DaveO
Member
I wanted to post this as a example of how those on this forum (myself included), who I perceive to be early adopters, have a vision of using electric vehicles that is much different than that of, say, the average driver.
My wife recently experienced driving from Amherst NS back to Fredericton NB this weekend. The trip is approximately 200 km and it took her over 4 hours. This was on a weekend where it was quite cold at -9C, very very windy and the average consumption on the Kona EV showed approximately 290 Watt hours per 100 km. A normal winter trip would require a short stop in the Moncton area to charge, and this day, all four dispensers in the greater metro area were fully in use. As a result, she had to wait for nearly a half an hour, at which point she could hook up to a 50 kW charger. Charging on a vehicle that doesn't have preconditioning, she saw 25 KW of power being dispensed until it eventually bumped up to 40 kW as the batttery warmed. She sat on the charger for nearly 50 minutes to get to a sufficient charge to make it back home because between Moncton and Fredericton there's only one or two charger dispensers, if you're lucky to find it available.
This all said, mass adoption of EVs really requires both an understanding by the manufacturers that the average person don't want or need to be a Tech-head to know how to drive an EV, while at the same time having the proper charging infrastructure in place to permit people to travel in real-life (Canadian) conditions. My wife put up with the Kona for about 1.5 years, but is at the stage now where we're looking for a gas vehicle so that she can drive reliably in the winter or for longer distances if we don't use our Tesla MYLR.
It's disheartening to say but with the sad state of affairs we are in in Canada, I question the future of electric vehicles in this country without the investment from both the auto manufacturers to build vehicles that are easily understood and usable by the average driver, in sufficient quantities, as well as those that are building the infrastructure that needs to be in place to allow and support future adoption.
Years of low vehicle supply (maybe other than Tesla), new EV trucks and large battery cars stuck using limited, dated 50 kW infrastructure, and seeing no investment in the required Level 2 and DC infrastructure needed to make mass adoption possible, leave me pessimistic about this country ever reaching any climate change goals made two decades ago, much less reaching them by 2035.
Perhaps it's different elsewhere, but on the East coast of Canada, things are pretty poor.
My wife recently experienced driving from Amherst NS back to Fredericton NB this weekend. The trip is approximately 200 km and it took her over 4 hours. This was on a weekend where it was quite cold at -9C, very very windy and the average consumption on the Kona EV showed approximately 290 Watt hours per 100 km. A normal winter trip would require a short stop in the Moncton area to charge, and this day, all four dispensers in the greater metro area were fully in use. As a result, she had to wait for nearly a half an hour, at which point she could hook up to a 50 kW charger. Charging on a vehicle that doesn't have preconditioning, she saw 25 KW of power being dispensed until it eventually bumped up to 40 kW as the batttery warmed. She sat on the charger for nearly 50 minutes to get to a sufficient charge to make it back home because between Moncton and Fredericton there's only one or two charger dispensers, if you're lucky to find it available.
This all said, mass adoption of EVs really requires both an understanding by the manufacturers that the average person don't want or need to be a Tech-head to know how to drive an EV, while at the same time having the proper charging infrastructure in place to permit people to travel in real-life (Canadian) conditions. My wife put up with the Kona for about 1.5 years, but is at the stage now where we're looking for a gas vehicle so that she can drive reliably in the winter or for longer distances if we don't use our Tesla MYLR.
It's disheartening to say but with the sad state of affairs we are in in Canada, I question the future of electric vehicles in this country without the investment from both the auto manufacturers to build vehicles that are easily understood and usable by the average driver, in sufficient quantities, as well as those that are building the infrastructure that needs to be in place to allow and support future adoption.
Years of low vehicle supply (maybe other than Tesla), new EV trucks and large battery cars stuck using limited, dated 50 kW infrastructure, and seeing no investment in the required Level 2 and DC infrastructure needed to make mass adoption possible, leave me pessimistic about this country ever reaching any climate change goals made two decades ago, much less reaching them by 2035.
Perhaps it's different elsewhere, but on the East coast of Canada, things are pretty poor.
