Driving an EV in -30°C; A Family Trip from Calgary to Banff!

Have you ever heard the statement: “Well how does that work when it’s -30?”, when referring to an electric vehicle? Well the answer is, it works an awful lot like any other vehicle.

Some notes to consider before we continue:

1. We have a Tesla Model Y

2. We have 3 small children so we have all sorts of items to keep occupied during the trip. This especially comes in handy when charging!

3. Lowest temperature recorded on our journey was -27°C; so I have rounded for effect.

4. Banff/Canmore has excellent EV infrastructure. To be clear, I do not advocate for taking an EV on every trip in the middle of winter. Your destination needs to have adequate infrastructure, and you need to have a plan in place that makes sense before you leave. What I’ve learned since owning this vehicle is that the vehicle itself is no issue at all, the only issue at the moment is charging infrastructure.

How did we make it work? Pretty simple actually! I charged my EV battery up to 100% the day prior to leaving. I ran some errands prior to departure, leaving us ~85% battery life when we left. It’s 143KM to the Tesla Supercharger in Canmore and we pulled up to the charging station with about 25% battery life remaining. I chatted on the phone with my father for ~13 minutes while we charged up, and $5.20 later we were off and running to our hotel in Banff with about 55% battery life. We made it to our destination with about 45% remaining. At the hotel we used our 110V charge port to maintain the charge through the nights; in the morning our battery life was at 48%. We spent three nights in Banff including some driving around town (approximately 120KM total). The only charging during this time was using our 110V charger at the hotel throughout the 3 nights.

We left Banff 3 days later with ~30% battery life remaining, and pulled back into the Supercharger in Canmore with 19%. We planned to do a quick Supercharge, then head to a level 2 station and grab lunch with the kids. As we pulled into the second charge station, the kids changed their mind and decided they wanted Happy Meals – perfect! So we grabbed those and back to the supercharger we went.

We were stopped for 8 minutes the first time, and 19 minutes the second time; just enough time to get all three kids in for a bathroom break. Grand total of $10.80 later we were ready to head back to Chestermere; we pulled into the house with 21% battery remaining.

Have you ever heard the statement: “Well how does that work when it’s -30?”, when referring to an electric vehicle? Well the answer is, it works an awful lot like any other vehicle.

Some notes to consider before we continue:

1. We have a Tesla Model Y

2. We have 3 small children so we have all sorts of items to keep occupied during the trip. This especially comes in handy when charging!

3. Lowest temperature recorded on our journey was -27°C; so I have rounded for effect.

4. Banff/Canmore has excellent EV infrastructure. To be clear, I do not advocate for taking an EV on every trip in the middle of winter. Your destination needs to have adequate infrastructure, and you need to have a plan in place that makes sense before you leave. What I’ve learned since owning this vehicle is that the vehicle itself is no issue at all, the only issue at the moment is charging infrastructure.

How did we make it work? Pretty simple actually! I charged my EV battery up to 100% the day prior to leaving. I ran some errands prior to departure, leaving us ~85% battery life when we left. It’s 143KM to the Tesla Supercharger in Canmore and we pulled up to the charging station with about 25% battery life remaining. I chatted on the phone with my father for ~13 minutes while we charged up, and $5.20 later we were off and running to our hotel in Banff with about 55% battery life. We made it to our destination with about 45% remaining. At the hotel we used our 110V charge port to maintain the charge through the nights; in the morning our battery life was at 48%. We spent three nights in Banff including some driving around town (approximately 120KM total). The only charging during this time was using our 110V charger at the hotel throughout the 3 nights.

We left Banff 3 days later with ~30% battery life remaining, and pulled back into the Supercharger in Canmore with 19%. We planned to do a quick Supercharge, then head to a level 2 station and grab lunch with the kids. As we pulled into the second charge station, the kids changed their mind and decided they wanted Happy Meals – perfect! So we grabbed those and back to the supercharger we went.

We were stopped for 8 minutes the first time, and 19 minutes the second time; just enough time to get all three kids in for a bathroom break. Grand total of $10.80 later we were ready to head back to Chestermere; we pulled into the house with 21% battery remaining.

The trip was a success. Being in the Banff/Canmore area, which is very EV friendly, made this quite simple. Driving an EV in -30°C is extremely similar to driving a gas vehicle as the problems are almost identical; windshield wipers are ineffective, other items can freeze, and range is lower (whether that’s because of cold batteries, or having to warm up your F150 for 25 mins before you get going). The trip plan is very similar as well; if you are headed somewhere that doesn’t have a gas station for 100KM, you should probably make sure you have a backup plan – the same goes for charging your EV. The most important item is to make sure your destination has the necessary infrastructure in place so that you know you’ll be able to recharge.

Admittedly, our EV isn’t right for every trip, don’t get me wrong. However, I can comfortably say that temperature has very little to do with our decision to take our mini-van or the EV. The decision comes down almost entirely to the available infrastructure at our destination. As the Province of Alberta improves its charging infrastructure, you can bet that we will be taking the EV on many more trips in the future; especially with the recent rise in gasoline prices!

Ryan Cornforth, GM, Rocky Mountain Solar Co.