State of Charge: Plugging into Atlantic Canada with a Mustang Mach-E Select

Some trips are straightforward, others will require a dose of planning

Matthew Guy

Jul 21, 2021 • September 2, 2021 • 5 minute read • Join the conversation

Generous quantities of digital ink have been spilled about the new Ford Mustang Mach-E, and rightfully so. Using the vaunted pony title on a four-door SUV — an all-electric SUV, no less — is akin to naming your kid LeBron and sending him to basketball camp; intended or not, there will be expectations.

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But with the government recently declaring every new vehicle sold from 2035 onward must classify as zero emissions, this is The Way Forward. With other Driving experts having put various trims of the Mach-E through its paces, we thought it best to sample a base model in the rural environs of Atlantic Canada. After all, there are charging stations aplenty in well-populated urban areas. How would Ford’s big gambit — specifically, the least-expensive model with a standard range battery — play in Parrsboro?

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The group of provinces perched as far east as one can go in North America without getting wet have been upping their electric car game, with New Brunswick leading the way in 2017 by installing Level 3 chargers at (where else?) Irving fuel stations every 100 clicks or so along the Trans-Canada Highway. Newfoundland island is working on a similar structure with installations occurring faster than locals can say ‘whaddaya at.’

And before you hammer out a rude email blathering about reinforced stereotypes, know your author is a born-and-raised Newfoundlander, a status permitting him to utter such a phrase with alarming regularity. Mainlanders trying to mimic our accent reliably sound like Robin Williams pretending to be a pirate. Now, stay where you’re to ’til I comes where you’re at, ok?

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PEI has a hodgepodge of Level 2 and 3 public chargers, while Nova Scotia — oddly, considering their recent foray into providing generous monetary incentives on the purchase or lease of an electric vehicle — is in a similar boat. While drivers in New Brunswick can generally point their EV in the direction of an Irving Big Stop to find electric juice, the Flo-branded stations installed by Nova Scotia Power are at locations ranging from gas stations to grocery stores. There are other entities — think PetroCan with their snazzy pump-style EV Fast Charge outlets — beginning to spring up like fiddleheads.

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Our focus this go-around is on the region’s ability to reasonably accommodate short and medium EV trips, using the base trim Mustang Mach-E as a sensible yardstick. Its estimated 370km full-battery range is about par for the course these days, sitting at roughly the minimum most EV drivers expect from a modern plug-in electric. Speaking of expectations, Ford brags of the GT Performance Edition’s 3.7-second sprint to 100 km/h, but setting the table in this rear-wheel drive Select trim (the one which most people will actually buy) lays out just 266 horsepower and takes well into the six-second range to perform the same acceleration trick.

It’s quick off the line — like most electric cars, peak torque is available the instant you hit the throttle — like being thwacked in the head by a TaylorMade Z Spin sand wedge. But beyond those first few metres, acceleration fades like a Winnipeg talk radio station until one is simply and quietly zipping along at highway speeds. The Select trim not slow, but those expecting Tesla-like slingshot starts in a base model Mach-E may be disappointed.

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This creates a fascinating dichotomy, since Ford has painted itself into a corner for such comparisons. Had they called this vehicle the Edge Electric (or the, ahem, Galax-E ) your author would be remarking on its brisk acceleration compared to similarly-sized SUVs powered by gasoline.

But that’s a topic best explored another day. On this mauzy afternoon, we find ourselves thinking about charging networks in this neck of the woods and their ability to facilitate all-electric jaunts from Nova Scotia’s capital city to other major centres. A trip from the Halifax pier to the French delights of Moncton will spin up 261 km on one’s odometer, well within the confines of most modern EV batteries. One-way, of course.

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Along the route, which is a restricted-access divided highway the entire length, EV drivers will find a grand total of four high-speed DC charge stations from various brands — Flo, PetroCan, and eCharge. The cities at each terminus have about that number of Level 3 stations in their municipal limits, so letting one’s EV recharge while hitting up the Champlain Mall is a sensible decision to take care of electricity needed for the return trip.

Absent charging while doing whatever it is for which you visited Moncton (shopping at Jean Coutou, eating poutine, or complaining about Anglophones), some advance planning is required. Departing Halifax in a fully charged Mach-E Select, travelling to Moncton, then heading back to the Level 3 fast charger near the NB/NS border will consume about 320km, leaving only about 15 per cent charge in the Ford’s standard range battery.

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It’ll take about 45 minutes for this 50 kW charger to juice the Select’s battery to about 80 per cent, a sum more than sufficient to take you back to the Halifax area and its salty ocean air. Like most chargers located at an Irving station in New Brunswick, there’s a hearty restaurant on site and a few other facilities. There is a 150 kW PetroCan charger along this route, and it works seamlessly, but its location is nearly 200km distant from our target of Moncton.

Tesla stans take note: there is but a single Supercharger location (with an octet of plugs) in the entirety of Nova Scotia, with three more in the works. Supercharger availability increases dramatically in New Brunswick where there are half a dozen smartly placed stations. Residents on Newfoundland island are largely out of luck for now, while PEI is scheduled for a Supercharger installation later this year.

We plan to palm the keys of at least two more EVs this summer — the Chevy Bolt and new Bolt EUV — with the intent of assessing the state of charge between other major centres in the Atlantic Provinces. With Covid restrictions lifting like the morning fog, look for those paeans to appear before the leaves turn colour this autumn.