I made it home to Vancouver last night from a nearly 2100 km journey to Prince George in my Nissan LEAF, which included a day trip to Bear Lake (Crooked River Provincial Park), 75 km north of PG, my northernmost point. It was a fantastic trip!
Highlights:
- 2097 km: total trip distance (835 km to PG via Fraser Canyon; 929 km back to Vancouver via Coquihalla; rest driving around PG area)
- 9: charging sessions each direction (Vancouver-Prince George)
- 164 km: longest trip on a single charge (with 15% remaining! was to/from Bear Lake)
- 231 km: highest guess-o-meter reading (after descending Coquihalla Kamloops-Merritt)
- 2: number of key communities without formal EV charging infrastructure that would’ve made this trip a breeze (100 Mile House and Quesnel)
- many: number of people I chatted with en route or in PG who drive EVs or want to, and would like to see more charging options in the Cariboo/North (see point above)
- ELATION: feeling after arriving at DC Fast Charger in Kamloops after having driven over 1700 km using Level 2 charging
It was an EVenture, as anticipated. No Level 1/trickle charging was required, there were no close calls with running out of range, but the biggest story from this trip is that infrastructure in the Cariboo/northern BC needs improvement (and literally the addition of only two stations would’ve made this trip relatively straightforward – 100 Mile House and Quesnel). I also want to convey that I met lots of people along the way and in PG who own EVs or are interested in them – this is not just a south coast phenomenon!
Full write ups on the trip up, the Emotive booth I hosted at the Prince George Farmers’ Market, and trip back coming soon!
BC EVenture 
Dear Rebecca:
Congratulations on your electric Nissan Leaf! I suspect there are many people in B.C.
(including readers of the B.C.SEA newslist) who look forward to more details of your
lengthy trip to Prince George and back – available charge points, time to charge, etc.
A local home care worker purchased a new Leaf in June/July – AFAIK – that’s the first
EV in the Smithers area. I will continue to encourage a Town charge point when I attend
our Council meetings. If/when you post your details, I will be pleased to share that with
other BCSEA readers and our Town Council. Sincerely, Ingo Oevermann, Smithers, B.C.
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Thanks for your note, Ingo! I will indeed be posting the full story – time has been short over the summer, but I’m hoping to get to the full write-up soon. I would be delighted if you could use it to encourage Smithers to host a station; if there’s more information you need from me to support your case, please let me know. I will be encouraging at least two other communities to host a charger as well, based on this trip (100 Mile House and Quesnel). Stay tuned… Rebecca
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I know the billy barker hotel has a level 2 charger in quesnel, but I agree that charger access is VERY limited up here. There are a few chargers but not enough. I think the province needs to work with a BIG company (ie Tim Hortons) to bring more chargers in and give people a place to goad do something. Hope you enjoyed your trip here to PG, and hopefully we will get more chargers in place.
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There is now an L2 in Quesnel as you’ve noted (which is great, but it would be good to have a number greater than 1), but they certainly did not when I did the trip, which made it challenging.
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