Star journalists drove a Tesla 2,300 km around northern Ontario, exploring the emerging EV supply chain from mine to refinery to battery plant to assembly.
HWY. 11, SOMEWHERE NORTH OF NORTH BAY—It was -12 C and dropping. The snow was blowing diagonally and traffic was crawling in single file, sticking to the ruts between white humps on Highway 11. Then my car started talking to me.
“You’re almost too far from known chargers,” it said. “Plan your next charge. All known charging locations will be out of range soon.” The map on the GPS showed the nearest charger behind us, in North Bay. We were driving north — away from it. Soon, we wouldn’t have enough charge to make it back.
It was the last thing I needed as I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles and tried to concentrate on the road. I pictured us, two Star journalists on an EV road trip through northern Ontario, stranded on the side of the road at night in a blizzard, car battery dead and shivering as we waited for help.
This couldn’t be right. Even though I was an EV newbie, and it was only my second day behind the wheel, there were tons of chargers sprinkled along the highways of northern Ontario — I’d checked before we left. That, and we had 200 kilometres of range left. What was the Tesla thinking?
For the rest of this article: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/we-took-a-tesla-on-a-road-trip-through-northern-ontario-in-the-coldest-week/article_f671c4da-d4c4-11ee-b06c-0b5b1a442e71.html