Highway 401 charging stations

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canswim

Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2018
Messages
9
Does any one know of any more Level 3 charging stations that are being installed along the 401 - specifically between Kingston and Toronto? The only options right now are in Belleville and next one after that is in Oshawa. Belleville is only 45 minutes from our house and Oshawa is too far! Seems like it would make sense to have as station at the midpoint - I'm looking at you Cobourg/Port Hope!

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Hi, I am not aware of any in development other than the EnRoutes. They are continuing to drag their heels in deploying DCFCs and hope we may see some by the end of this year!

You may want to check with some local municipalities in the stretch you are interested in and see if any of them have plans. PS app is best way to monitor which you are using.

I as well would love to see a few more along all 400-series highways stretches.
 
I also would like to see one added in somewhere between Belleville & Oshawa. I live in Ottawa, and I'm thinking of driving to London next Summer. The way the L3 stations are divided up, it looks like I'll need to top up in Kingston, then hope I can get to Oshawa. The rest of the trip seems to be no problem from Oshawa to London.

I once heard that the EnRoute stations were going to setup L3 chargers, but that was before Doogie Ford took away the incentives to build up the infrastructure.

One in Cobourg would be nice, maybe at the Big Apple? That's a nice place for a rest stop. :)
 
CanuckEVDriver said:
I also would like to see one added in somewhere between Belleville & Oshawa. I live in Ottawa, and I'm thinking of driving to London next Summer. The way the L3 stations are divided up, it looks like I'll need to top up in Kingston, then hope I can get to Oshawa. The rest of the trip seems to be no problem from Oshawa to London.

I once heard that the EnRoute stations were going to setup L3 chargers, but that was before Doogie Ford took away the incentives to build up the infrastructure.

One in Cobourg would be nice, maybe at the Big Apple? That's a nice place for a rest stop. :)


Yes, Enroute (aka. Canadian Tire Corp.) was supposed to install at least some L2's a year ago. They sat on it (after getting last terms grant monies) and still have not installed anything. The wiring is there.
 
PlugShare is now reporting that an L3 station is going up in Cobourg, in the Hibernia lot at 105 Albert Street.

However, based on the picture shown, there's a sign on it saying it's limiting it to 6 kW?!? With a CHAdeMO connector?!? 6 kW is L2 power.

Maybe they plan on building it up in the future. It's showing as "coming soon".
 
Reviving this "older" post, based on new information...

I have been wary of PlugShare.com's posting of charging stations that are "coming soon".

I have called 4 "coming soon" locations (3 Petro Canada stations, and one Canadian Tire location).
The general response from the clerk's that answer the phone, "What's a charging station?"

After explaining what they are and that according to PlugShare they should be having one soon, the clerk says, "Not as far as I know. I don't see anything being built around here." I even talked to a manager at the Canadian Tire. He was totally unaware of the "coming soon" charging station.

So "coming soon" is what exactly? Sometime... whenever?

I know that installations probably slowed down in Ontario, once Doogie (Ontario's equivalent do that orange guy in the white house) removed the government incentive for public stations. But as I explained to Petro Canada's Customer Relations department (1-800-668-0220), an EV customer usually hangs around for about half an hour, looking for ways to spend money on food, etc.
 
I generally trust the BC hydro and Fortis “coming soon” locations as they are slowly going from the wrench to online with people using them. I’m not sure they will all be online by end of 2019 though. There seems to be about 4 at a time under construction. I would suspect that’s as many as the crew can handle.

There are a ton new under under construction locations in Alberta. It will be interesting to see how serious they are there.
 
CanuckEVDriver said:
I also would like to see one added in somewhere between Belleville & Oshawa. I live in Ottawa, and I'm thinking of driving to London next Summer. The way the L3 stations are divided up, it looks like I'll need to top up in Kingston, then hope I can get to Oshawa. The rest of the trip seems to be no problem from Oshawa to London.

I once heard that the EnRoute stations were going to setup L3 chargers, but that was before Doogie Ford took away the incentives to build up the infrastructure.

One in Cobourg would be nice, maybe at the Big Apple? That's a nice place for a rest stop. :)

For driving between Ottawa and Toronto (and beyond) in an EV, highway 416 to 401 is overrated. Sure the driving time is a bit shorter, but the higher speeds and longer distance increases the amount of energy used and thus the amount time you need to spend recharging, costing more time in the long run.

In theory, a much better option would be to take highway 7 to 37 to 401 (via Tweed). Although (according to Google) it is 10 minutes slower (ignoring traffic), it is 38 km shorter (city hall to city hall).

Another good option (in theory) is highway 7 to 115 to 401 (via Peterborough). It is 20 minutes slower than the "fastest" route but 49 km shorter.

These routes are also a lot more scenic and much more relaxing on a nice day (especially with ProPilot Assist).

The only problem with these two routes is the lack of DC Fast Charging. There is one in Carleton Place (only 50 km from Ottawa) and then the next one isn't until Havelock (230 km from Ottawa City Hall), which depending on your range and the time of year, could be a stretch. It is also well after the turn off for Highway 37, so you would have to charge in Belleville (229 km from Ottawa City Hall) instead.

Now this might not be an issue for some, but the lack of a backup plan (should you drain your battery faster than expected) or redundancy (should the charging station you want to use not be available or operational) makes it risky.

Optimally, I would like to see multiple DC Fast Charging stations in Perth, Sharbot Lake and Tweed. And for all those Tesla fans out there, you aren't any better off, as there aren't any Super Chargers along Highway 7.
 
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