Northern man charged up over lack of public sites to quickly power up electric cars

Laurent Boileau of Sturgeon Falls, Ont. says the province isn't making good on its promise to install charging stations for electric vehicles in northern Ontario

Boileau owns two of these electric cars.

He says his decision to purchase them was because partly because he was interested in saving the environment, but he also thinks there will be a lot more people driving them in the future.

In 2016, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) said it would install 500 public stations to charge electric vehicles. That work was expected to be completed by March of this year.

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There are three ways to charge an electric vehicle:

• Level 1: 120 volts, using an ordinary house plug which takes 50 hours to charge the car
• Level 2: 240 volts, found at hotels and other private sites, takes 10 hours to charge the car
• Level 3: 480 volts, it can take between 30 minutes to one hour to charge the car, depending on the vehicle

The province's public charging stations would include more than 200 of the Level 3 fast chargers.

Just one of these Level 3 stations has been installed in northern Ontario. It is located in New Liskeard.

There are private charging stations available in the north, at places like hotels, but Boileau says those take more time to charge a vehicle.

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"I can't travel. Basically, I can't travel up north. I can go south because there are some fast chargers there, but anywhere north, I can't go anywhere."

The problem is in the northern part of the province there are hundreds of kilometres of roads with no access to a fast charging station for anyone who drives an electric vehicle, says Boileau.

Whereas in some of the southern Ontario locations chargers are within a few dozen kilometres of each other.

"A level two charger, which is a 220 volt power would take about 12 hours for my vehicle and I've got a range of about 400 kilometres. So in order to get to Kenora [from Sturgeon Falls], let's say, it would probably take me 2-3 days."

Boileau also noticed recently on the MTO website there are fewer charging stations planned for northern Ontario, than had originally been listed when the 500 sites were first announced last fall.

Ministry response

The Ministry of Transportation lists just 14 electric vehicle chargers (EVCO) sites for northern Ontario.

In an email to CBC news, ministry spokesperson Bob Nichols says the province is working with private and public sector program participants to install the Level 2 and Level 3 chargers as soon as possible.

He says all 500 stations will be in place by the fall. He adds that the ministry is planning additional rounds of the EVCO program.

"While program details remain under development, MTO is seeking to address additional charging needs based on the feedback we have heard, including in northern Ontario. We look forward to having more to say on this once those program details are developed," says Nichols in his email.

No regrets

In the meantime, Boileau says he doesn't regret buying his two electric cars. However, he says he thinks it's time there was more service up north.

"I don't often travel in the north, however, I want to do a trip this summer. I want to go out west. I can't do it."

"Basically I'd have to go through the States and I don't want to do that. I want to go through Canada."

He says it would be possible to drive his electric car through the northern part of the province, but it would take him two months to get all the way to Vancouver and back because he would constantly be stopping to recharge his vehicle at Level 2 chargers.

"The technology is there," Boileau adds, explaining that he has already driven his Tesla electric vehicle to Florida and California. He says the car travels as fast as any gas-powered vehicle.

"I definitely believe in electric vehicles. It's the future. I believe 10, 15 years from now you'll see them everywhere, by then the infrastructure will be there, but it isn't there now."