Travel to Ottawa

[Sisko - DS9]

Good evening all, just got back from a 1,400Km trip from Toronto to Quebec border, to Ottawa, to Peterborough and back to Toronto (via Port hope).

I have a 90D and and charged to 100% when I left; allow me to give you a debriefing of the trip and charging.
- first stop was Kingston for lunch at Wendy's and Supercharger... charged to 94%. Charging was slow, never got above 82Kw and when I had pulled in I was at 20% (I had the A/C on full [my wife an daughter in the car, so A/C was no option] and drove the rate of traffic 110/120Km/H).
- next stop was Cornwall Supercharger, again the highest charge was 82Kw... I was the only one at the chargers at the time. Charged to 98% as my next stop was northern part of Ontario along the Quebec border visiting family (1 hour 30 minutes driving - again full A/C and rate of traffic).
- then went to Ottawa and the Brookstreet Hotel (another 1 and half hours). Awesome destination charging. That was actually good charge. After Cornwall, by the time we got to hotel we were at 25% and plugged in to a destination charger at Brookstreet, car was fully charged in 5 hrs (100%). We got into the hotel at 9pm. There are two Tesla HPWC and two chargepoint J1772 chargers. Great hotel and they seem very pro green (they give you a $10 voucher for food in the restaurant if you tell then you do not need room service everyday. They want to save on how many towels they have to wash, etc. They are pro-sustainable methods. Great place overall. I highly recommend and the rates are great. Got a suite for $225 per night.

After 3 days we decided to drive back going via Hwy 7 by Peterborough and decided to make the first stop Port Hope. Great way to take from Ottawa. The weather was great and I charged to 100% at the hotel and got to Peterborough with 50% charge left. You get great region going down Hwy 7. Got into Port hope with 38% left. Again, full A/C and driving at traffic and passing cars along the way - I confess, sometimes over the limit and moving with the other fast traffic). Very scenic. once again at Port Hope, got only as high as 72Kw for charging...??? not sure why the charging is so slow on the super charger.

 

[Struja]

Sisko - thanks for this post, it is very informative. My son has a hockey tournament in Ottawa in September and I was very reluctant to use my Tesla. You eased a lot of my concerns, although I really would like to know why the superchargers were charging at that level. I'm sure someone will have the answer.

 

[Sisko - DS9]

Struja - I am glad to help. You have nothing to worry about in taking your Tesla. From Toronto you have two superchargers to Ottawa - Port Hope and Kingston. Depends on your battery size as to whether you can skip Port Hope. My recommendation is to stop at Kingston either way and charge to minimum 90%. You will have no trouble getting into Ottawa and your destination.

When I was at Brookstreet hotel, there was another Tesla driver at the hotel and he was from Santa Barbara, California. His was a 100D. He has been travelling across Canada as well. He was heading out to Nova Scotia and going to visit Northern Maritimes. As you know the last supercharger in Canada heading east is Riviere-du-Loop; so he will be using level 2 (J1772 & Chademo & destination chargers wherever possible), as well as 110 outlet if no other choice.

So don't be reluctant to use your Tesla, you should not have any range anxiety issues going to Ottawa from Toronto. Enjoy the trip and good luck in the hockey tournament. I will say there are only two destination charging hotels i found, Brookstreet (I highly recommend) and the Ottawa Westin Hotel. Be aware, Brookstreet is actually in Kanata, about 10/15 minutes from downtown Ottawa.

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

I've done Orangeville-Ottawa several times in my 85D. Summer I stop in Kingston, winter Port hope and Kingston. Easy....
Only issue was when Kingston was operating at 50% levels on all stations last summer - and I had to be at a wedding. The solution was to have left earlier......

PS: love the handle @Sisko - DS9 -. Gene Roddenberry would like it

 

[Struja]

Like you, I have a 90D. We don't have a lot of choice in our hotels so we are stuck staying with the team. No destination charging at our hotel and nothing great nearby (350 Dalhousie St.).

Crazy part is that all of our games are at the Bell Sensplex which way closer to the Brookstreet!

Having said that...I will still take the Tesla and work out the destination charging.

 

[Drone Flyer]

Good evening all, just got back from a 1,400Km trip from Toronto to Quebec border, to Ottawa, to Peterborough and back to Toronto (via Port hope).

I have a 90D and and charged to 100% when I left; allow me to give you a debriefing of the trip and charging.
- first stop was Kingston for lunch at Wendy's and Supercharger... charged to 94%. Charging was slow, never got above 82Kw and when I had pulled in I was at 20% (I had the A/C on full [my wife an daughter in the car, so A/C was no option] and drove the rate of traffic 110/120Km/H).
- next stop was Cornwall Supercharger, again the highest charge was 82Kw... I was the only one at the chargers at the time. Charged to 98% as my next stop was northern part of Ontario along the Quebec border visiting family (1 hour 30 minutes driving - again full A/C and rate of traffic).
- then went to Ottawa and the Brookstreet Hotel (another 1 and half hours). Awesome destination charging. That was actually good charge. After Cornwall, by the time we got to hotel we were at 25% and plugged in to a destination charger at Brookstreet, car was fully charged in 5 hrs (100%). We got into the hotel at 9pm. There are two Tesla HPWC and two chargepoint J1772 chargers. Great hotel and they seem very pro green (they give you a $10 voucher for food in the restaurant if you tell then you do not need room service everyday. They want to save on how many towels they have to wash, etc. They are pro-sustainable methods. Great place overall. I highly recommend and the rates are great. Got a suite for $225 per night.

