Surveying the EV charging infrastructure

There is the perception out there that charging infrastructure is just not there. Horror stories abound of people arriving on a road trip at a fast charger only to find it busy or broken. The true picture is much more localized. For example, you may only care about L3 DC fast chargers near Gravenhurst Ontario if you travel through the area regularly. On my road trips through Ontario, Ive mostly found charging stations available, and working, granted there is a learning curve, and frequently specialized apps and memberships are required. Lets see how we can use plugshare and chargehub to survey the charging infrastructure, so that you can do your homework and see for your self what the EV charging infrastructure is really like where you live.

First thing to note is most people charge their EV at or near home. Thus the most used charging station will likely be very close (or even in) your home. For example, I have a L2 charging station in my garage, and alternatively there is a 110V plug there too, which I could use for L1 charging if needed. Suppose you do not have a garage (or the one you got is full of random stuff), you might park your car in your driveway. Why not put a charging station there. Many vendors offer weatherproof charging stations, which can be safely installed outside. Ive seen these on side of houses next to the parking pad, or even installed on a post technically on private property but next to a public parking spot (presumably one mostly used by the owner of that private property).

There are public charging stations in most places. The “at-home” charging situation is best done overnight, so you are looking for an in-expensive L2 charging station where you could leave your car parked overnight or at least over a few hours. At work is another good spot to check. Does your employer offer charging stations? Many do, especially in the city. Checkout plugshare and chargehub near where you live to see what the neighborhood charging setup is like.

Next consider road-trips. We all have our favorite spots, and avid readers of this blog will notice that Ontario is full of wonderful destinations to visit all year, what are your favorites? Suppose you have a cottage in North Bay, ON, how would you get there in an EV? Well, let us put a better route planner to work.

Seems much will hinge on charging infrastructure in or around Gravenhurst for my North Bay run. Lets see what plugshare and chargehub have to say, I find the comments particularly helpful.

So, seems the station is working well, although it can be busy, and there are some drivers that report issues with charging say a Tesla model S with the Tesla Chademo adapter. It is prudent to check for alternatives, both plugshare and chargehub report an working Ivy station up the road in Huntsville, and also a broken one in Washago.

Its worth doing this exercise with a few of your regular road trips. If the North Bay example is pertinent to you, then by all means install the Ivy app (add a healthy balance of at least $15, see notes below), perhaps do a practice charge at a nearby Ivy charger to make sure you know what to do (there is an Ivy charger in Scarborough, in Toronto east side).

Below are a few of my notes from my wanderings around Ontario. Overall I find the reliability to be quite good, about 90% of the time, a charger is available and works as expected. Even at that level, you need to be aware of alternate stations you could use, should you find yourself in that 10% situation, where a charger is busy or broken.

Network	Notes	Payment	Reliability
Flo	Its worth getting the Flo-card as your cell-phone connectivity may be iffy near the charging station. This makes it much easier to use the Flo charging stations as I just plug in my car, then wave the card in front of the reader and off it goes. A few higher power L3 locations, but mostly 50kW L3 stations, and lots of L2 stations.	App, Flo card	Good
Chargepoint	The app is very good, and integrates with apple-wallet, if I point my phone to the Chargepoint charging station, it usually activates right away. Plenty of L2 stations, and some 50 kW stations.	App	Good
Ivy	I activate via the app, which is OK. Somehow you need to keep a healthy balance (e.g. > 15$) as otherwise it gets cranky, and the charge usually fails after a few minutes. They do have a few higher power chargers, but mostly 50 kW stations.	App	Good, provided your Ivy account has at least $15 on it
PetroCanada	One of the few 100 kW Chademo and 350 kW CCS chargers around. I usually just use my credit card as its faster and easier than the app. These higher charge speeds make PetroCanada popular with EV drivers, as such, I have had to wait a few times, which of course is just an excuse to get to know other EV drivers and learn.	App or a credit card	Good, but they are popular
ElectrifyCanada	Few Ontario locations, but they are expanding. Lean heavily towards CCS, they usually try to offer one Chademo charger per location, but other providers (Ivy for example) usually have more Chademo plugs per location, hence I usually drive my Leaf elsewhere. They do have lots of CCS stations, some which offer higher power levels.	App or a credit card	Good
Tesla	There are a few superchargers and destination chargers throughout Ontario, coverage gets spotty once you head towards Northern Ontario. They are popular, and do ramp down charging speeds when busy.	Integrated into car/Tesla account	Good, but they are popular
Greenlots (a.k.a. Shell Recharge)	I have used a few of their stations, mostly just with my credit card as I find that works better than the app. I do suspect Shell will get quite serious with this, but at this point in time (fall of 2022), seems there are frequently reported issues with their stations	Credit card (app is available)	Intermittent

I must say though that the user experience leaves much to be desired. For example, at a gas station, I can just wave my credit card in front of the pump and voila. Charging stations on the other hand often require a network specific app, an account with some money in it and so on. That said, you do get used to it, now I have a folder of EV-apps on my phone which does include apps from most of the networks in the table above.