Duane Hicks
Building electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure across Canada, Sun Country Highway (SCH) is “powering change” all the way along the Trans-Canada Highway, including here in Fort Frances.
SCH vice-president Christopher Misch, with a helping hand from company rep Dick Robinson, dropped by La Place Rendez-Vous on Saturday, where a free electric car charging station has been installed.
It is one of 80 in place along the Trans-Canada Highway, making it a stop on “The World’s Longest/Greenest Highway.”
SCH was founded earlier this year by president Kent Rathwell, who had done years of research into infrastructure, electric vehicles, and renewable energy.
It locked down exclusive distributorship and technology rights to Clipper Creek, which is the longest-standing electric vehicle infrastructure company in the world.
The company, which sells charging stations and electric vehicles, then decided to establish electric vehicle infrastructure in Canada to usher in a revolution in vehicle usage among Canadians, not to mention ignite regionalized economic development and simultaneously challenge electric vehicle manufacturers and auto parts suppliers to ramp up plug-in electric vehicle production.
“It’s always been a chicken-or-the-egg scenario with the infrastructure,” said Misch, noting Sun Country Highway established this infrastructure from St. John’s to Victoria in just eight months.
“Why buy EVs if there’s no charging network?” he reasoned.
“We have a bit of the Atlantic Ocean in a beautiful flask that we got from Kitty Witty Lake, just outside St, John’s, and we’re going to be dumping it into the Pacific once we get to Victoria, much like they did 100 years ago,” added Misch, noting 2012 also is the 50th anniversary of the Trans-Canada Highway.
“So essentially what Sun Country Canada is doing is we’re electrifying the Trans-Canada Highway,” he explained.
“That’s sort of our Christmas gift to Canada this year, and that’s how we’re going to position ourselves once we get to Victoria [before Christmas].”
Misch (and Rathwell on certain legs of the tour) have been driving a sporty electric car—a silver Tesla Roadster—on the cross-country trek to shatter public misconceptions about what EVs are all about and promote EV adoption.
“The Tesla is sexy, it’s fast—it’s Ferrari fast,” enthused Misch. “It hits zero-100 km/h in 3.7 seconds.
“It’s a rocket.
“They can be fast, they can be beautiful, they can be very reliable, and we’re proving that by going across Canada,” added Misch.
“Look when we’re driving it,” he added. “We’re crazy Canucks, right? We’re driving across Canada at the beginning of a Canadian winter.
“One of the misconceptions, I guess, is people feel that electric batteries and chargers don’t function well in the winter,” he noted.
“So, we’re out here to prove a point that no, that’s not the case.”
Misch said you might lose 10-20 percent of your range with an electric car in the winter, but in the case of the Tesla Roadster, that still means you can get 300-plus km on a charge driving in this weather as opposed to 385 km under normal conditions.
He conceded people also have “range anxiety,” meaning that they fear they can’t go far because they’ll run out of charge and have no place to re-charge.
But that’s why Sun Country Highway is building the cross-country infrastructure.
On top of that, most people only commute 30-50 km a day, so there’s no reason to fear running out of juice, he reasoned. Just charge up overnight at home and wake up to a full tank.
Misch said the cost of EVs ranges from about $30,000-$100,000, but some newer models cost as low as $20,000.
“The key here is you have got to look at the total cost of ownership, you can’t look at sticker price,” he stressed. “We get that all the time.
“When people look at a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf, they say, ‘It’s $38,000. I can get a Chevy Cruise or a Camry for $25,000, so why would I do that?’
“The answer is easy. The maintenance savings are significant, upward of 90 percent,” Misch noted.
“I’ve got three moving parts in that Tesla. I don’t do oil changes, lube, filters. There’s no transmission.
“The brakes last at least four times longer because it has regenerative braking,” he added. “I touch the brakes twice a day.”
And, of course, not having to pay for gas saves plenty of dollars.
“The average Canadian family can now re-direct that money into paying down a mortgage, investing in a small business, or putting their kids through school,” reasoned Misch.
“That’s what we’re about—economic sustainability as well as environmental.”
Having a free charging station at La Place Rendez-Vous here, meanwhile, will be a benefit both to that business and to the community.
Misch called Rendez-Vous owner Paul Noonan “a progressive leader,” explaining that now he has a charger at his business, La Place Rendez-Vous is the place to stop for EVs passing through the Fort Frances area.
“They’re going to stop, they’re going to have lunch, they’re going to spend a few bucks here, and they wouldn’t have stopped here maybe,” noted Misch.
“Early on, there’s a lot of great benefits to businesses,” he reiterated. “And that’s going to spawn education, that’s going to make people look at EVs and ‘green’ transportation.
“But it also helps from branding perspective, from a marketing perspective.”
Noonan said the EV charger is a complimentary service his business will provide, whether EV owners drop by for lunch or stay overnight.
“It’s like they’re gassing up for free,” he remarked.
It takes about three-five hours to fully charge an EV, depending on the vehicle. The charger at the Rendez-Vous is a Level 2 one, meaning it is the most powerful of its type.
“I see this as a very positive thing, not only from a business standpoint but for what the future holds as far as energy and ‘green’ energy,” Noonan said.
“You need these places along the way in order to provide this service so people can utilize their vehicles to start making this happen,” he added.
“These gentlemen have come up with this cross-Canada promotion to show that it’s possible and it can be done.
“We’re just excited to be a part of it,” he enthused.
All of SCH’s chargers, including the one at the Rendez-Vous, will be included on an online map, so any EV owners planning a trip across Canada will know where they can charge up.
In our region, the nearest charging stations are in Atikokan (Quetico Centre) and Thunder Bay (Valhalla Inn) to the east, and Kenora (Best Western Lakeside Inn) to the west.
The stations usually are 150-200 km apart.
Misch said Sun Country Highway has little doubt EV sales will be going up. The company has worked heavily in British Columbia and Quebec, and those markets are “exploding.”
“EVs are sticking around,” he remarked. “Tesla, they’ve got Motor Trend Car of the Year.
“The vehicle technology is now there, the infrastructure is coming in,” he added. “The next five years are going to be phenomenal.
“And these early adopters, like Paul and the others, they’re now a piece of the history,” said Misch.
“Only once in your life do you get a chance to jump on a wagon like this one—the first long, ‘green’ highway in the world.”
For more information about EVs and Sun Country Highway, visit suncountryhighway.ca
Ontario, meanwhile, will be encouraging electric car owners to install charging stations at their homes and businesses in the new year.
Starting Jan. 1, homeowners and businesses who received a provincial electric vehicle rebate, and have installed or are planning to install an electric vehicle charging station, will be eligible for rebates of up to $1,000 or 50 percent of the total purchase and installation cost, whichever is lower.
Application forms, full criteria, and details for the rebate program will be available Jan. 1 at ontario.ca/electricvehicles
“We know Ontarians are making ‘greener’ choices every day,” Transportation minister Bob Chiarelli said in a press release earlier this month.
“And our government is making steady progress to help people choose environmentally-friendly vehicles that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help keep our air clean for generations to come.”
Ontario launched its Electric Vehicles Incentive Program in July, 2010, offering rebates between $5,000 and $8,500 toward the purchase or lease of new plug-in hybrid electric or battery electric vehicles.
Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to six percent below 1990 levels by 2014, and to 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
