45kw til about 90% then tapered down, gained 55 kWh, $0

Petro (Sudbury) 200 kw - 33c/min - disappointingly slow at 41 kw, only charged for 18 mins and never went above this, gained 12 kWh for $5.69 (47c/kWh)

Supercharger (Blind River) 250 kw - super easy/fast - peaked at about 113 kw, gained 14kWh for $7.35 (53c/kWh!!)

Petro (Sault Ste. Marie) 200 kw - 33c/min - pulled 127 kw here (14% SOC) and maintained above 100 until 70%, gained 39 kwh for $8.39 (22c/kwh)

Petro (Wawa) 200 kw - 33c/min - station #2 wouldn't even recognize the car, chatted with a Porche Taycan connected to #1 and he spent half an hour trying to get it work with tech support (useless), finally got #1 to work, but almost got stranded here. Petro + Tesla are the only DC chargers in town and it's over 200km Wawa to the Soo. 0 gained

Supercharger (Wawa) 250 kw - 22% SOC, only did a quick 5min top up here but if I remember right it was pulling 137 kw.

IVY (White River) 50 kw - 30c/min - steady 45 kw, wanted a bit longer break here so opted for slower IVY vs. supercharge, gained 38 kWh for $17.16 (45c/kWh)

 

[gokujou]

My trip went well, minus one "event". Overall, it didn't seem like Petro-Canada or Co-op were much cheaper and I was surprised that supercharging was actually cheaper in Canada than the US. I think my biggest charge was like 17-19USD in Canada versus 22-25USD in ND/MN in the US. I feel for short charging, using CCS was a little cheaper maybe, but all in all it felt about the same without breaking it down each charge. (That said, there never seemed to be a convenient CCS when I was sub 20%)

Now I did hit a few Petro-Canada stations that couldn't get above 80-90kw, and one that only hit like 40kw. I also noticed a bunch of Co-op chargers were down often. Didn't try and Electrify Canada locations though, and the slower 50kw stations (flo, etc) all seemed to work.

My "event":
On our return leg, we stayed in Winnipeg. Our plan was to top up at the Winnipeg SC in the morning as the hotels we liked didn't seem to have any level 2 charging. Come that morning, the SC was completely down for maintenance. :| The Co-op nearest us had DCFC, got there and it was down. SC was still down, so on to the second Co-op. Got there and it was stuck in an authorizing payment loop. Manager tried to help us but the phone support couldn't get it back up. Tesla routing was putting us on an alternate route that added 3-4 hours (eww), but oh well, we kept checking plugshare for something CCS on the route as we went. There was a 3rd Co-op right off our route that also had a Flo 50kw nearby so we tried that. That Co-op was up and running (think I got 80-90kw), got us plenty up to make it back to the states so having the CCS saved us many hours of extra driving.