Charged up

Recently Hydro Quebec announced plans for extending their DCQC network to allow further EV road trips in la belle province. By the end of 2016, an EV will be able to travel from the Ontario border to Rivière-du-Loup (and beyond) completely stress-free. The problem, as identified in my previous post, is that the infrastructure hits the New Brunswick border and stops:

Source: AVEQ/HydroQuebec

Spaced every 45-70km like HydroQuebec's plan, the following stations could extend this network through New Brunswick on the Trans-Canada:

• Edmundston, Grand Falls, Florenceville, Woodstock, Nackawic, Fredericton, Jemseg, Havelock, Moncton, Sackville, Cape Jourimain

Continuing the network along Route 1 with stations in Sussex, Quispamsis, Lepreau, St. Stephen

And one in Welsford to connect Saint John to Fredericton.

Map of proposed DCQC network, showing my southern bias

Connections to current networks can be made by adding stations in:

• Cabano, QC to connect Edmundston to HydroQuebec's netowrk
• Beddington, ME to connect St. Stephen to the enormous US network
• Oxford, NS to connect Sackville (NB) to Truro and Halifax

Sixteen stations (+3 outside NB) would get us quite a network, but at $50-100k  per station it's unlikely that anyone is ready to step-up and cover the bill. A less ambitious network would start with stations every ~100km, which might create redundancy in the future, but gets the basic network setup:

A simple solution to cover the Trans-Canada through the province.

Six stations might be an easier sell to the public, and is still a respectable route for the time being. Three more stations in Hampton, Welsford and Cape Jourimain would round-out southern NB, and get you to PEI and NS.

Currently, Level 2 chargers overlap these locations a bit. The difference is speed: Level 2 is an overnight or all-day affair (4-8 hours), where DCQC is more like filling up with gasoline (admittedly while also grabbing a coffee and a bathroom break) at 30 minutes. This means long distance road trips become logistically easy, compared to the haphazard method of charging in campgrounds and homes. However, chargers at hotels in Fredericton, Moncton, Grand falls, Edmundston, and Woodstock shift the priority to getting stations in Coles Island (Sussex if you want to cover Route 1 at the same time) and Perth-Andover/Florenceville. Welsford seems like a no-brainer between Fredericton and Saint John, it's also the station that would be most useful to me (hint, hint).