The E-Transit charging at the Ivy chargers at the ONroute station in Kingston.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
I drove a Ford E-Transit from my home in Cobourg, Ont. to Ottawa recently to deliver some furniture. An E-Transit is not intended for such a long trip of about 300 kilometres each way – it’s designed to shuttle around town, and so it has an estimated range on a warm day of just over 250 kilometres. This was the low roof model – E-Transits with tall roofs travel about 25 kilometres less range on a full charge of their 89-kilowatt-hour batteries.
It wasn’t an issue to get to Ottawa, though traffic was heavier than usual for a late summer weekend. There are Level 3 fast chargers along the Toronto-Montreal corridor that can quickly top up the battery, and I stopped for a coffee at the 150-kilowatt Ivy chargers found in the ONroute stations beside the highway. The Ivy network is wholly owned by Ontario’s Hydro One. The E-Transit can accept a charge at a speed up to 176 kilowatts, which means it can add 100 kilometres of range in just 15 minutes if the charger is powerful enough.
Mark Richardson loaded the Ford E-Transit with furniture to deliver it to Ottawa.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
In Ottawa, however, I could find no charger faster than 50 kilowatts anywhere near the condo where I stayed, or along my route home.
New charging stations are added every year across Canada and Natural Resources Canada says the country gained more than 6,500 new public charging ports in the 12 months to this March. That’s an increase of almost 25 per cent, but most of those are slower and much cheaper outlets. Only about a quarter of all the ports are DC fast chargers and most of those are rated around 50 kilowatts – not the 150-plus kilowatts that provide the really fast charging times in EV advertising. While Level 2 chargers can cost up to a few thousand dollars to install, Level 3 chargers can cost many tens of thousands of dollars.
In 2024, for example, the leading Flo network claimed 10,798 Level 2 chargers and 1,000 DC fast chargers in Canada, but just 176 of them delivered speeds more than 100 kilowatts. The exception is Tesla, where most chargers in its Supercharger network offer speeds of 250 kilowatts or more. Many other brands can now access the Tesla network, though older models may need to use an adapter for the charging cable.
When I left to return home the next morning, I drove a half-hour and then stopped at an Ivy station in Kemptville. There was only one charger and it was only 50 kilowatts, which would take three times as long to charge as before, but I wanted breakfast and didn’t mind taking the extra time.
Except there were only fast-food restaurants within walking distance and I wanted to sit down and eat with a knife and fork. Wasn’t going to happen. I hiked around a large drainage ditch to Starbucks while the van charged and, when I returned a half-hour later, the battery had another 17 kilowatts in it, which cost $12 – enough to travel an extra 60 kilometres and get me to the fast chargers at Brockville. (A gas-powered van would have cost just under $10 for the same distance, at $1.30 a litre and consumption rated at 12.4 litres per 100 kilometres on the highway.)
There are four Electrify Canada chargers at the Canadian Tire parking lot in Brockville, where three are rated at 150 kilowatts but the fourth is rated at a legendary 350 kilowatts; that’s quick enough to charge a Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6 at maximum speed with their super-fast 800-volt systems. All four chargers were occupied, however, and at least three more cars were waiting. I drove over to the fast-chargers at the Petro-Canada station nearby, but they were both broken and roped off, so drove back and found not much had moved.
At the Electrify Canada chargers in Brockville, Ont. all four chargers have cars charging in them and three more are waiting.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
There was now a Toyota bZ4X charging at the 350-kilowatt station, though the extra power was wasted on it – its battery can only accept a speed of 100 kilowatts. An Ioniq 5 was next in line and clearly hoping for the quicker charger, but the Toyota driver had wandered off into Canadian Tire and was nowhere to be seen. The mood was restless. I decided to move on and take my chances at the ONroute that was 15 minutes away, just within my 30 kilometres of remaining range.
EV chargers are strange and diverse things. Some have two cables and can charge two vehicles, while most have two cables with different sockets and can charge only one. There are now three different standards for charging cables: the most common are CCS (Combined Charging System) and NACS (North American Charging System, developed by Tesla), while CHAdeMO (a translation and abbreviation of “Charge for Moving”) was used by some Japanese cars but is now being replaced by CCS.
At the ONroute, there were four chargers with one space available. They offered a selection of the three different cables and I could reach a CCS cable from the space I drove into, so all was well. Two other spaces opened up soon after I plugged in, but then a Honda Pilot backed into one of them, crossing over the line to also block the second space. That space was the only space reachable by the station’s single CHAdeMO cable, so it was the only place where an older Nissan Leaf could recharge.
A Pilot is powered by gasoline. A family with teenagers spewed out and headed to the washrooms.
“Excuse me,” I said to the driver. “You’re parking in a space for electric charging.”
“I’ve driven all around and this is the only space open,” he said. “When teenagers need the washroom, you take where you can find.”
The plaza was busy, it’s true, but there was an empty overflow lot 50 metres away. I had no sympathy.
“You know it’s a $200 fine for you to park here without charging,” I told him.
A gas-powered Honda Pilot parked in a spot for EV charging.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
In fact, an ONroute spokesperson told me later that there is no fine at the highway plazas and EV spaces are not monitored. In Ontario, it’s a provincial fine of $125, and in Toronto, it’s $75, but it’s very unlikely to be enforced unless a cop drives by and it’s a slow day. No matter.
The Pilot driver shrugged and walked off, but when he saw me taking a photo, his wife came back to the SUV, looking flustered.
“If you think you can take a photo of my plate just to shame me, then shame on you,” she said before driving away. “Keep your nose out of other people’s business and you’ll have a happier life.”
She didn’t realize, or didn’t care, that parking her SUV in an EV charging space is like me parking an EV beside a gas pump – perhaps the only working gas pump on a busy day like that Sunday. While a fine is unlikely, the internet is full of stories about gas cars being keyed by angry EV owners.
We made it home with no more issues. Once you realize your home is within range of your vehicle’s battery, everything relaxes. Until then, however, on a busy Sunday, range anxiety is still very real.
The E-Transit charging at a single Ivy charger in Kemptville, Ont.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
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