Lessmore wrote:
Reisender wrote:
Lessmore wrote:
We make a trip across three prairie provinces...a bit more than 700 miles and we usually drive straight through in 12 hours or so with our IC vehicles. It's not business trips it's to visit family. We do this trip 3-4 times a year.
Last family trip was in late January of this year...temps for half the trip. eastern Saskatchewan, western Manitoba ranged from -28 to -33 and there are few towns in that area. The internal combustion engine in our vehicle was able to provide good cabin heat...but the heater fan and heat were turned up to close to maximum.
My understanding is that batteries lose efficiency at extreme cold temperatures and any cabin heat for the vehicle, comes from the batteries that are also providing motive power to the vehicle. EV range suffers in these conditions.
I know a vehicle range of 300 ( 186 miles) -400 (248 miles) kms ... in this cold would have that range lessened significantly in the cold winters we experience, out here during prairie winters.
We couldn't do our 12 hour...700 + mile (1,126 kms) trips. On the prairies, there are no passenger trains anymore. Greyhound cut out bus service. Plane service is good to major centres, but a lot of the prairies are rural and can be very cold in the winter and if you need to travel, you generally have to rely on your own vehicle.
Looks likely that EV's will eventually take over transportation...but there needs to be significant improvement in range, charging infrastructure. I'm sure it will be here eventually...out here...and EV's will improve battery range and charging speed....but that appears be a ways in the future.
Ahh yes. I remember those kind of trips well. Lived in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The other big challenge of having an EV in Saskatchewan is the complete lack of infrastructure for charging. And the goverment has made it quite clear there will be none in the future either. I would think eventually there will be a few DC fast chargers on the trans Canada though so people can at least pass thru though the province though. Maybe part of the Petrocan network.
I was watching The Fast Lane series on the daily life ownership of their Tesla 3. During the show, they were looking at the Tesla map that shows where Tesla chargers are available and they seem to be quite common in many areas...except in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, NW Ontario, the Dakotas, etc...and I'm guessing because this part of the world is a very cold, sparsely populated area of the continent.
Now I didn't see Alaska, the NW Territories, Nunavut, Yukon, etc...but I'll assume they are also not served well by charger infrastructure.
Now I'm not criticizing Tesla as other EV manufacturers..such as GM, etc. who say all their future will depend on completely EV vehicles...
...and to quote you (and I agree with you) ...the government (Cdn. Feds) has made it quite clear there will be none (EV infrastructure) in the future either...and so far...private companies don't seem to be setting up infrastructure..here..either.
So...I look at the transportation future of the prairies, the territories and some of the states I've mentioned...what are we going to do if the future is going to be EV all the way..but so far no sign of infrastructure to support these areas ?
It is a conundrum.
My hope is that some manufacturers...ie; Japanese companies such as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc..continue to make IC vehicle and make them available in these cold, sparsely populated areas for the foreseeable future....until charging infrastructure, faster charging rates , etc..becomes readily available out here in the sticks. Of course, I'm hoping that the gas and stations to fuel IC vehicles in the future, out here, is still maintained, but who knows anymore.
Even though I've had mostly GM products for a number of decades...I'm close to the point of giving up on them...as they state that they won't be making vehicles that will meet my...perhaps minority in North America ...needs in the years to come.
I just read an article about a South Dakota man who is taking GM to court as his GM EV vehicle during cold winter months loses about 100 miles of range...due to extreme cold in the winter. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.
Again I'm not anti EV...I just want good charging infrastructure, faster charging, etc...out here. Sitting in a dead EV (or IC) vehicle by the side of a lonely highway in -30...late at night...can be dangerous.
Yah. You nailed it. If we still lived in Saskatoon I’d be driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I’m not a fan of any of the hybrids right now but there is a whole new crop coming out in 2020.
I think people in the prairies and the dakotas will be able to buy gassers for decades yet. Don’t buy a saw if you need a hammer.
However, I think tourism will eventually be affected in these areas if they don’t have charging infrastructure. There are more and more families like ours that only drive electric as they are a better fit for us. The only problem is although we can travel all over BC and up and down the west coast, driving east past Calgary just isn’t going to happen. It’s a limitation we are willing to live with to get the convenience of driving EV’s.
I think EV growth will be substantial in B.C. in the next couple of decades but I think Alberta and Saskatchewan will see considerably slower growth as, well, they are just not that good of fit, at least in their present form. The technology is always improving of course.
