Recently I had to do a work trip to Ottawa from my home in Toronto. I had to lug a fair bit of gear, so I opted to drive my 2018 Nissan Leaf. Door to door time was 7 hours, a little longer than 4 hours and 30 minutes suggested by google. I find google driving times are wee lead footed for my taste plus adding a stop for lunch and another one for coffee, my 7 hrs of driving I feel is not unreasonable. On the economics front, I spent about $53 on charging, about half of what a gas car might have cost in fuel.
Ottawa is about 400 km North-East of Toronto, an easy drive along Hwy 7. While one could drive a little faster along the 401, the slower and shorter Hwy 7 makes for a much happier Leaf. I stopped twice, first at the Flo station in Norwood, and again at the Ivy station in Carleton Place. Norwood has a few lunch options around the charger which is located at the Foodland grocery store, plus the LCBO is nearby which was handy as I was meeting with a number of rather thirsty Physicists so best be adequately supplied. All told I stopped for about an hour in Norwood, but the stop at Carleton place was much shorter, about 15 minutes, since I just needed a quick top-up. I knew that my hotel in Ottawa had several L2 charging stations available, I called ahead to confirm that they were working, and also to see if they had exterior outlets I could use in case of an issue.
Going back I took the same route. Of note, the longest leg is actually the one between Norwood and Carleton place, about 190 km, so I had to make sure I left Carleton Place with close to a full charge. I drove steadily at about 80 km/hr, thus the Leaf made it with plenty of charge.
The Leaf’s cavernous cargo space was put to full use as I had lots of gear to haul. Mostly engineering and test equipment for an MRI experiment at the NRC lab in Ottawa.
The two L3 chargers in Norwood and Carleton Place both charge a little shy of $20 per hr, thus I figure I spent about $25 each way on fast charging. Charging was complimentary for hotel guests at the hotel I stayed at in Ottawa, and I suppose I ought to dock myself $3 for at-home charging before the trip, for a grand total of $53 for 800 km of driving to Ottawa and back again. Using “last three months average gas prices” from a previous post, a Nissan Versa would have been $96 for the 800 km drive. I did wind up doing shuttle runs between my hotel and the NRC facility in Ottawa, thus gas would have been more than the $96 assumed here. The free charging at the Hotel was a big plus.
Electric car adventures 