cometguy
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- New England, USA
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- '21 Taycan CT4; '18 Panamera 4 ST E-Hybrid (past); Cayenne 4 Electric (planned)
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I just completed a family trip from the Boston area to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and back in my 2021 CT4, a total of just under 1900 miles.
In a nutshell, I won't be taking a BEV to the Atlantic Provinces again for a while, until the public-charging DCFC infrastructure there is much-improved.
In talking to non-Tesla owners up there charging, some had past or present Teslas in their stable, and they said that driving across northeastern Canada (meaning Ontario to Nova Scotia) is much easier if you have access to Tesla Supercharger stations (they don't seem to have Magic Docks up there much, if at all).
My first photo below is my getting some charge at a Magic Docks site in Lynnfield, MA, at start of my trip (I hadn't been able to charge enough at home the night before); you can see how I have to park at an angle to get the stupidly short Tesla cables to fit easily.
I used the eCharge Network of New Brunswick, Electrify Canada, and Flo for DCFC. The Petro Canada DCFC station I wanted to use in Moncton, NB, was out-of-service, so I had to resort to a heavily-accessed eCharge Network station (second photo below) that I think was only 100 kW and shared, with one of three chargers not working properly. I had prepared in advance and gotten eCharge Network and Flo RFID cards, but I couldn't get the eCharge RFID card to work most of the time (and its app was horrible and not working properly), so that caused a lot of delay until somebody charging there told me that my Flo RFID card should work (the Flo app did not work), and that was the case. So I then used Flo RFID card successfully at each eCharge Network site (the majority of my charging in Canada). Interestingly, RFID cards are heavily used by Canadians (those without Teslas, anyway), and they say that they vastly prefer RFID cards to phone apps (as I do also in the USA). In Canada, I used eCharge Network (in NB) five or six times, Flo two or three times, and EC three times. A Petro Canada site in Fredericton was full (apparently with a wait), so I opted for the slower eCharge Network for a stop on the eastern side of Fredericton (just off the Trans-Canada Highway).
The best site that I used (twice) was an Electrify Canada 350-kW site in Amherst, NS, though it was finicky in getting my credit card to initialize (it worked second try, both times, but I had to unplug and plug in again both times to initiate). Interestingly, I passed a Taycan CT4S heading back to NB from NS on the expressway, and they pulled up after we did to the EC station in Amherst (third photo below). I think it may have been the only Taycan that I saw in Canada, period; there were a fair number of Teslas there. I got up to 200 kW charging at the Amherst station, after arriving a little lower than I'd have liked (7% SoC) because there just aren't many DCFC stations off the expressway in Nova Scotia (or in NB or PEI, either).
On Prince Edward Island, just after crossing the very long (13-km) bridge from NB to PEI, there's a Flo station right there by a Tim Horton's that's essential for going to PEI, though I think it's only 100 kW, also. Most other DCFC stations in PEI are 50-kW chargers only, and there aren't many of those. We lucked out in finding two 240-volt free chargers at two locations on PEI while there for a day (one at PEI National Park along by the beach, and one at Green Gables historical house -- fourth photo below) that allowed me to get enough electrons to bypass the bridge DCFC enroute to our AirBnB house in Moncton (NB), which turned out to be a good thing because apparently the Flo chargers at the bridge were down on our way back. At Green Gables (Cavendish, PEI), there were like four level-2 stations, each with both a Tesla destination charger on the left and a J1772 on the right; the J1772 stations were all taken when I arrived, but I was able to use my Tesla-to-J1772 adapter to charge successfully there. I've yet to see a Tesla destination (240-volt) charger that isn't free. I also tried charging at a Flo site (I think it was) just north of Truro, NS, off the trans-Canada highway there, but it wasn't working either (which ended up in giving that low SoC when we returned to Moncton after a day along the Bay of Fundy in eastern NS).
Returning home from Moncton, we stopped at Fredericton (NB) to top up some at an eCharge Network DCFC (77 kw max), and then at Electrify Canada in Woodstock (NB) to get a good charge before crossing the border and going DCFC-less to Bangor (130 miles without a DCFC at 80 mph with a full car gets you low pretty fast). Got about 111 kW at the EC there. No problems crossing the border at Customs (we weren't sure what hassles we might get in the current era of political everything).
Our hotel at Bangor airport (Fairfield Inn) is across the street from a Chargepoint DCFC station (at Irving Oil gas station), which was slow (I think they're 100-kW chargers) but useful because of it being so close to our hotel (fifth photo below); I charged there three times on our trip, as we used Bangor as a base for also going to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park (Maine). Only two chargers there, and the right one seemed to have problems, but the left one worked ok. Had people waiting to charge there. Just not enough DCFC sites north of central Maine, period.
I have no problems taking my Taycan across most of the lower 48 states now (and have done so this year a lot, as you can see from my previous trip logs here), but Canada is different. We'll take our PHEV next trip to Canada until they build out their DCFC infrastructure better. My family was a little miffed at some of the long times it took to even initiate a charge or to wait to be able to charge (and in the one case, not being able to charge at all). It's different when I drive alone, but when you've got people with you, it changes the dynamics for BEV road-tripping. Even taking family in the lower 48 states is ok now. In addition to Teslas I saw on the roads in Canada, I saw one Vinfast, an ID.4, an ID.Buzz, a Lightning and a Silverado, a van (shipping company), a Mach-E, a Mini, and a couple of Blazers/Equinoxes charging at the CCS stations. But not many of any single EV model except for Teslas -- very unlike the situation in the States. The Vinfast stood out because I've rarely ever seen one, even in the US. While there were lots of cars with US plates seen in the Atlantic Provinces on this trip, I don't recall having seen a single BEV there with US plates. There were a lot of BEVs there with Ontario and Quebec plates.
