Petro Canada Chargers

I used two Petro Canada charges this weekend while on the road , one I had to pay the .27/min and one was still free. I would prefer to pay by kwh as that makes the most sense for me. I believe that you cannot sell electricity in BC unless you're BC Hydro?

I can understand Petro Canada's view on time based pricing however when the car next to us was a Leaf and while we were charging up to 80% at 42-46 KW they were charging at only 7 Kw. The chargers are installed to make money for the company and we have picked up from 50-80% in the time a Leaf barely gained and because of their range they have to stay until 100%.

For reference it took us 49 minutes to gain 31.7 Kwh, if it was a pay station that would have been $13.23 or 41.7 cents per Kwh. In our case we would have been better of to charge at .35 Kwh rate at a BC Hydro charger. For a Kona the prices are pretty close , but for a Leaf or other slow charger car Petro Canada is going to be costly!

 

I guess I should be happy there are at least some trans Canada DCFCs available and stop my complaining about the price. If it wasn't for the PetroCan chargers I would be pretty land locked here in Manitoba.

 

PetroCan may not 'be able to charge for' the electricity used or certainly be able to charge more for it than BC Hydro rate payers are so the time-based model is probably the only feasible one from their perspective.


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Here is a new link I hope it works This is why people can only be charged by time not KW used In Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ev-plug-in-rules-spark-frustration-for-vancouver-condo-strata-1.5453803

 

So the article is implying that measurement Canada is responsible for time based charging vs actual Kw used, doesn't make much sense but not surprising if true.

 

Yes, it's true, very stupid, but that's government...

In BC, only BC Hydro is allowed to charge by kWh. Most BC Hydro chargers are free, but those that do charge, mostly in the eastern interior, do so at .35 per kWh. Not cheap, but beats many of the time based ones, like my wife got hit yesterday in Surrey at a L2 ChargePoint where it was $5 an hour.

My question to you guys in Manitoba, why isn't Manitoba Hydro providing charging stations, like BC Hydro in BC? You have an excess of renewable hydro power there, why not use it to promote EV usage?

 

Oh don't get me started how non helpful Manitoba hydro is to the end user when it comes to use of renewables. Manitoba Hydro is a crown corporation and it actions swing wildly with the political winds. Currently they seem hell bent on building more dams and selling excess power to Minnesota at cheaper than dirt wholesale rates yet in the same breath they want their local ratepayers make up for the losses related to building the dams. They are completely against promoting individual solar production, I guess they don't like the competition. Currently in Manitoba grid tying solar makes no sense as they will buy your power at 4 cents per kw and the sell it back to you for 10 cents after taxes. At that rate it would take me over 70 years to get a return on my investment at my home in the city. At our farm we are completely off grid and I can produce power for almost the same cost hydro would sell it to me. I'm actually thinking of expanding my 3 kw array so I can more effectively charge the EV completely off solar when I am down there.

 

Well, I think building more dams is OK, we are doing that here in BC as well. We need as much renewable energy as we can get, everywhere, and in all forms for the future. But with the huge hydro power bounty in Manitoba, they could certainly be doing a lot more now to encourage EV adoption.

I grew up in Manitoba (and remember too well how cold winters are), and still have family to visit there. We are making a road trip there in June, but unfortunately will have to take our ICE car, because of the lack of fast charging infrastructure. My brother lives up in the Swan River area, and nothing at all up there.

 

I'd like to know more about these supposed regulations. They don't prevent BC Hydro from charging by the kWh at their stations.

The article is the usual ill-informed CBC pap. What does the DC charging capability of the car have to do with Level 2 chargers like the one that is the subject of the article?

It's interesting that EVs are among the few topics where commenting is allowed by CBC news, and every article attracts the same haters and luddites.

 

They can't fix this soon enough!! Canada has an opportunity now to move ahead with EV adoption. But this will kill it pretty quickly once prospective buyers find out that going on a trip with your EV will cost more than your ICE vehicle.

In BC, we are lucky, for now, with BC Hydro here. But even here, starting to see more and more exorbitant time based charging implementations, as what happened to my wife the other day ($5/hour for L2).