After 3 days we decided to drive back going via Hwy 7 by Peterborough and decided to make the first stop Port Hope. Great way to take from Ottawa. The weather was great and I charged to 100% at the hotel and got to Peterborough with 50% charge left. You get great region going down Hwy 7. Got into Port hope with 38% left. Again, full A/C and driving at traffic and passing cars along the way - I confess, sometimes over the limit and moving with the other fast traffic). Very scenic. once again at Port Hope, got only as high as 72Kw for charging...??? not sure why the charging is so slow on the super charger.

Good evening all, just got back from a 1,400Km trip from Toronto to Quebec border, to Ottawa, to Peterborough and back to Toronto (via Port hope).

I have a 90D and and charged to 100% when I left; allow me to give you a debriefing of the trip and charging.
- first stop was Kingston for lunch at Wendy's and Supercharger... charged to 94%. Charging was slow, never got above 82Kw and when I had pulled in I was at 20% (I had the A/C on full [my wife an daughter in the car, so A/C was no option] and drove the rate of traffic 110/120Km/H).
- next stop was Cornwall Supercharger, again the highest charge was 82Kw... I was the only one at the chargers at the time. Charged to 98% as my next stop was northern part of Ontario along the Quebec border visiting family (1 hour 30 minutes driving - again full A/C and rate of traffic).
- then went to Ottawa and the Brookstreet Hotel (another 1 and half hours). Awesome destination charging. That was actually good charge. After Cornwall, by the time we got to hotel we were at 25% and plugged in to a destination charger at Brookstreet, car was fully charged in 5 hrs (100%). We got into the hotel at 9pm. There are two Tesla HPWC and two chargepoint J1772 chargers. Great hotel and they seem very pro green (they give you a $10 voucher for food in the restaurant if you tell then you do not need room service everyday. They want to save on how many towels they have to wash, etc. They are pro-sustainable methods. Great place overall. I highly recommend and the rates are great. Got a suite for $225 per night.

After 3 days we decided to drive back going via Hwy 7 by Peterborough and decided to make the first stop Port Hope. Great way to take from Ottawa. The weather was great and I charged to 100% at the hotel and got to Peterborough with 50% charge left. You get great region going down Hwy 7. Got into Port hope with 38% left. Again, full A/C and driving at traffic and passing cars along the way - I confess, sometimes over the limit and moving with the other fast traffic). Very scenic. once again at Port Hope, got only as high as 72Kw for charging...??? not sure why the charging is so slow on the super charger.

The latter being the Port of Good Charge!
I do this quite often in my 75D with no problem either.

 

[Drone Flyer]

Struja - I am glad to help. You have nothing to worry about in taking your Tesla. From Toronto you have two superchargers to Ottawa - Port Hope and Kingston. Depends on your battery size as to whether you can skip Port Hope. My recommendation is to stop at Kingston either way and charge to minimum 90%. You will have no trouble getting into Ottawa and your destination.

When I was at Brookstreet hotel, there was another Tesla driver at the hotel and he was from Santa Barbara, California. His was a 100D. He has been travelling across Canada as well. He was heading out to Nova Scotia and going to visit Northern Maritimes. As you know the last supercharger in Canada heading east is Riviere-du-Loop; so he will be using level 2 (J1772 & Chademo & destination chargers wherever possible), as well as 110 outlet if no other choice.

So don't be reluctant to use your Tesla, you should not have any range anxiety issues going to Ottawa from Toronto. Enjoy the trip and good luck in the hockey tournament. I will say there are only two destination charging hotels i found, Brookstreet (I highly recommend) and the Ottawa Westin Hotel. Be aware, Brookstreet is actually in Kanata, about 10/15 minutes from downtown Ottawa.

There's also the Aviation Museum at the Rockcliffe Airport that has a Tesla Destination charger.
From Kingston, make sure you take hwy 10 North to Ottawa. More scenic than the 15 and way better than the out of the way 416!

 

[rypalmer]

I'm in Ottawa now and chose to stay at a hotel without destination charging, though I did give the Marriott valet and front desk an earful as to why I couldn't park there. There are plenty of parking options downtown with charging so it's not a big deal.

Sisko - may I ask why you charged so high in Kingston on your way to Ottawa? How much battery did you arrive in Cornwall with? You probably didn't get the full rate of charge there because your state of charge was too high and it had already started to taper.

 

[Doug_G]

You only get full Supercharger power when your battery is very low. I just Supercharge as long as is needed to get to the next Supercharger, with a reasonable safety margin of course. Doing that minimizes your total trip time.

