P.E.I. friends plan out long road trip in electric car

When you plan a road trip, you probably think about stops along the way from a sight-seeing point of view, not based on electricity.

But that's how three friends from P.E.I. have had to plan theirtrip to Toronto this week.

Ryan Palmer has owned a Tesla for the past montha month that's included travel to P.E.I. and now he's back to Toronto.

The return trip he's plotted out takes him mostly through the U.S.,due to the lack of fast fuel stops in Atlantic Canada.

"When you're driving around Atlantic Canada ...we're quite behind in the installation of the fast-charging infrastructure. There's one in Halifax but that's pretty much it for Atlantic Canada so it's early days for that infrastructure that really enables long-distance travel," Palmerexplained.

The faster charging stations mean he only has to wait minutes as opposed to hours to fuel up.

More adventure

The other hiccup in planning a trip with an electric vehicle is distance.

Palmer's car can only go about 400 kilometres on a full charge, but that can mean more adventures, he said.

"I spent an afternoon sort of walking around, touring Parrsboro, N.S., when I was camping last weekend and I probably wouldn't have done that if I was driving a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle," he said.

"These charges tend to be located in very interesting areas, so town centres, nice hotels, places like this," he explained.

Navigation is easy

Palmer said it wasn't that long ago that you would have planned an extended trip by hand with paper maps, but that's no longer the case.

There are smart phone apps that will help you find charging stations, and now with newer models the thinking is done for you.

"The car does all the navigation for you and it will choose the most efficient route through the chargers to make sure you get therein the least amount of time possible."

Palmer said this won't be his last trip with his new car either. The cost of fuel, especially with his plan from Tesla which enables him to tap into their charging network,can't be beat.

"It's like free fuel for lifeso where would you drive if you had free fuel for life? You'd probably go a lot of places."

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