Wiki Canadian Trip Planning

[PoweredByRain]

Your trip certainly demonstrates how slowing down can make an enormous difference. I'm also betting that you had some wind at your back. I typically see greater energy consumption travelling east to west on the 401 vs. the opposite.

That's interesting. I looked up the figure when I drove Ottawa to Toronto last year (i.e. westbound) and it was 177 Wh/km. That fits the pattern you describe.

- - - Updated - - -

Not a record lol. Once in unexpectedly cold temperatures, late at night, I drove my Roadster down the 401 at 90 kph.

My comment wrt 100 km/h was related the fact that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of vehicles passed me, whereas I only found two campers that were doing less than 100.

I once did 80 on I-15 between Las Vegas and Beaver, Utah. I mean 80 km/h, not 80 mph. This was with very little traffic and in the dark, and I just turned on the hazard flashers every time I saw headlights in the rear view mirror. Highly unrecommended. This was before the St George supercharger was installed. When leaving I was unaware that there was a big climb from Las Vegas to Beaver, plus I had to take a long detour out of Las Vegas as there was a 15 mile traffic jam on I-15. Ah, fun times. I definitely had "range anxiety" that time.

 

[djp]

@NeedWatts, where do you normally stay in Montreal? There are quite a few overnight charging options in the city that would make a Supercharger stop unnecessary.

The Ottawa - Fort Erie run is long but do-able. I'd recommend upgrading to a 90D for peace of mind. A fully charged 85D is 440km rated range, so the 90D should be 465km, which is more that enough to make it from Kingston to Toronto in adverse conditions at highway speed. On a good day you could even drive direct from Kingston to Fort Erie.

The Toronto Supercharger isn't your only option, you could also stop at any of the Sun Country Highway 70A/80A stations along the way to top up over lunch. That should give you enough juice for Kingston - Fort Erie in any weather.

 

[Phillip L]

I just finished a trip out from Owen Sound to Nova Scotia and back and I found that I really enjoyed the drive. What changed the most was that I had a whole new attitude toward driving. I would go at 100 to 110 between the Suncountry chargers, take my time during the stops to eat, and generally drive much more relaxed than any other trip down east. Once I hit the Supercharger corridor between Drummondville and Barrie I sped up but my state of mind remained slower. Mostly I think it was the making of a virtue of the necessity to slow down, with some of it being just the comfort and quiet of the Model S itself.

 

[Forty Creek]

I just finished a trip out from Owen Sound to Nova Scotia and back and I found that I really enjoyed the drive. What changed the most was that I had a whole new attitude toward driving. I would go at 100 to 110 between the Suncountry chargers, take my time during the stops to eat, and generally drive much more relaxed than any other trip down east. Once I hit the Supercharger corridor between Drummondville and Barrie I sped up but my state of mind remained slower. Mostly I think it was the making of a virtue of the necessity to slow down, with some of it being just the comfort and quiet of the Model S itself.

I had the very same experience on my trip from Hamilton to Cape Breton. No stress, relaxed drive.

 

[wayner]

@NeedWatts - You really need the Cobourg and Hamilton/Burlington SCs up and running to be able to do the Ottawa- Ft Erie trip while bypassing Toronto. This is an extreme but in really bad winter weather where you have to run the defroster on high to keep your windshield from icing up I find that the range in my P85D is only about 200km. I find that is the worst case scenario - even worse than -20C cold. So you should be able to just barely do the drive from Kingston-Toronto but then you are stopping for a while at the Lawrence SC which will extend your drive compared to using the 407 to bypass the city, especially when Hwy 412 opens which connects the 401 to the 407 in Whitby. That highway is scheduled to open later this year.

You really might want to wait another year until the SC build out is a little more complete to be able to make the trip hassle free. You could do it today but you might have to put up with some inconveniences in bad weather.

 

[NeedWatts]

Thank you wayner. A SC in Cobourg and Hamilton/Burlington would be outstanding!

We can't wait for the 401/407 link. I've been trying to track that progress every time we drive by!

As I mentioned above, maybe a year wait is the answer and your post seems to confirm that. I guess I'll update the boss with this info and see what her thoughts are.

- - - Updated - - -

@NeedWatts, where do you normally stay in Montreal? There are quite a few overnight charging options in the city that would make a Supercharger stop unnecessary.

