A little less of what you want

But simplifying my travels

If everything goes as planned, this Substack is about to get a little less interesting.

Last spring, when I made my 14,000 kilometre trek to the Pacific Ocean and back in my all-electric Nissan Leaf, some of the posts that got the biggest response were the ones in which I ran into charging problems.

This summer, in an article in the Globe and Mail, I described how desperate I felt one very cold day crossing north of Lake Superior when the charger I was making for didn't work. The article was trending on the Globe’s website for two days.

In that article and here on Substack, I have documented the frustrations I experienced throughout my trip: too few chargers, too far apart, and too many that either didn’t work well or didn’t work at all.

When I documented these problems, my Tesla-owning friends would tell me they labour under none of these obstacles. They have a larger network of chargers—Tesla claims to have 50,000 and growing. Teslas charge more quickly than many other EVs. And their chargers are well-maintained.

But I finished my piece in the Globe by saying that the solution to our climate challenge could not possibly be that everyone run out and buy a Tesla. It is, after all, a luxury car with a luxury car price tag.

I still think that’s true. But I decided that I personally wouldn’t wait for the non-Tesla EV network to grow and address its growing pains. I am—ahem—of a certain age, and if I am going to continue travelling North America, and want to do it with a limited carbon footprint, now is the time.

My financial advisor—apparently unaware that his job was to restrain me—said that I could afford to buy a Tesla without condemning me to eating cat food in my eighties.

So a few weeks ago, I took the plunge and bought a Tesla Model Y Long-Range.

I don’t normally give my cars nicknames, but when the Tesla app asked me to give the car a name, I decided on “Bluebird”, the only alternative I could think of being “Paul’s Tesla”

Its range is closer to 500 km than the roughly 370 I got in my Nissan. And it charges significantly more quickly. On my way back from Toronto—my first road trip— I was still waiting for my Egg McMuffin at the McDonald’s across the street when I got a notice on my phone telling me that I had enough charge to get all the way home. Part of the reason I started this Substack was to kill time while my Nissan charged—and I had plenty of time to kill. Instead, I am writing this post in my motel room in Moncton before I start my day.

But the biggest difference I notice between the two cars when driving long distance is reduced stress. Unlike my Nissan, the Tesla’s algorithm seems pretty accurate. No anxiously monitoring the battery during the drive to see whether it is draining quicker than expected. Tesla’s on-board trip planner tells you exactly where to charge and for how long. No fiddling with the PlugShare app trying to figure out where the chargers are. And no worries that when you get to the charger, you’ll find yourself vainly fiddling with an app trying to get it to work.

I loved the Leaf. It was fabulous in the city and was fine for driving from my home in Ottawa to the cottage or to Montreal or Toronto. What I am seeing with the Tesla, though, is that there are engineering solutions to the “range anxiety” that plagues EV driving at longer distances. I am confident that in time, the other charging networks will sort out their problems and that cheaper, non-Tesla EVs will become practical not just for city driving but for longer trips too.

That having been said, I am now in the Maritimes, and what I have discovered is that the Tesla network peters out after you clear New Brunswick. There are only a few Tesla fast chargers in Nova Scotia and PEI, and none at all in Cape Breton and all of Newfoundland. I have a converter with me that will allow me to charge at non-Tesla outlets, so we’ll see how that goes. I am not a Tesla “stan” and I promise that will report problems when I see them.

I could tell that some of you enjoyed my posts about the Leaf precisely because they confirmed your prior that EVs aren’t yet ready for the world. You will need to find a new hobby now, I hope.

But for the rest of you, who were interested in my non-vehicular observations about the places to which I travelled, I hope you’ll stick around.

I will have stories and photographs from Nova Scotia in the coming days. In late October, I will be driving down to Oxford, Mississippi to watch a college football game with some high school buddies. In January, I will be visiting that other Oxford—the one in England—where they are holding a symposium in honour of my wonderful brother-in-law, Gordon. And in the spring, I am off to Hong Kong, Japan, and other places east

I will keep you posted.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I decided to go for a walk in Moncton’s Riverfront Park, but I am certain it wasn’t this. No evidence of Canada-India tensions here.