I had a work assignment yesterday in Brandon Manitoba about 250 km from my home, no problem getting there on a full charge as i arrived with 15% and immediately charged to 60% on a relatively warm battery at that sites only DC charger(petrocanada). The plan was to hit the only other DC charger on the way back (petrocanada)on trans canada highway, Portage la Prarie about 120km from my home. I checked ahead on plug share and petrocan app. It said the chargers were down recently but at least on was fixed and up. Arrive with 15% SOC only to realize niether of the 2 chargers would work. Called their help line, stayed on hold for 20 minutes before i realized no one was going to pick up. Gas station attendant was clueless. I was starting get a little nervous. It didn't help it was -14C . Plugshare showed only one reasonsble plan B option, a hotel with a functional level 2 evse 10 km away. Arrived and one of the spots was being ICEed, fortunately the other was free and was able to grab a 30% charge over 3 hours this eventually got me to a kind BMW dealership's free 24kw DC charger on the periphery of Winnipeg. Arrived at home at 1 am tired and grumpy. The 2.5 hour trip turned into a 6 hour odyssey. Nonetheless I was glad I made it home. KInda unimpressed with Petrocanada's "lack of help" hotline. Can't wait for some charger competition. I have come to realize long distance travel in winter for an EV driver in central Canada can be downright dangerous. Sent from my SM-G955W using Inside EVs mobile app
I checked the check ins on Plugshare and those units have a history of being down usual comment is "#2 is down and #1 is up". Petro Canada should have better service than that (even their website is down right now). At least have an emergency contact through the attendant or a 120V wall outlet or L2 for just such an occasion. Maybe when competition Canadian Tire (Electrify Canada) goes online in that area it will help, but who knows what that service will be like. Definitely a concern when the weather is foul. Funny I was just reading this article with the same concern: https://electricautonomy.ca/2021/01/14/ev-charger-anxiety-uptime-metrics/ Until then, probably best in your case to fully utilize the Brandon charger to 100% (or close) as a precaution, glad you made it home safely.
Ah yes. This is one of the reasons I hang on to my old ICE car. There are some areas I service that I won't take my Leaf because there is only one DC charger on the route. If you get there and it's broken you're S.O.L. An L2 costs a pittance compared to a DC fast charger. All of these sites should have one or two L2 chargers on site as back up in case the main charger is down. You might be in for a much longer stay than intended but at least you won't be stranded. At Canadian Tire in Belleville ON, there is one DC and two L2 chargers. The Petro Can site at Napanee has two DC and one L2. There can't be much money in providing fast charge services. The chargers themselves are expensive let alone getting the permits and the electrical connections to the site. They will be a long time seeing any significant return on investment. It creates a classic chicken or the egg problem. You won't see more chargers appearing until there are more EVs. EV sales in turn are hindered by the lack of charging facilities. It would be lovely if governments would take a tiny portion of the tax breaks and subsidies that the oil companies receive and divert it to subsidizing charger infrastructure. This would be as helpful as subsidizing the EVs themselves which I might add at this point are really still to expensive in up front costs to be appealing to the buyer of lesser means. The adoption rate of EVs is going to remain lower than it might otherwise be as long as this problem persists. BTW: This post belongs in the general category where more people might read it.
I was thinking better posted in this one: https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/petro-canada-chargers.6946/ but seeing as it's apu's rant, I figured he had been through enough
Paul's arguments are all correct. It is a chicken and egg issue. The truth is that most folks use their EV locally and seldom have a need for DC chargers. This does not help the business case for DC Chargers. I guess if one needs long range travel, particularly during the winter months, one needs a Tesla or rent a small ICE for the foreseeable future. Two DC charger networks let me down last autumn. Petro Canada saved the day for me. I think Petro Canada should change their name to Energy Canada.
