Wiki Canadian Trip Planning

[Andy O]

Thanks ceejay44. I don't have a CHAdeMO charger but I've used Plugshare to plan a route. Thank you also for the warning about losing range due to cold weather. The forecast is good for this coming week.

Coming back may be different. The new superchargers along the TransCanada Hwy are almost ready to go, and some may be operating in 2 weeks when I return. I may however return through the USA. I notice that charge.info describes Fargo ND as construction 3 days. Unlikely it will be ready in time for me, but that will certainly make connecting to the interstates much easier.

 

[Andy O]

Well I did it. Winnipeg to Sudbury in 4 days, against some of the advice here, and what an idiot I was to try. I spent hours sleeping in the car while it slowly charged then reached my hotels very late in the dark.

I passed several ranks of new superchargers but I was about a month too early. They haven't been totally completed or turned on yet. They will make all the difference to this route.

 

[Andy O]

3 days, not 4. Four would have been so much easier.

 

[GlenM]

Great news for Western Canadians traveling south of Alberta, construction has begun in Helena, Montana.

Supercharger - Helena, MT

 

[ceejay44]

All, I should've updated this a week or so ago when I made the return trip from Thunder Bay, ON back to Squamish, BC.

• the Petro Canada chargers in Ignace, Swift Current, and Medicine Hat are officially on
• I spoke to contractors building the Tesla supercharger in Ignace - they said they had been working for six months (maybe they said six weeks?) working their way west from southern Ontario. They were the excavator crew to be followed by the electricians. They said that these chargers will all be able to charge cars in 20-30 minutes... so maybe that means V3??
• the only sizeable gap between some sort of high speed charger between Thunder Bay and Squamish is between Winnipeg and Regina. I timed it to stay at Comfort Inn in Brandon and use their single J1772 charger, though we still barely made Regina even though only ~365km between the two places (cooler temps I guess)
• I imagine that by spring we'll be good to go no sweat across the country with Tesla superchargers and various CHADEMO chargers

 

[ceejay44]

here was the scene in Ignace Ontario a week or so ago

 

[Threader]

Traveled Montreal West-Island to Val-Dor Quebec in a SR+. Sat. Oct 26 was about 10-12 C sunny. No HVAC used.

1st Stop last Tesla SC in Mont. Tremblant before adventuring into the northern Quebec wilderness. Bathroom break in Super C whom is hosting the Superchargers in their parking lot.

2nd Stop Mont. Laurier. CHAdeMO Electric Circuit. Comfort Inn and Cage aux Sport. This time charged to 95%. There is a new double CHAdeMO Electric Circuit 50 kms later in Montcerf-Lytton but weather is nice so no stop there.

3rd stop 35 kms before Val-Dor at Ultra-Mar CHAdeMO Electric Circuit with 5% battery. I crossed the beauty and desolation of La Verendrye park successfully at 100 kms speed and no HVAC. Sun kept the inside of M3 warm. Windows were clear. Ideal conditions. Charged only to 35 % knowing I'd be back here the next morning to get the batteries nice and warm for the bad weather trek through the park.

The next day was raining and windy and worrisome. 3-5 C temps.

1st Stop Val-Dor at Ultra-Mar CHAdeMO Electric Circuit charged to 95%. Would of charged to 100% but another EV was waiting. Weather was terrible and got me worried but I pressed on through the park.

2nd Stop Montcerf-Lytton with 7%. I was doing 90 kms (speed limit of roads) in the down pour nearing the end I had enough buffer to go 95-100kms. Hvac set to defrost only 18.5 C to clear humidity. There was a Kona charging there already but this station had two CHAdeMOs . Charged to 70%.

3rd Stop Tesla SC in Mont. Tremblant- Charged to 60%. When your last 4 charging stops have been 50 kWh the supercharger seems light speed ahead.

got home with about 1100 kms done and roughly $30 of 2 Tesla SC and 4 Circuit- Electric charging stops round-trip.

No way I would go there in winter in a SR+. Travelling to Val-Dor is Long range Tesla only in Winter time

 

[ceejay44]

Well I did it. Winnipeg to Sudbury in 4 days, against some of the advice here, and what an idiot I was to try. I spent hours sleeping in the car while it slowly charged then reached my hotels very late in the dark.

I passed several ranks of new superchargers but I was about a month too early. They haven't been totally completed or turned on yet. They will make all the difference to this route.

good on you for trying... i keep thinking about how at the end of the day we're driving without carbon emissions on electricity... given the climate crisis this is the least we can do... and when the charging infrastructure improves it'll be a piece of cake

 

[juls_esp]

just came back hamilton to key west via i75 and keywest back to hamilton via i77
pretty uneventful the superchargers were very busy during the holidays there was some line ups
and i heard of 2 hour wait time at the savannah ga charger..
tesla will need to roll out more chargers especially when the model y comes out this year

 

[Birdman325]

Did you need to wait in line at any SC ? Or just lots of cars but open stalls?

 

[juls_esp]

Did you need to wait in line at any SC ? Or just lots of cars but open stalls?

yes waited 4 times and most chargers were packed.. rarely got the full speed
my last charge in grimsby i was getting less than 30kw on a 4%SOC

 

[jmspaggi]

The "from" word in the "Montreal to/from Quebec City" link doesn't point in the right place

 

[M109Rider]

On a 3 week road trip across Canada.

