Unable to help with your question, but it is interesting to hear that the the state of public charging in Canada seems to be as confusing, and badly organised/regulated as it is here in the UK. If they want to encourage people to buy EV's, local and National Governments should step in and sort things out. You should be able to drive anywhere knowing there will be suitable working chargers on your route, without all the planning, and worrying. Having to sign up to membership of multiple charging providers is also ridiculous.

 

Sorry I can’t offer any help from here in New Zealand. But hopefully an extra post will boost the number of eyes who see your question.
All I can say is that goodness for ChargeNet here in NZ. https://charge.net.nz/my/station/
Our biggest problem currently seems to be the various power companies offering charging stations for free.
This has caused a bit of friction if needing to queue to charge.

 

@lee99, public charging infrastructure is currently very small in Ontario, especially for DCFC. I don't know if it's badly organized, but you're right in a way in that I wish things were more centralized to a single app. Right now you have to search multiple apps (at least 4 apps) and websites to build your own list of where these chargers are at.

But to help out @BingWalters, essentially your best bet in Ontario is FLO and Chargepoint chargers.

Next best bet is any IKEA location that have at least L2 or L3 DCFC.

Then lastly you can search ChargeHub and Plugshare because there are other branded L2 chargers (Eaton/Bosch/etc) in specific cities and in places such as the library or city hall or an electricity company such as Alectra Utilities that may have public chargers for free use. Also some car dealerships may have Level 2 chargers for you to use.

Best to download both apps because when you register, you can start the charge via your smartphone if you do not already have a physical charge card for those two respective companies. You can't use any credit card to pay directly at the machine. Essentially you load up the charge card first in order to charge.

We still have a long ways to go in Ontario for non Tesla charge facilities, probably decades by the time it improves. Tesla Supercharger network is decades ahead of everyone else and it's not even close.

 

Thanks for the response guys. I guess a lot of this is going to be trial and error. Might be a good idea for a casual day trip, hit an area with a few chargers, give them a try, grab lunch, head back, get a feel for the diff networks before going further and further out.

 

I've had good experience with FLO and chargepoint. Chargers are pretty expensive though at $15-20/hr charge. If at a 50kW charger, you'll need to be on it for 30-40mins depending on your state of charge when you arrive. I wouldn't recommend going to chargers less than 50kW or it'll take over an hour. These are typically found on dealerships like GM, BMW or VW. The Plugshare app usually states the charger speed.

From Guelph to Windsor looks to be about 290km. You'll get by with one charge if you top off in London at the Canadian Tire at 1125 Wellington Rd (FLO). You'll have about 180km left to Windsor from London. If you regularly average less then 14kWh/100km on the highway, you'll be pretty safe. Otherwise, if the expected range is getting too low for comfort, you'll have to top in Chatham at the Tim Hortons (myEVroute). This is a slower DCFC at 30kW but you'll only need like 10mins to get enough range (an extra 35km or so) to get into Windsor comfortably.

Have a safe and fun trip and let us know how charging works out after the trip!

 

Check out plugshare for a comprehensive list of stations both free and paid. If you're not in a super hurry you can probably find a free level 2 (or even level 3) charging station near your destination. There are a couple of free DCFC (likely operating at 24kW) at Buick dealerships and a whole bunch of free level 2 stations.


If not I see a few paid locations at Dunkin' Donuts. From what I can gather it's 35 cents per minute at 40kW, or about $10 if you're charging from 10 - 80 percent.

 

If you're going to stop in Chatham or Windsor, I recommend the Chevy dealerships. They are only 25 KW in power so a little bit slower, but they are generally free and you're not paying the KSI the flat $3.95 fee upfront that they charge. This is especially important if you only need a small charge. You will find that KSI (myEVRoute) are the worst in Ontario. I concur with the others, Chargepoint and FLO are good. I have had some issues with Chargepoint Level 3 chargers. Greenlots charges an upfront fee like KSI but at least you get a real fast 50 KW charge from them. If you don't have a data on your phone to use the apps to activate the chargers then you will need to get the RFID cards for each company. Chargepoint is/was free, the rest charge a fee for them to send you a card. Plugshare is your best friend for finding chargers and reading comments from other drivers, but make sure you check the actual company app/website to make sure the price is accurate in plugshare.

