Are EVs ready for cottage trips?

After driving plenty of electric vehicles over the years, my anxiety has shifted beyond the range reading. Instead of worrying about the battery levels, I am far more skeptical of the charging infrastructure to keep me going on an extended road trip.

Now I’m kept up at night by the nightmare scenarios of arriving at a vital EV fast-charging station to find it in use by a non-existent owner, or worse, not even functioning. For me, in the city, another fast charger is within a 15-20 minute drive, but that isn’t the case in more remote locations, like cottage country.

The escape to the cottage plan

As is customary for many city-slickers around the Greater Toronto Area, I had a cottage trip with some friends scheduled for a sunny weekend in August. The destination is 280 km away from home, just outside of a small town known as Magnetawan. I’ve made this trip almost regularly since I was 16, and while the distance sounds like a breeze, the usual cottage rush traffic jam can make the journey well over three hours.

That’s the plan — head to the cottage, with a stop two-thirds of the way at the Petro-Canada Fast Chargers to top up. As we head out at 3 p.m., the readout on the Mustang Mach-E reads 430 km to go, with a 90 per cent battery capacity.

It’s a Mustang after all

The thrill of a fun weekend with friends takes over, and the urge to get to the cottage sooner leads my right foot to call upon the 346 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque in this vehicle to surge ahead of traffic. That output suggests that the sprint to highway speeds can be accomplished in under five seconds, but in reality, it just plops me in the usual Friday afternoon cottage traffic. All that extra throttle, in addition to ice-cold AC, to stave off this late August heatwave ends up costing me about 10 km in range, reminding me to mind my battery if I want to complete this trip without a headache.

The Mustang Mach-E has a pretty thorough suite of safety tech and assistance features to make the drive a bit less tedious. While I may be hesitant to ask a stranger for directions, I’m somehow more comfortable letting a lab-tested system of advanced technology play co-pilot. With adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping set, I begin to think this trip is going to be a breeze. But then I experience the Mach-E slow to a jarring stop in traffic, far less refined than how a real driver or other systems behave. Later it drives eagerly towards a vehicle with a rear-mounted bike rack, which triggers me to turn off the system for the rest of the journey.

As we plod our way through traffic, my wife notices the expressions of fellow motorists, who are doing double takes at our ride. Some give us approving nods, while others look confused. With four doors and a hatch, is this really a Mustang? The front and rear-end of the vehicle try to channel the established Mustang design language, but everything in between seems closer to an Escape. Still, it turned heads, which is a critical objective of the gas-powered Mustang, so it’s closer to the real deal than expected.

Traffic eventually opens up, and we make our way to our planned exit with 42 per cent of range left on the battery which equates to about 200 km. It’s enough to make it to our cottage, that’s roughly 70 km away. However, I feel it’s too small of a buffer to make it there and back to this station again on Sunday. Sitting the vehicle for two nights may also sap charge, as does cooling the cabin temperature again. There is no plug for the Mach-E on the cottage’s driveway, making it impossible to charge while I’m there, so topping the vehicle’s battery here seems like the smart move.

But as we pull into the Petro-Canada charger parking spot, our mood changes. Taped to both terminals is a piece of paper with the words “Sorry, this machine is out of order.”

Initiate panic

I call on Petro-Canada but am greeted with hold music for nearly 10 minutes. How can this happen? I fire up PlugShare, one of the five EV charging apps I have on my phone. PlugShare provides locations, updates, and reviews of public chargers so EV owners can avoid experiences like I just had.

I find this station on the app, and my jaw drops. “All Stations Broken” one user reports. “Both Stations Aren’t Working,” another one writes. “Could not initiate a charge.” All of these reports are in the last 48 hours, while reviews from earlier in the week suggest a successful charge.

I look for other options in the area, which sounds like the panicked concerns of a crazy person. My wife is skeptical of being able to find anything out here, but I point out that Parry Sound is merely 20 minutes away, with a Canadian Tire and likely a Flo charger. PlugShare agrees with me, though some users say the charger won’t start from their Flo app. I have 199 km on the dial, so getting to a station that’s just 15 km away seems like a risk worth taking. As a backup, there is another charger at a brewery nearby that I can check out if this Flo one doesn’t pan out.

We make the trip over while calling our friends and telling them the details. It doesn’t help that the stations I’m seeking out charge at a third the speed of the Petro Canada one, which will significantly delay our arrival time.

I find the Flo Chargers at Canadian Tire, near the loading bay of the store. Unfortunately, the displays simply say “Error,” and the stations are unresponsive to the Flo app, a credit card, or my loud, creative curses. Users on PlugShare say that successful recharges were accomplished with the Flo charging card, something I’ve put off ordering for about two years.

Okay, Plan C: Trestle Brewery, which boasts a single fast charger on-site.

As I depart the Canadian Tire and make my way to another station, another set of chargers catches my eye. Dubbed Ivy, they don’t show up on any of the charging apps I have. Could they be like the Flo Chargers and just not initialized? I ignore them and continue onwards to Trestle Brewery.