I am not as grumpy today and I guess I should be happy that there are DC chargers to use. Currently Petrocan has the only commercial highway ones at 3 sites in Manitoba. I am also grateful I packed a emergency kit with a wool blanket, water and junk food. The 3 hours on the level 2 EVSE were spent with just the seater heater on and car's heater cycling on for 5 minutes every 1/2 hour so I could maximize my charging. I was actually quite impressed how relatively tolerable it could be at -14C. I totally forgot I had a little old Swedish optimus camping stove in my bag that I could have used to make some hot coffee and heat if I really needed to.
Insane increase, a new flat rate across Canada $0.50 /minute Almost double the $0.27 /minute previous in B.C. It appears Petro Canada have changed the CCS connectors with pistols From the website: Pay only for the time you charge. When you join us along Canada’s Electric HighwayTM, pay $0.50 per minute while you charge, with no connection or idling fees.* Thank you for pioneering the EV space with us! We are working hard to keep you moving now and into the future with new locations and improved reliability on the way.
I don't get this charge-by-the-minute you guys have over there for DC chargers. You're buying kWh, not time. You should be charged per kWh. You buy fuel by the litre (or gallon in USA). You don't see ICE vehicle being charged by time at the pump. Why is it different for electrical energy? Just curious.
I expect to see Petro Canada charging bills exceed $50, or more for our Kona EVs, with our cold temperatures in the winter and the slower charging rate that goes hand in hand with that. The Federal government is supposed to be implementing $ per kWh but is a low priority at this time. Meanwhile, it would be strongly advised to avoid this network if possible
Their chargers are absolute rubbish. I stopped at the one closest to Winnipeg on trans Canada East a couple of days ago to test out the new battery pre conditioning in my GV60. Only one of 2 chargers was working and one that did work never got over 40 kW despite starting at 20% SOC and my coldest battery pack being over 20C. Such a poor experience compared to my recent drive trough the states and seeing consistent 230kW charges on the Electrify America sites.
Well, it's Petro Canada, so maybe their commitment to this new frontier is questionable at best. I've had similar issues with "Shell recharge" down here [my private name for them is similar but far less charitable], which absorbed the upstart Greenlots and applied the petroleum-industry Kiss of Deliberate Lameness. Their "support" is like two apathetic guys in an offshore boiler-room that really just couldn't GAF about anyone who's not suckling at the oil teat. My latest beef was that their website has no obvious way for a driver / client to log in to manage their profile/billing. I thought networks were moving away from time-based billing in general, though? Maybe not ones who don't understand the units. _H*
Well, they are again offering free charging with an RBC card up to $100. https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/rbc-offering-100-credit-towards-petro-canada-ev-charging/ I made good use of their free charging when I had the Kona. And yeah, sometimes one of the chargers didn't work properly. Most common problem was the reader, and you had to use your phone app. But hey, it was free, so I couldn't complain.
Thought I'd share the current absolutely sorry state of affairs in the Maritimes with Petro-Canada... There are 5 sites, with 1 or 2 dispensers at each. 4/5 sites are offline, leaving the 1 plug in Grand Falls nominally active. And for this, drivers get to pay twice the rate charged by FLO/eCharge (25 cents/min). https://m.facebook.com/groups/745634935629157/permalink/2157549071104396 Supposedly Electrify Canada will be installing 2 sites in NB and 2 in NS in the future... We can only hope.... Outside of Tesla, anyone travelling the TCH is only able to access 1 FLO 50kW CCS dispenser per site, or a Level 2 plug, at roughly 60 km intervals.
The only Petro Canada charging location in Nanaimo have been taped off for months now, might as well remove this from Plugshare altogether. Finding level 2 locations can be easier to find, as well as some well advertised level 1 can help relieve the burden as indicated in this photo I would think at least 2 EVs could share this one
Anyone for a a roadtrip to Petaluma, CA? It's cheap winter season PG&E rates at $0.39/kWh, so that's like $0.52CAD/kWh. That makes Petro Canada $0.50CAD/min worthwhile if you can charge over 60kW
