...or more accurately, the end of the paved road in that direction.
My challenge for this summer was to go visit relatives who live in a remote location in the North of Quebec, that is, the Mistissini Cree Reserve on the shores of the Lake Mistassini (the largest natural lake in Quebec, 100 miles long, a fantastic place for fishers). As you may see on Plugshare, the closest plug is 320 km from there, and my 2013 MS has a rated range of 396 km. Enough buffer unless it rains a lot or there are strong head winds.
We were apparently the first electric car to go there.
On our way in (we were coming from the Saguenay fjord to see whales, etc.) we slept at La chute à l'ours camping (very nice place), which provides NEMA 14-50 plugs for RVs. Then, we drove to Mistassini at speed limit (90 km/h, 55 MPH), with slight head wind up to Chibougamau, and then, a bit of a tail wind for the last 100 km so we were able to drive at 105 km/h.
Route 167 is paved all the way up to the road to Mistissini. After that, it's a gravel road mostly used by trucks from the lumber and mining industry. (I initially considered going up to Lake Albanel, 130 km further down the road (so 260 km return) but quickly changed my mind.)
At our guests house, I ran a wire to the basement heating system (electric baseboards, 220 V), connected to a breaker rated at 20 A, the other end of the wire being connected to a homemade adaptor in which I connected the UMC. This homemade plug was located somewhere sheltered form the rain under the porch. I set the charging current to 16 A (80% of the breaker) so it charged at ~18 km/h so the car was charged at 75% the next morning. (We stayed there 3 days.) I discovered in the process that the thermostat fully turned on still cuts the current for about a minute every half-hour, and the MS does not like power sources that fail intermittently. So I had to go back and connect directly in the thermostat box. (Of course, the baseboards where disconnected all that time.)
The plan for the return was to stop at a camping near the first one, but the weather was bad for camping in a tent. So we decided to try to go back to our home in southern Quebec in a single day. That's 841 km by the shortest road, but we had to stop at the CHAdeMO in Chicoutimi, so our journey was 918 km long. The first stretch was 320 km under the rain (but with some tail wind) down to St-Félicien, first J1772 @ 30A on our way. We left early and drove at 80 km/h (50 MPH) down to this plug. We arrived there with 70 km of range left. There, we charged 1.5h to get the 123 km we needed to reach the Chicoutimi CHAdeMO, plus a 10 km buffer. With a good tail wind and no rain, we were able to travel at 120 km/h. We charged at the Chicoutimi CHAdeMO for 1h, and then headed for Quebec City, where there are 3 other CHAdeMO, but our buffer was low and we were forced to drive at 100 km/h, so we decided to stop at a CHAdeMO in-between at l'Étape where we charger another hour, enough to reach the Drummondville SC at 120 km/h. There, we needed less than 15 min to get the 60 km left to reach home plus some buffer. All in all, it took us 14 hours. We went home a bit passed midnight.
Here are a couple of pictures: one in front of the Mistissini Lodge, and the other where we can see the edge of the lake in the background.
Google Maps
Google Maps
My challenge for this summer was to go visit relatives who live in a remote location in the North of Quebec, that is, the Mistissini Cree Reserve on the shores of the Lake Mistassini (the largest natural lake in Quebec, 100 miles long, a fantastic place for fishers). As you may see on Plugshare, the closest plug is 320 km from there, and my 2013 MS has a rated range of 396 km. Enough buffer unless it rains a lot or there are strong head winds.
We were apparently the first electric car to go there.
On our way in (we were coming from the Saguenay fjord to see whales, etc.) we slept at La chute à l'ours camping (very nice place), which provides NEMA 14-50 plugs for RVs. Then, we drove to Mistassini at speed limit (90 km/h, 55 MPH), with slight head wind up to Chibougamau, and then, a bit of a tail wind for the last 100 km so we were able to drive at 105 km/h.
Route 167 is paved all the way up to the road to Mistissini. After that, it's a gravel road mostly used by trucks from the lumber and mining industry. (I initially considered going up to Lake Albanel, 130 km further down the road (so 260 km return) but quickly changed my mind.)
At our guests house, I ran a wire to the basement heating system (electric baseboards, 220 V), connected to a breaker rated at 20 A, the other end of the wire being connected to a homemade adaptor in which I connected the UMC. This homemade plug was located somewhere sheltered form the rain under the porch. I set the charging current to 16 A (80% of the breaker) so it charged at ~18 km/h so the car was charged at 75% the next morning. (We stayed there 3 days.) I discovered in the process that the thermostat fully turned on still cuts the current for about a minute every half-hour, and the MS does not like power sources that fail intermittently. So I had to go back and connect directly in the thermostat box. (Of course, the baseboards where disconnected all that time.)
The plan for the return was to stop at a camping near the first one, but the weather was bad for camping in a tent. So we decided to try to go back to our home in southern Quebec in a single day. That's 841 km by the shortest road, but we had to stop at the CHAdeMO in Chicoutimi, so our journey was 918 km long. The first stretch was 320 km under the rain (but with some tail wind) down to St-Félicien, first J1772 @ 30A on our way. We left early and drove at 80 km/h (50 MPH) down to this plug. We arrived there with 70 km of range left. There, we charged 1.5h to get the 123 km we needed to reach the Chicoutimi CHAdeMO, plus a 10 km buffer. With a good tail wind and no rain, we were able to travel at 120 km/h. We charged at the Chicoutimi CHAdeMO for 1h, and then headed for Quebec City, where there are 3 other CHAdeMO, but our buffer was low and we were forced to drive at 100 km/h, so we decided to stop at a CHAdeMO in-between at l'Étape where we charger another hour, enough to reach the Drummondville SC at 120 km/h. There, we needed less than 15 min to get the 60 km left to reach home plus some buffer. All in all, it took us 14 hours. We went home a bit passed midnight.
Here are a couple of pictures: one in front of the Mistissini Lodge, and the other where we can see the edge of the lake in the background.
Google Maps
Google Maps