I arrive and find a packed parking lot, with plenty of folks lining up to enjoy the brewery’s patio for a warm Friday night. I find the charging station next to the garbage bin and a cargo van. Never mind, I need juice, so I slide the Mustang into the spot, jump out, plug my nose (seriously, the garbage stank), and inspect this charger. It’s labelled “SWTCH,” which is a brand I’m unfamiliar with. Usually, I recognize ChargePoint, Electrify America, Flo, and Petro Canada (and I have apps and accounts for each one on my phone) but not SWTCH. I see it has a credit card terminal, so I try to operate it as a gas station, but for whatever reason, the charger never releases the plug and doesn’t process a payment. Why aren’t these things simple?

A note on the station recommends using the app, with a free charge as an incentive. Sounds good, until I see my cell phone struggling to find a signal out in this unfamiliar territory. Downloading the app seems to take forever (it was probably two minutes tops), and I have to sign up for a new account, which also seems to take way longer than expected (seriously when was the last time you saw the network labelled as 3G?). When I’m all done, I enter the charger details in the app and try to turn it on, but my session times out. I try repeatedly and see no good luck. Is my Rogers coverage that bad here in Parry Sound, sandwiched between a garbage bin and a cargo truck? My wife takes charge and grabs my phone. She marches into the Brewery and demands to know their WiFi password. She connects and initiates the recharge using their WiFi. Success! I knew I married her for a reason. I grab a few cans from the brewery to thank them for their cooperation and the free charge.

The charge from 35 per cent to 80 per cent takes a gruelling 50 minutes. Some curious enthusiasts drop by to ask me about the Mustang Mach-E. They walk away impressed with the space, performance, and expected range, and even more so when we tell them that we made our way from the city. They scrunch their faces a bit when I share the asking price of this particular model: $72,145, including a $1,900 destination fee and $8,000 in options (though that includes the extended range battery).

Math time

I’m asked about charging times and explain the fast-charge speeds to 80 per cent vary depending on the charger. Then I get asked about the last 20 per cent, and this is a tough one to answer. When fast charging an electric vehicle, the rate drops down to 12 kW, which means getting that last 20 per cent on a public fast charger can take up to 90 minutes. It’s insanely inconvenient, but this is a design that’s supposed to extend the lifespan of the EV battery. The logistical issue is that drivers not only need to know their 100 per cent battery range for when they recharge at home but also their 80 per cent charge for when they set off from a fast charger. In the case of the Mustang Mach-E, 80 per cent means 400 km of range.

Before we set off, I ensure the cabin temperature is up to snuff to save the precious electrons for the drive and not climate control. Then it’s just about 90 km to the cottage.

Back on schedule

After making our way through McKellar and Dunchurch, the road gets gravelly. Fortunately, the AWD system provides confidence, although the tires and brakes struggle a bit to contain the 4,800 lbs of the vehicle at times.

We make it to the cabin, and the battery is at 62 per cent, which means 297 km to until empty, a stat I immediately forget about while we catch up with friends in the serenity of Ahmic Harbour.

The way home

Like the trip to the cottage, 10 km mysteriously vanished from the range reading. After analyzing the information display, the car blames Climate Control and Accessories. Could the sound system and USB ports really be sapping that much range?

We find the Electrify Canada four chargers in Barrie within a Canadian Tire parking lot. One of the chargers tops out at 350 kW, a speed the Mach-E doesn’t support, while the other three can supply 150 kW. I fire up the app, plug in the vehicle at 27 per cent, and make a b-line to a nearby Baskin Robbins. Using the Electrify Canada app, I can see the charge steadily increase to 150 kW, but then average out to about 108 or so. It takes 34 minutes to deliver 51 kWh of energy, which puts a $22 charge on my credit card, which is almost as much as we spent on ice cream.

We finish our trip home with a few important lessons during a typical Ontario cottage goer road trip.

Recommendations

First, I’d recommend EV owners know the range of their vehicle with 80 per cent battery remaining. Relying on fast chargers means that you will be topping up to that level, which isn’t the typically advertised full-charge mark that automakers always parrot out.

Second, check the reviews of stations you plan to use on the day of your trip. This seems like a significant step backwards from gas stations. Imagine having to thumb through reviews of a Shell or Esso that say they have sporadic pumps. That wouldn’t fly with a gas vehicle and station, and shouldn’t be the norm with an EV.

Finally, cell connectivity may be inconsistent around the province. If you have an EV charge card to use, this may be more convenient than initiating a charge from your phone.

Overall, the trip was doable, and though there were some hiccups, we managed pretty well. While some think EVs are ready for prime-time, this trip suggests that there are still some scenarios where they don’t provide the smoothest experience.

The Mustang Mach-E may puzzle enthusiasts with its four-door, electrified existence, but it delivered speed on the road, and at the charging station, all in relative comfort. Although it’s pricey, it’s an impressive, full-function EV from Ford, and a beacon of solid electric vehicles to come.