Coast-to-Coast Petro-Canada EV charging network reached completion
December 26, 2019Petro-Canada has finished installing electric vehicle (EV) fast chargers across Canada.
The Petro-Canada EV charging network, which consists of 50 EV fast chargers that stretch coast-to-coast, from Nova Scotia to British Columba, has reached completion.
The majority of the chargers are located along the Trans-Canada Highway.
The farthest charger located in the east end of the country has been built in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, while the farthest EV fast charger on the west coast is in Victoria, British Columbia. The remaining 48 chargers in the Petro-Canada EV charging network can be found along the Trans-Canada Highway.
The Trans-Canada Highway is a transcontinental federal-provincial highway system that runs through the country’s ten provinces from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. The main route spans over 7,800 kilometers, making it one of the longest routes of its kind in the world.
The Petro-Canada EV charging network was built to meet the future needs of Canadian drivers.
“With more than 100,000 electric vehicles on the road in Canada and an average of 4,000 EVs added each month, we know that this is an important step in meeting the current and future driving needs of Canadians,” said Suncor Energy’s president and chief executive officer, Mark Little, in the company’s press release.
Each one of the EV charging stations is equipped with DC fast chargers with a 200-kW (kilowatt) charge. The company says that with future updates, the stations should be able to reach 350-kW charges. Electric vehicles with CCS/SAE and CHAdeMO connectors can use any station in the network to recharge.
Little said that Suncor Energy (the parent company of Petro-Canada) wants to be a part of the total solution to lower the carbon footprint of Canada’s transportation system while also meeting energy demand. “Canada’s Electric Highwayᵀᴹ is one of the ways we are able to support the total solution.”
The Petro-Canada EV charging network was first announced back in February. Until the New Year, EV drivers are welcome to use the stations, which are open 24/7, for free. A fee will eventually be implemented in 2020, although there is no word yet on how much it will cost or what type of payment system will be put into place.