Darn, looks like I lost my previous response to this message! Here we go again.

We stay at the Fairmont QE and they appear to have charging (I just checked). That said, we've been considering using the train since we don't use the car at all while there. Maybe that's the correct answer in this case.

The Ottawa - Fort Erie run is long but do-able. I'd recommend upgrading to a 90D for peace of mind. A fully charged 85D is 440km rated range, so the 90D should be 465km, which is more that enough to make it from Kingston to Toronto in adverse conditions at highway speed. On a good day you could even drive direct from Kingston to Fort Erie.

The Toronto Supercharger isn't your only option, you could also stop at any of the Sun Country Highway 70A/80A stations along the way to top up over lunch. That should give you enough juice for Kingston - Fort Erie in any weather.

So another possibility is getting the dual charger and upgrading to the 90D. Also, I guess we should just consider waiting for another year. Elon seemed to indicate batteries will be getting a ~10% gain per year.

Thanks djp!!

 

[Doug_G]

Darn, looks like I lost my previous response to this message! Here we go again.

No, the spam limits are set extremely aggressively for new accounts. Sometimes your messages will need a moderator to approve them. Since you posted two versions I've approved the second one and deleted the first.

This nuisance will go away after you post a bit more. It's well worth the slight nuisance - this policy lets us intercept most of the spammers before their stuff ever becomes public.

 

[rapoport3a]

The distance between the Kingston and Toronto SChs is about 250 km. Just did it yesterday. Supposing rated range plus bad conditions causing a 30% drop in efficiency (which is unlikely), that's only 325 km. In an 85 that's a lot less than one full charge unless the car is going too fast. There's almost no elevation change.

 

[wayner]

The distance between the Kingston and Toronto SChs is about 250 km. Just did it yesterday. Even supposing bad conditions and a 30% drop in efficiency (which is unlikely), that's only 325 km. In an 85 that's a lot less than one full charge unless the car is going too fast. There's almost no elevation change.

In snowy conditions where it is -5C and you have to keep front and rear defrosters going I doubt you will make it. I left Woodstock with 90% SoC on March 3 and made it to my home in Scarborough with less than 5% - and that is only 158km.

And don't forget that to get to 100% SoC at the Kingston SC you have to spend some time as that last 10% is SLOW.

So 90% of the time you will be fine, assuming that you spend about an hour fully charging at Kingston SC. But the other 10% of the time you may need a backup plan. Cobourg would solve this problem completely, so let's hope it happens by the end of the year.

 

[rapoport3a]

A few more photos from our recent 2937-km trip. Exciting pix, I know.

First is from the small Hôtel l'Empress in Rimouski, other two from the bigger Hôtel Universel in Rivière-du-Loup. Bad parking job at the latter was deliberate. As mentioned before, both gave us 66 to 69 amps, the former at 210 volts, the latter at 200. Bigger choice of food in the bigger place.

Everyone's heard of being iced. We were almost bussed. (Maybe that should be bussted.) At R-d-L on July 13, a large tour bus taking up many parking places almost took up ours. I asked the driver not to back up into our car while we went in for lunch.

These may be the fastest public chargers in each city. It was nerve-wracking heading east because we didn't know if they'd be working, in use, etc. and we didn't have extra time to wait or look for another charger. Going west, we knew we'd soon get to the CHAdeMOs in Québec City, although if those had been in use, we'd have had the same problem with probably less waiting.

No photo of the AddÉnergie stop in Québec, which we used going west. Earlier photo is of the CAA charger there. Neither is near anything useful like a restaurant.

 

[RiverBrick]

No photo of the AddÉnergie stop in Québec, which we used going west. Earlier photo is of the CAA charger there. Neither is near anything useful like a restaurant.

An ice cream/chocolate store is set to open next to the AddEnergie CHAdeMO in August.

There's a Boston Pizza five minutes by foot West of the CAA-Quebec CHAdeMO. It's the kind of place where you need 40+ minutes to eat, though. Since the Drummondville Supercharger is only 150 km away, you sometimes don't need that long of a stop.

The Levis CHAdeMO should be open within three months. Beside being right off A-20 (Trans Canadian) and A-73 it will also be close to a health-food grocery and at least one fast-food. The Lévis Supercharger is slated for the same general area, but people see it's on the 2014 map and figure Summer 2015 or later.

