Lockdown = not much to do = time for a thought experiment. I have the first business trip in more than a year coming up - Ottawa. And I ain't flying until covid is done with. Let's pretend for a moment that I were to do this in the EV that I'm most likely to buy - a 2020-on Chevrolet Bolt, which has slightly more battery capacity than the original, 66 kWh, and slightly faster charging rate, 55 kW, and it accepts more charge before the charging rate starts ramping down. Minor digging suggests that if you want to make best progress on a road trip, it's best to charge it to around 65% to stay below the threshold where the charging rate starts ramping down. A slight disadvantage of this particular model compared to some newer designs is that it doesn't charge as fast - Hyundai Kona EV 64kWh claims 100kW charging although it appears that it won't actually do that except under the most ideal possible conditions. Nevertheless, let's see what happens.
www.plugshare.com
entered some info, got it to display only CCS fast-charging stations that have a capacity of more than 50 kW and that are in service (not under repair or under construction). and then "Trip Planner" ... start address at my place near Georgetown ... end address at my customer's site in Ottawa. Conveniently, Google Maps shows that there is a ChargePoint EV charging station on Hunt Club not far away.
It's 439 km door to door. Theoretically it's within the capability of the car to go the distance based on the officially rated range. But I don't believe it. I'm going to take an educated guess that the car uses 17 kWh per 100 km based on numbers observed on youtube videos and elsewhere, and thus will do about 380 km.
Via the Highway 7 route, there's a FLO charging station in Norwood beside the grocery store that supposedly requires their app in order to use it, $15 per hour. It's 188 km to get there, so starting off with a full charge, it should have about 30 kWh left, about 45% state of charge. Getting to the destination from there is 251 km, which would need about 42 kWh to do (plus something "just in case"). Charging up at that station for 20 minutes ($5) would add about 18 kWh at 55 kW, bringing it to 48 kW, 73% state of charge, and that would be enough to get to my destination where I could charge it up right next door.
Suppose I didn't want to charge there or it didn't work. Right now, there's a dearth of charging stations along the Highway 7 route from there until Carleton Place, 378 km from my door. Theoretically it would be at 3% state of charge, and that station shows only 1 active (and 1 broken) ... too close to call. Not ideal. (This wouldn't be my first choice of route anyhow.)
Via the 401/416 route, which is longer (475 km) there are many more choices. There's a PetroCan in Cobourg, and I know where that one is - lots of places to eat nearby. But it's only 148 km from home. There's a whole bunch in Kingston, including one at a PetroCan (N.B. the PetroCan ones have 350 kW capacity ... not that the Bolt would be able to use it ... a Porsche Taycan could, but that's out of my budget). Likewise, lots of places to eat nearby, and it's a few hours down the road. "Add to Trip" - it reroutes the map.
It's 287 km from home to the Kingston PetroCan. Theoretically it would arrive with 17 kWh still in the battery, 26% state of charge. That's good, lots of margin, and even if the car were thirstier for whatever reason, there's lots of other choices to charge before that. It's 189 km from there to the destination (this would use 32 kWh, just below 50% state of charge needed) - charging it to 65% (43 kWh in the battery) would give decent margin for getting there, and adding 26 kWh should take around half an hour and cost $10. Given that this would also be a lunch stop ... that works fine.
Let's assume that the hotel doesn't have overnight charging, and I have to use the ChargePoint station near my customer. Interestingly, PlugShare doesn't show that one. Be that as it may, there's another one at a Canadian Tire not far away. Let's suppose I take it from 11 kWh in the battery to 43 kWh (65%) there ... 32 kWh ... about 35 minutes ... cost $9.40.
I could go from there to the exact same Kingston PetroCan because it's the same distance starting from the same state of charge, the other direction. Charging it from 11 kWh to 43 kWh there would take about 35 minutes and cost $12. The car would need a "splash" at some other station (theoretically 6 kWh, ~ 10 minutes, $3) to get home comfortably from there, but there's lots of choices, e.g. Cobourg.
Hmmm ... This would have involved spending about $35 at charging stations plus whatever the home charge costs (8.5 cents per kWh x 66 = $5.61), so call it $40. Most of the stops would coincide with meal or coffee breaks anyhow. If the car could be plugged in overnight at the hotel, or at my customer's site, that would trim some of that off even further.
This is doable. Driving 950 km in my current gasoline engine car (Fiat 500) would use around 60 litres of fuel which would be $65-$70. Obviously relying on fast-chargers costs more than charging up at home, but it's still less than feeding even a small gas-engine car.
The Windsor run isn't as far but it's a bit more of a nuisance ... there's a big hole in the charging network between London and Tilbury, and the Tilbury one is at a Canadian Tire where unless you happen to need to do a Canadian Tire shopping run, there's nothing to do but sit there, and if that station doesn't work or is occupied you had better be able to go another 60 km. There are a few other stations in the Windsor area, but they're not near where I usually need to go. Doable ... just annoying. I'm sure someone will add another charging station somewhere in that void. (Or maybe there already is one, but it doesn't show up on PlugShare)