I've been all over south and central ontario in the IONIQ EV. Just takes a small amount of planning on plugshare to figure out where you are going to stop.

Remember if you run out of charge, you have the hyundai roadside assistance to bail you out.

enjoy the adventure.

 

I have yet to actually paid for public charging in 1.5 years of driving my Ioniq EV. I've driven to Algonquin, Milton, Wasaga, etc.


It's a pretty great time to be driving EVs right now.

 

There is a flo level 3 charger just outside white oaks mall at the canadian tire gas bar if you take the wellington exit when going through London that I've used a few times without issue. It's easy to get to from the highway, and easy to get back on the highway from. You need to have the flo app set up on a phone to use it.

I've used neither of the fast chargers in Chatham, but I would agree that the Chevy dealership is likely a better choice than the KSI one. In general, KSI units are expensive, difficult to get working in the first place, and have been set to charge at a maximum of 20-25kwh charge rate. I suspect that choice is related to the fact that they charge per minute. If you need to use the KSI unit, have a credit card on you, and be prepared for the flat charge of $17, as the app only works when the stars are aligned correctly on many of the KSI units.

 

I am going to be taking a trip from Victoria to Nelson BC, about 750 driving km plus a ferry through some very mountainous terrain. I used the trip planning feature in Plugshare to plot out the route (just like you would on Google Maps or the like) and then picked chargers along the route that served my purposes. As stated by others, Plugshare includes the speed of the charger and (often) the cost per kwh (pretty standard here at $0.35/kwh subject to a minimum $2 charge). You can do the planning on your laptop or PC on their website for ease of use. Once planned, you can save the route and it will sync with your Plugshare app on an iPhone *or* you can transfer the route with stops to Google Maps and then send it to your Android phone from there. Once in the car, Apple Carplay or Android Auto will pick up your route and guide you through it.

As far as all of the different networks, I find many of them are non-issues because they don't exist in our environment. Flo, Chargepoint, and Greenlots are the networks for all but one of the networked services out here and each one has an app you can install on your phone. The Flo app recognizes your location using GPS and then you select a station which flashes helpfully to show you that you are connecting to the right one, although some stations may also read the NFC chip on your phone. Chargepoint works by having a NFC reader on the stations or allowing manual station ID entry and Greenlots uses a 2D barcode and a builtin scanner in the app to link to the station. It's actually really easy.

You can order an RFID tag to use with all the stations in case your phone is dead or you are out of a cell coverage area. Chargepoint is free to order, Flo costs $15 for the card and Greenlots is $9. I think it's pretty silly for them to charge you for a relatively inexpensive prox card when you will be using it to pay for charging on their network but $24 for nearly 100% access to the chargers I encounter is still pretty cheap.

Like other respondents I have yet to pay for charging anywhere. All L2 stations out here are free and several L3 stations are also free. At BC Hydro's step 2 rate for electricity (about $13.5/kwh) my Ioniq costs the equivalent of about $0.25 per litre of gasoline that I would put in my very fuel efficient Toyota Echo. Even at the charger rate of $0.35/kwh the equivalent cost per litre of gasoline is about $0.70 - less than half our current gasoline cost of $1.439.

PM me if you want any more specific information about these networks or the use of Plugshare to plan trips.

 

At BC Hydro's step 2 rate for electricity (about $13.5/kwh) my Ioniq costs the equivalent of about $0.25 per litre of gasoline that I would put in my very fuel efficient Toyota Echo.

O.O I hope you mean 13.5cents per kWh. $13.5 per kWh would mean $400 to fully charge the Ioniq. Ontario off-peak rate is 6cents per kWh. 13.5 cents would be on-peak price.