Hydro-Quebec is actually performing the utility pole to platform hookup for the La Pocatiere CHAdeMO today. After that, they just need to drop the station on the platform, though it would also be good to install bollards, put up signs and paint spaces. The problem is that the latter steps probably require construction crews which are on province-wide vacation until August 7th.

 

[rapoport3a]

Will the Lévis SCh be available next summer? That would make it two years late---normal in Teslaland.

We decided not to take the time to try to find a restaurant. We needed a big charge there, though, because east of that point it's a bit of a charging desert for anything fast.

Glad to know of the CHAdeMOs coming; that's big news even if they won't all be operating any time soon and that particular adapter is the clunkiest thing since the internal combustion engine…

 

[PoweredByRain]

Glad to know of the CHAdeMOs coming; that's big news even if they won't all be operating any time soon and that particular adapter is the clunkiest thing since the internal combustion engine…

Furthermore, in my experience at least, internal combustion engines have been much more reliable. (I've used CHAdeMO with a LEAF many times. It could be made to work, but usually took at least two attempts. This was with ABB units installed by the B.C. government.)

 

[beeeerock]

Furthermore, in my experience at least, internal combustion engines have been much more reliable. (I've used CHAdeMO with a LEAF many times. It could be made to work, but usually took at least two attempts. This was with ABB units installed by the B.C. government.)

And they're installing more... apparently all single-head, meaning if the thing isn't working, you'd better have your 110 volt plug with you... and a few days to spare.

Why they aren't standardizing the installations with a co-located Level 2 station for redundancy/backup I don't know. I know there is a Level 2 beside the DCFC station in Merritt, but I understand that was just coincidence(?).

I for one don't want to haul around a CHAdeMO adapter - it's a beast!

 

[RiverBrick]

I for one don't want to haul around a CHAdeMO adapter - it's a beast!

It would be nice if 3rd parties offered the Tesla plug on their DCQC units. In Europe, ABB already offers a 3-headed unit with CHAdeMO, CCS Combo and 43 kW AC plugs, so there's definitely room to add a Tesla plug in North America since we don't use that type of AC here.

What's not clear is how much Tesla might help to accomplish this. Yes, the patents are open, but do 3rd parties have access to the engineering documents for the plugs and to the communication protocols needed for Tesla charging without having to reverse engineer?

 

[Jaff]

I would also like a higher level of redundancy (2 heads + Level II back up), but after years of Level II charging, I have no problem keeping my CHAdeMO in the trunk...it'll be a pleasure to use...:smile:

And they're installing more... apparently all single-head, meaning if the thing isn't working, you'd better have your 110 volt plug with you... and a few days to spare.

Why they aren't standardizing the installations with a co-located Level 2 station for redundancy/backup I don't know. I know there is a Level 2 beside the DCFC station in Merritt, but I understand that was just coincidence(?).

I for one don't want to haul around a CHAdeMO adapter - it's a beast!

 

[Phillip L]

I for one don't want to haul around a CHAdeMO adapter - it's a beast!

Actually after using one just a few times it's becomes a breeze to use and the double speed of charging over the fastest J772 charger I think is worth it.

 

[beeeerock]

Actually after using one just a few times it's becomes a breeze to use and the double speed of charging over the fastest J772 charger I think is worth it.

I suppose the day may come when I break down and order one... but it's a big apparatus to haul around all the time, especially when you consider how many CHAdeMO chargers are (or perhaps 'are not') around where I live. I have yet to see one anywhere that I would need a charge that doesn't already have a Supercharger close by. However, looking at Plugshare, it appears that there are more CHAdeMO locations out your way than around here... so far... (in italics, because I expect and hope that will change in the next few years!).

I actually think the fact that I haven't felt a need for one to date is a Good Thing, because it suggests the minimal charging infrastructure already available is adequate to serve my driving needs with a little pre-planning. More options are popping up all the time, so it's only going to get better.

 

[Jaff]

Just toss the adapter in the storage area (the foot well) in the trunk...out of site, and out of mind....:smile:

 

[jmccrack]

Hey Guys
My wife and I are planning a trip Campbell River from Sidney BC. I can see the plug share stops. But does anyone know of and lodging that might have charging facilities