Preparing for the Fool's Errand II

The technical side of crossing the continent in an EV

My 2020 Nissan Leaf

In my last post, I explained how and why I plan to drive in my all-electric Nissan Leaf from Ottawa to the Pacific and back. This is a more technical post about the car, its range, and how feasible (or not) it is to take on a long journey. You might want to read it if you’ve ever considered buying an EV or taking one on a long trip. If not, you might want to skip it.

First of all, I should say that there has recently been a series of unfortunate events involving my EV. A flat that has changed some of my preps for the trip (as I will explain below). A recurrent problem with an errant door alarm. And a fender bender to which the alarm was a contributing factor.

What I consider a design flaw in the Leaf means that if you accidentally slam the door on the unretracted seat belt buckle, it puts a dent right where the open-door detector lives. This will result in the alarm intermittently triggering and in some circumstances popping the car out of gear. The intermittence can lead to the car suddenly lurching—possibly backwards into a parked car. This is not a theoretical risk (see below).

The bumper

What I have learned from this is that all the auto body shops are severely backed up. At mine, they are making appointments for August and the owner said this is a phenomenon across the country. My theory is that everyone went nuts in the pandemic—but each of us in our own way. And one way is to crunch our cars into things. I have managed to get the door-alarm issue fixed (for the second time) at the dealership.

But my main purpose in this post is not these little preparatory issues, but to describe some of the technical things about my EV I am thinking about as I get ready to go.

When I set out to cross much of the continent next week, I will not of course be the first to attempt such a feat. But both the technology and the infrastructure for electric cars are in their infancy and part of the adventure for me is to test their limits. I am hoping that I have budgeted enough time that if things go wrong, I can recover and continue on my way.

First of all, the car: It is a two-and-a-half year old Nissan Leaf. When I bought it, the Leaf was the best option for someone like me who wasn’t willing to splash out on a Tesla. In my price range (∼$45k.) there wasn’t a lot of competition for the Leaf. Essentially the alternatives were the Hyundai Ioniq and the Chevy Bolt. If I were looking for a new EV now, I would likely look more seriously at the Ioniq, which unlike the Leaf has been upgraded and redesigned, as well as newer offerings from VW, for example.

Second, the range: At purchase my Leaf supposedly could get up to 400 kilometres on a charge. Perhaps in perfect conditions. But there are so many factors that diminish that range. Really cold Canadian weather, for a start, cuts my range up to a third. And any feature of the car that takes electricity will diminish it, whether that’s interior heating or, in the summer, air conditioning. Part of the reason for me taking this trip in the springtime is to avoid extreme weather to the extent I can.

It seems paradoxical to people accustomed to internal combustion engines, but EVs get better mileage in the city than on the highway because if you use the “e-pedal” you recharge your battery every time you slow down, as you do often in stop-and-go city traffic. Also, on the highway, you get better mileage going a little below the limit than running above it.

Realistically, the highway range in my Leaf is something like 350 kilometres in moderate weather, somewhat less in air-conditioning weather, and less than 300 kilometres in deep winter.

But third, you never want to stretch to the entire range. As a practical matter, you don’t want to be out on the highway with less than 20% charge in your battery, hoping the EV rapid charger you are making for is not broken. Also, rapid-charging above 80% tends to be slower and not great for the battery. So, as a rule of thumb, I like to plan on charging every 200-250 kilometres.

(By the way, like any battery, the ones in EVs lose capacity with use. I had mine checked last week, though, as part of my preps, and it is still at full capacity.)

Charging at home. The port on the left is for “fast charging”.

Fourth, are there enough places to charge? For the uninitiated, let me explain that there are three ways to charge an EV. The simplest is to plug it into a standard wall outlet, but that is extremely slow. For my Leaf, it takes maybe a day-and-a-half to charge fully that way. Then, there’s the intermediate option, which I have at my house, which charges on 240 Volts, like your oven or clothes dryer; it will charge the car fully overnight. Finally, there’s “fast-charging”, which can only be done at commercial chargers, and takes roughly half an hour.

On a road trip, I’ll only turn to the super-slow option in an emergency. Ideally, because it’s better for the battery, I might find medium-speed chargers at hotels or at public locations at night. But primarily, I will be reliant on highway-side fast chargers. There are a number of apps, most prominently PlugShare, which tell you where fast chargers are located and allow you to link through to Google Maps, Apple Maps or other navigation apps to plot your way between chargers. I usually set up the next destination while I am charging at the previous one.

Many people seem to think there is a shortage of these things. Actually in the heavily trafficked central Canadian core, they seem to have been increasing in number quicker than EVs on the road. But obviously, this depends where you are driving.

On my outward trip through Canada, I will be driving mostly along the Trans-Canada. Petro-Canada has a fast charger at minimum every 200 km. along this route. Those chargers alone would be sufficient for me, assuming the chargers are all functioning.

More problematic than having to wait occasionally for someone to complete a charge ahead of you is that some of the machines are broken and not speedily repaired. And many of them require you to use their dedicated app, which can be finicky. So it’s nice to know that if the charger you are heading for doesn’t work out, there’s another one close enough to reach with what you’ve got left.

The main issue for me will be in Northern Ontario, where there are precious few fallbacks. One reader of my last post told me he had recently driven from Ottawa to Saskatoon in his EV and hadn’t experienced problems, but found he needed to plan carefully west of the Sault.

There are also some other under- or unserved areas that have had an effect on my plans. For example, there does not seem to be any way to drive directly between Jasper and Banff. I also looked at a route on the return voyage through the Plains States and it seemed only barely feasible. Instead, I intend to swoop south, sticking to better served roads.

Emergency gear. Starting at the top and going clockwise: the cable and plugs for slow charging in an emergency; an extension cord to help with that; a tire iron (not included with car); and a jack (not included either). All nestled in a summer tire that I have decided to bring along as a spare because the car doesn’t have one.

Fifth: Spare tire

My Leaf, like some other EVs, does not come with a spare tire, apparently to save weight and improve mileage. Sadly, I have had three flats on that car in the last year. Whether that is bad luck or simply that as a heavier car it is more prone to flats, I don’t know.

In the absence of a spare tire, you are supposed to use a little machine that injects goo into the tire to seal the leak and then pumps it up. I can report that this system worked one time out of three. For that reason, I am going to bring a summer tire along in my trunk. I don’t want to be stranded between Wawa and Thunder Bay trying to get a cell signal to call CAA because I have a flat that does not succumb to the blandishments of the goo.

I hope that over the next two months, this Substack will not be overloaded with technical stuff about driving the EV, because that would probably be an indication that these plans are not entirely working out. But of course I do hope these posts will be helpful to those who already have EVs or are EV-curious. So I will tell you about my travails and any discoveries I make along the way.

But mostly, I hope, I will have a few stories and photos to share. Wish me luck.