Tesla's charging infrastructure plays a big role in making the company the best-selling EV brand in Canada.Petrina Gentile/The Globe and Mail
Elon Musk has had a huge hand in transforming the auto industry. Not only has Tesla’s chief executive officer accelerated the development of electric vehicles by putting pressure on major car companies to bring more EVs to market faster, but he’s also changed the business model of how dealerships sell cars – normalizing online purchases and trendy boutique retail stores.
Something is clearly working, because Tesla is the top-selling electric vehicle brand in Canada and the United States.
And the Tesla Model 3 is the best-selling EV in Canada. In the first half of 2022, 7,054 Model 3s were sold – more than twice as many as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which ranked second with 3,226 units sold. But it’s not just because of the vehicle that Tesla is in the lead – the company’s charging infrastructure plays a big role too. And the federal government needs to take note if it wants to increase EV adoption rates and hit Canada’s zero-emissions target by 2035 for all new car and truck sales.
Using the peer-to-peer car-sharing platform Eligo Cars, I booked a 2022 Model 3 rear-wheel-drive single motor sedan for a few days. And it didn’t take long to figure out the biggest advantage of driving a Tesla. With more than 35,000 Superchargers – its proprietary brand of chargers – Tesla runs the largest fast-charging network in the world. The network is expansive, global, easy to find, easy to use, accessible and fast – super fast, taking about 20 minutes to get a full charge.
The chargers are located along major highways in well-lit, high-traffic areas near restaurants, fast food chains and restrooms. Using a Tesla Supercharger is no hassle – there’s no app to download and no card to tap. Simply pull up, push the charger-cap icon on Tesla’s large centre screen to unlock, plug in and charge. The cost and time to charge is calculated on the screen. After arriving at a Supercharger about two kilometres off the QEW in Niagara Falls, Ont., with a 57-per-cent charge, I reached a full charge in 23 minutes – not even long enough to watch an episode of Better Call Saul on Netflix while sitting in the car with the air conditioner running. The total bill was only $17.41.
By contrast, public charging stations leave a lot to be desired. In my experience, they’re unreliable, often not working and typically located in poorly lit, hard-to-find locations. You need to download different apps to find and use the station and pay for charging. And the bulk of the 16,401 chargers, approximately 12,000, which are located at 6,875 public charging stations, according to Natural Resources Canada, are slow Level 2 chargers, which take several hours to replenish a battery to its full charge. No wonder, in a recent global ranking by accounting firm EY on electric vehicle “readiness,” Canada came in second-last of 14 countries. It fell five spots from last year’s ranking owing in part to poor charging infrastructure.
The large centre screen on a Tesla Model 3 calculates the cost and time to charge the vehicle.Petrina Gentile/The Globe and Mail
June Hughes owns the Model 3 I rented. She’s an Air Canada pilot and an early Tesla adopter who has had four Teslas since 2017. She sold two, a 2021 Model 3 and Model Y, last year when the used-car market spiked. She made a profit on both, selling them online in less than 20 minutes. The 43-year-old also owns a 2021 all-electric Mini Cooper. In her opinion, the Tesla charging network is far superior to any other public-charging station.
“It was definitely a shock when I got the Mini,” Hughes said, adding that public charging stations can be in the middle of nowhere, unreliable, and require different apps to use, depending on the network.
“It’s been frustrating [with the Mini],” she said. “The Tesla Superchargers are a lot more convenient. Tesla has done a great job. It charges so fast. By the time you take a bathroom break and buy a coffee, it’s charged.”
The technology to locate charging stations is far better, too, she adds. “It’s so easy to put in a destination and the car routes you to a charger – it’s so automated. The Mini does have a [navigation] feature, but it’s a pain to use.”
The government needs to take a page from Tesla’s book to reach its 2035 target for all new car and passenger truck sales to be zero-emissions vehicles.Petrina Gentile/The Globe and Mail
But Tesla does fall short in one area, she says: the accuracy of its range estimates. When her gauge shows she has about 400 kilometres of range left, she generally finds she has closer to 300. “But the Mini is really accurate, and when it says 200 kilometres, it is 200.” It also has four different drive modes, including Green and Green+, which let you “stretch the range” by 50 kilometres.
Further, if you leave the Mini parked outside for three days, the range stays the same, but the Tesla’s drops. “It’s called ‘Phantom Drain’ – it drains about 5 per cent or more overnight in the winter,” said Hughes. Likewise, parked overnight in my driveway this summer, when the temperature was about 30 degrees, my range dropped about 30 kilometres.
Still, “Tesla is the way to go,” said Hughes. Despite the Phantom Drain and some quality and craftsmanship issues, I agree. Tesla’s infrastructure is superior to anything else on the road. Sure, the federal government has made some encouraging announcements recently, pledging $680-million to address the lack of charging and refuelling stations across Canada, which includes a commitment to build 84,500 new charging stations by 2027. But according to a recent report from Natural Resources Canada, Canada would need to have 200,000 public chargers by 2030 and more than double that, 440,000, by 2035 to accommodate all the EVs it expects will be on the road. Cleary, Canada has a long way to go; meanwhile, Tesla has a huge head start and continues to expand its Supercharger network.
For the government to reach its target – by 2035, all new car and passenger truck sales be zero-emissions vehicles – it needs to take a page from Tesla’s f. It’s a great example of what the right infrastructure will do to boost EV sales and consumer adoption.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article stated the author drove a front-wheel-drive Model 3. In fact, she drove a rear-wheel-drive Model 3.