Ontario to Vancouver Island and back.
I’m over 5,000km’s in so far, and I’m still in Vancouver.
I’ll end up putting over 10,000 km’s on my model 3 AWD in just 3 weeks.
Car has been flawless didn’t expect otherwise though.
The trips that I thought would be tough we’re done with lots of range to spare. (Canmore to Jasper) and (Vernon to Whistler) for example.
The superchargers along the way are plentiful and worked great.
Absolutely no range or charging issues.
Even with all this driving, I still can’t wait to drive the car every day.
Incidentally. The Ice Fields parkway in Alberta and the trip from Vernon to Whistler are some of the most breathtaking roads I’ve ever driven.
Gained about 5% range coming down the mountain towards whistler.
Never seen range gains from regen like that before.

ABRP was helpful once you dial in the right figures.
Used the frunk more on this trip, than I’ve used it ever before.

Wish some places like the Tyrell dinosaur museum in Dremheller would get on board with EV charging. Must be owned by an oil company or something. They didn’t seem to want any part of getting EV chargers there.
They aren’t needed, but it would be easier.

Whistlers superchargers are in the Fairmont paid parking. So you have to pay expensive parking to use the chargers. These urban Tesla chargers are free, but the parking is expensive. There are a good amount of destination chargers around, so really you don’t need the ones in the Fairmont anyway.

I used FSD almost the entire way. Worked well, but struggled a little on the very tight curves on the mountain roads.

Overall, the car has been amazing. Looking forward to the trip back.
Should be around 104,000km’s by the time I’m back.

 

[M109Rider]

Follow up to the above post.
I’m in Vancouver still. I’ve never seen so many Tesla’s in one place. This city is loaded with Tesla owners. While driving around, I see one every few minutes or less. Amazing.

 

[angus[Y]oung]

Follow up to the above post.
I’m in Vancouver still. I’ve never seen so many Tesla’s in one place. This city is loaded with Tesla owners. While driving around, I see one every few minutes or less. Amazing.

@M109Rider you are correct! Even in the suburbs, you can't throw a stone without hitting at least two Model 3s LOL. But yeah in the city proper, it's even more so.

 

[beeeerock]

The trips that I thought would be tough we’re done with lots of range to spare. (Canmore to Jasper) and (Vernon to Whistler) for example.
The superchargers along the way are plentiful and worked great.
Absolutely no range or charging issues.

Vernon to Whistler? Or was Vernon a typo? That's a long run and there's no supercharger in Vernon. Maybe Kamloops to Whistler?

 

[M109Rider]

Vernon to Whistler? Or was Vernon a typo? That's a long run and there's no supercharger in Vernon. Maybe Kamloops to Whistler?

Nope, it wasn’t a typo. If you’re driving through, you’ll need to stop at one of the J1772 chargers, or the Chademo if you have an adapter. You only need enough charge to get to the Kamloops supercharger 1.5 hours away. From there you can reach Whistler no problem. It’s a long drive time wise, but the speeds are slower than highway, so you can easily make it no problem.
There is also a drop towards Whistler which regens 5% range back.

 

[beeeerock]

Nope, it wasn’t a typo. If you’re driving through, you’ll need to stop at one of the J1772 chargers, or the Chademo if you have an adapter. You only need enough charge to get to the Kamloops supercharger 1.5 hours away. From there you can reach Whistler no problem. It’s a long drive time wise, but the speeds are slower than highway, so you can easily make it no problem.
There is also a drop towards Whistler which regens 5% range back.

OK. I'm familiar with the area (see signature... ;-) ). I had assumed you were going from Supercharger to Supercharger and Vernon didn't fit. A run from Vernon all the way to Whistler without a charge would be a stretch for most battery packs.

You should try heading down that hill into Mt. Currie in late October on 6+" of falling wet snow and no road maintenance. Wasn't the best trip I've taken over that road... Kamloops to Whistler that day required a topping up courtesy of the Level 2 at the motel in Lillooet. Shouldn't have, but I had a bad feeling about the weather and stopped 'just in case'. Good thing I did because the snow hit on the climb out of Lillooet. The snow packed into the front of the car from my snowplowing efforts might have contributed to excessive consumption...LOL! The Retasket Lodge saved my bacon that night!

 

[M109Rider]

OK. I'm familiar with the area (see signature... ;-) ). I had assumed you were going from Supercharger to Supercharger and Vernon didn't fit. A run from Vernon all the way to Whistler without a charge would be a stretch for most battery packs.

You should try heading down that hill into Mt. Currie in late October on 6+" of falling wet snow and no road maintenance. Wasn't the best trip I've taken over that road... Kamloops to Whistler that day required a topping up courtesy of the Level 2 at the motel in Lillooet. Shouldn't have, but I had a bad feeling about the weather and stopped 'just in case'. Good thing I did because the snow hit on the climb out of Lillooet. The snow packed into the front of the car from my snowplowing efforts might have contributed to excessive consumption...LOL! The Retasket Lodge saved my bacon that night!

I would imagine cooler weather would have changed the range for sure. A snow run would be interesting. I ran into snow packing into the front, and air ducts feeding the front wheel well also. My watt hours also increased big time.

 

[camalaio]

I would imagine cooler weather would have changed the range for sure. A snow run would be interesting. I ran into snow packing into the front, and air ducts feeding the front wheel well also. My watt hours also increased big time.

Jeez, yeah, that Kamloops to Whistler run sure is pretty but not really workable in winter with the LR Model 3. Like you mentioned there are CHAdeMO stations on the way though which is fantastic, makes it workable for us! Good route btw, not the common one but a better one.