Road trips lose power as charger outages leave northern Ontario EV drivers stranded

Some electric vehicle drivers in northern Ontario say the charging network between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie is failing those who don't drive Teslas.

CCS and CHAdeMO fast chargers in Marathon, White River and Wawa were down for most of June; the Ivy location in White River has been out of service since mid-April.

Tesla chargers in the region were still working, according to reports on the forum PlugShare, where drivers update each other on charger status, but they are not currently compatible with non-Tesla vehicles. 

"June was a rough month for this area," said Real Deschatelets, a volunteer with the Electric Vehicle Association of Northern Ontario (EVANO).

"There was a huge zone between Sault Ste. Marie and Terrace Bay that had no fast charging available. Even Level 2, there was almost nothing. … The biggest disappointment in owning an EV is public charging — public fast charging." 

The federal government has been promoting EV adoption as an important pillar in the fight against climate change, offering incentives worth $5,000 off the purchase price of a vehicle.

Fewer Canadians seriously considering EV purchases

Ottawa wants EVs to account for 20 per cent of all new vehicles sold by 2026, and plans to phase out sales of vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2035.

But a new survey published last week by J.D. Power found only around a third of Canadians are considering EVs as their next vehicle purchase, and that number is trending downward. Those who reject EVs cite limited range and lack of charging stations as key reasons.

Ian McEwan's experience illustrates their fears.

McEwan set off on a road trip to Halifax last month in his new Ford F-150 extended range vehicle. 

He topped up his charge in Nipigon and Terrace Bay, but the Petro-Canada app listed the company's chargers in Marathon in Wawa as out of service.

McEwan decided to get his car juiced up instead at the Ivy charger in White River. But when he got there, he discovered the charger was down too.

"Do I go forward, where I have enough power to get to, but not past [Wawa]?  Or do I go backwards and hope I have enough [charge] to make it back to Terrace Bay?" he asked.

Complicating the risk assessment was the fact mobile phone service is spotty between cities in parts of the region, meaning a person with a dead battery could easily find themselves at the side of the road with no way to call for help.

In the end, McEwan pressed forward to Wawa, but was unable to find a working charger.

So he booked a room in a hotel and arranged a tow truck to get his vehicle to Sault Ste. Marie the next day.

"I was talking to the tow truck driver and he said, 'Oh this happens a lot because it has been down for at least two months,'" he said.

Suncor Energy, which owns Petro-Canada, did not respond to CBC's inquiry about its charging station outages.

Supply chain delays blamed for long outage

However, drivers posting on PlugShare reported the Wawa charger was back online on June 28. 

The Marathon charger was working again on June 30.

A spokesperson for Ivy told CBC News the White River charging station was down due to a damaged transformer, and "there are significant delays in obtaining transformers, which has resulted in an extended timeline for bringing this station back online."

One towing company and hotel operator in White River said it's a "horrendous inconvenience" when the chargers aren't operating.

'Towed about a half a dozen out of White River'

"I think we've towed about a half a dozen out of White River," Angelo Bazzoni said when asked how many drivers he'd had to rescue in June due to dead batteries. 

"Some of them we've accommodated in our motel property where … people spent the evening, and were able to slow charge their vehicles and get into Thunder Bay." 

Deschatelets has emailed several MPs and met with Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Patty Hajdu about the issue.

Hajdu told CBC she understands his frustration.

She said the government has spent more than $1 billion on charging infrastructure since 2015, but it does not build chargers itself, relying instead on proponents to do so.

There are approximately 45,000 chargers across Canada right now, she added. 

The goal is to have more than 84,000 by 2027.

In a statement to CBC News, Natural Resources Canada also reiterated the government's work to fund charging infrastructure, adding it does track charging ports on an interactive map.

"The federal government recognizes the importance of having a fully functional and reliable charging system," the statement reads. "Federal programs fund a fraction of project costs to ensure project proponents are committed to the long-term viability of their charging infrastructure, which helps support greater reliability. Reliability is also factored into application processes and funding requirements."

Deschatelets said he has also spoken with Petro-Canada and Ivy, which operate the chargers in the northern region. 

He said he hopes Tesla's plans to open its chargers to all EVs will improve the situation for drivers. 

"People would be losing their minds if gas stations all went down in this whole area — that's the reality of EVs right now."