 

[TrevTremaine]

One quick question about Ottawa - is there any sign of progress on the Supercharger that's supposed to be put in place by the end of 2017?

 

[Sisko - DS9]

I'm in Ottawa now and chose to stay at a hotel without destination charging, though I did give the Marriott valet and front desk an earful as to why I couldn't park there. There are plenty of parking options downtown with charging so it's not a big deal.

Sisko - may I ask why you charged so high in Kingston on your way to Ottawa? How much battery did you arrive in Cornwall with? You probably didn't get the full rate of charge there because your state of charge was too high and it had already started to taper.

Sure, Rypalmer - I ended up charging that high because we had lunch and my wife and daughter decided to go into a couple of shops to look at some items. Since there were 4 open chargers at the time I figured while they were in the store I may as well leave the A/C on and get extra charge. I did not go into the store, I was in the car planning out our route and planning timing and that way if others came I would leave the charger. but there was only one other tesla when I left.

Remember when i got into Kingston, I was at around 20% so the max 82Kw for speed, seemed low to me.

 

[Sisko - DS9]

Like you, I have a 90D. We don't have a lot of choice in our hotels so we are stuck staying with the team. No destination charging at our hotel and nothing great nearby (350 Dalhousie St.).

Crazy part is that all of our games are at the Bell Sensplex which way closer to the Brookstreet!

Having said that...I will still take the Tesla and work out the destination charging.

The Brookstreet Hotel parking is underground parking and is available to public parking. When you go into the underground, the chargers are immediately in front of the gate that lifts up to let you in after you push the button for your ticket. When you drive right under the entry arm the 4 parking spots directly in front of you are the 4 charging spots (two Tesla HPWC on the right and the two J1772 on the left).

 

[Sisko - DS9]

You only get full Supercharger power when your battery is very low. I just Supercharge as long as is needed to get to the next Supercharger, with a reasonable safety margin of course. Doing that minimizes your total trip time.

Yes that is true, but when I arrived in Kingston I was at around 20%. So I was just not sure. Also, the last time I used the Kingston charger - October 2016, I was receiving a much higher rate for a good period of the time.

Also, when I am going across the Province or into Quebec, I also try and leave my last supercharger (depending on where I am going it is Kingston or Cornwall) with nothing less than 96%. Because I am usually visiting friends and family (in Hawkesbury, ON).

The supercharger map shows a coming soon in Stardale, ON; that would alleviate needing to do that, as there is not much in the area - Deja Vu restaurant has Tesla HPWC, but are for patrons only, which I understand.

 

[Jaff]

I always find that the cure for what is considered to be a "slow" supercharger, is concentrating on my cost of the energy supplied.

 

[Aussie Bob]

One quick question about Ottawa - is there any sign of progress on the Supercharger that's supposed to be put in place by the end of 2017?

We keep wishing but have heard nothing so far.

 

[SmartElectric]

Our recent 2000 km road trip from Toronto to Quebec saw us charging on this route. We have an early S with the "A" pack which limits charging to 88kW (sometimes listed as a 90kW limit but never seen that in practice)}.

Port Hope, Kingston, Cornwall, Drummondville all charged at 88 kW max, we typically arrive with 20% or less, and in one case 5% on our return trip to get to Drummondville as I took the scenic route and used up all of our buffer. Our car absolutely screams when charging, with the battery cooling system running constantly.

So, not sure why a new car would not get high rates, and again, we generally arrive on low state of charge due to the way I plan the trip to "surf" the bottom 20% of the battery pack to maximize charging speeds.

 

[ccdisce]

Sisko, thanks for posting this as we were planning a trip from Stone mtn. GA to Markam Ont where we both have family, we would then go via Hwy 7 to Nepean where we lived for 15 years and on to visit my Alma Mater..... .I am a 'Raven' and a child of Martha.

Thanks to the other posters on this thread for their hints on destination charging locations.

 

[sakimano]

I think there's a formula or something that the supercharger can go to 130 kw max and if you arrive with 0% battery you'll get that or close to it.

If you arrive at 50% battery for example you'll get 130-50 kw = 80 kw.

If you share a charger with someone (1a and they are already there on 1b) you will also get a reduced rate of charge. Proximity isn't the determinant of which two are connected it's the ones of same number FYI.

 

[pawelf]

One quick question about Ottawa - is there any sign of progress on the Supercharger that's supposed to be put in place by the end of 2017?

There are 8 new urban chargers installed now in the new underground parking for Rideau Centre. Make sure that you use the new entrance at the corner of Nicolas and Bessemer. The chargers are located on the lowest level. THE GOOD: as these are urban chargers they all charge at the maximum rate even if there are cars plugged in next to you. THE BAD: these chargers are located in the paid parking area so you will have to pay for parking while you charge. Also in other treads I read that on some days the parking was closed.

 

[richyrich]

Picked my 3 up in Toronto and live in Ottawa. Heading to TO next weekend for kids sports. You have nothing to worry about. Likewise if you ever go to Montreal - both routes are completely sorted for Teslas.