In a nutshell, I won't be taking a BEV to the Atlantic Provinces again for a while, until the public-charging DCFC infrastructure there is much-improved.
In talking to non-Tesla owners up there charging, some had past or present Teslas in their stable, and they said that driving across northeastern Canada (meaning Ontario to Nova Scotia) is much easier if you have access to Tesla Supercharger stations (they don't seem to have Magic Docks up there much, if at all).
My first photo below is my getting some charge at a Magic Docks site in Lynnfield, MA, at start of my trip (I hadn't been able to charge enough at home the night before); you can see how I have to park at an angle to get the stupidly short Tesla cables to fit easily.
I used the eCharge Network of New Brunswick, Electrify Canada, and Flo for DCFC. The Petro Canada DCFC station I wanted to use in Moncton, NB, was out-of-service, so I had to resort to a heavily-accessed eCharge Network station (second photo below) that I think was only 100 kW and shared, with one of three chargers not working properly. I had prepared in advance and gotten eCharge Network and Flo RFID cards, but I couldn't get the eCharge RFID card to work most of the time (and its app was horrible and not working properly), so that caused a lot of delay until somebody charging there told me that my Flo RFID card should work (the Flo app did not work), and that was the case. So I then used Flo RFID card successfully at each eCharge Network site (the majority of my charging in Canada). Interestingly, RFID cards are heavily used by Canadians (those without Teslas, anyway), and they say that they vastly prefer RFID cards to phone apps (as I do also in the USA). In Canada, I used eCharge Network (in NB) five or six times, Flo two or three times, and EC three times. A Petro Canada site in Fredericton was full (apparently with a wait), so I opted for the slower eCharge Network for a stop on the eastern side of Fredericton (just off the Trans-Canada Highway).
The best site that I used (twice) was an Electrify Canada 350-kW site in Amherst, NS, though it was finicky in getting my credit card to initialize (it worked second try, both times, but I had to unplug and plug in again both times to initiate). Interestingly, I passed a Taycan CT4S heading back to NB from NS on the expressway, and they pulled up after we did to the EC station in Amherst (third photo below). I think it may have been the only Taycan that I saw in Canada, period; there were a fair number of Teslas there. I got up to 200 kW charging at the Amherst station, after arriving a little lower than I'd have liked (7% SoC) because there just aren't many DCFC stations off the expressway in Nova Scotia (or in NB or PEI, either).
On Prince Edward Island, just after crossing the very long (13-km) bridge from NB to PEI, there's a Flo station right there by a Tim Horton's that's essential for going to PEI, though I think it's only 100 kW, also. Most other DCFC stations in PEI are 50-kW chargers only, and there aren't many of those. We lucked out in finding two 240-volt free chargers at two locations on PEI while there for a day (one at PEI National Park along by the beach, and one at Green Gables historical house -- fourth photo below) that allowed me to get enough electrons to bypass the bridge DCFC enroute to our AirBnB house in Moncton (NB), which turned out to be a good thing because apparently the Flo chargers at the bridge were down on our way back. At Green Gables (Cavendish, PEI), there were like four level-2 stations, each with both a Tesla destination charger on the left and a J1772 on the right; the J1772 stations were all taken when I arrived, but I was able to use my Tesla-to-J1772 adapter to charge successfully there. I've yet to see a Tesla destination (240-volt) charger that isn't free. I also tried charging at a Flo site (I think it was) just north of Truro, NS, off the trans-Canada highway there, but it wasn't working either (which ended up in giving that low SoC when we returned to Moncton after a day along the Bay of Fundy in eastern NS).
Returning home from Moncton, we stopped at Fredericton (NB) to top up some at an eCharge Network DCFC (77 kw max), and then at Electrify Canada in Woodstock (NB) to get a good charge before crossing the border and going DCFC-less to Bangor (130 miles without a DCFC at 80 mph with a full car gets you low pretty fast). Got about 111 kW at the EC there. No problems crossing the border at Customs (we weren't sure what hassles we might get in the current era of political everything).
Our hotel at Bangor airport (Fairfield Inn) is across the street from a Chargepoint DCFC station (at Irving Oil gas station), which was slow (I think they're 100-kW chargers) but useful because of it being so close to our hotel (fifth photo below); I charged there three times on our trip, as we used Bangor as a base for also going to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park (Maine). Only two chargers there, and the right one seemed to have problems, but the left one worked ok. Had people waiting to charge there. Just not enough DCFC sites north of central Maine, period.
I have no problems taking my Taycan across most of the lower 48 states now (and have done so this year a lot, as you can see from my previous trip logs here), but Canada is different. We'll take our PHEV next trip to Canada until they build out their DCFC infrastructure better. My family was a little miffed at some of the long times it took to even initiate a charge or to wait to be able to charge (and in the one case, not being able to charge at all). It's different when I drive alone, but when you've got people with you, it changes the dynamics for BEV road-tripping. Even taking family in the lower 48 states is ok now. In addition to Teslas I saw on the roads in Canada, I saw one Vinfast, an ID.4, an ID.Buzz, a Lightning and a Silverado, a van (shipping company), a Mach-E, a Mini, and a couple of Blazers/Equinoxes charging at the CCS stations. But not many of any single EV model except for Teslas -- very unlike the situation in the States. The Vinfast stood out because I've rarely ever seen one, even in the US. While there were lots of cars with US plates seen in the Atlantic Provinces on this trip, I don't recall having seen a single BEV there with US plates. There were a lot of BEVs there with Ontario and Quebec plates.
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