Worse Than Electrify America? Try Petro-Canada

[MellowJohnny]

Just returned from a week-end road trip to Montreal, which is usually uneventful. Except last night.

Planned for a final charge at the last ONRoute (Port Hope) before hitting the outskirts of Toronto, but when we pulled in (with 16% SOC), none of the dispensers were online. All four were unavailable, which has never happened to me before. Called Customer Service but they said all they could do was send a technician. Tomorrow. No problem - 13km down the road I had two options - two 350 kWh chargers at Petro-Canada, and as a back-up, 2 50kWh Flo units at Canadian Tire.

As we are heading down the 401, a silver blue Mach-E passes us, who we end up following to the Petro-Canada station. He takes the first stall, and I take the second. Fun! Two MAch-Es.

Then the “fun” starts - he’s good, pulling 44 kWh from a 350 kWh, which is better than nothing, but nowhere near the 114 he was getting last week. I get initialisation failures over and over again. So he says “it’s still broken?”. Now I know why he took the first dispenser

So I decide to kill some time waiting for him (he says he won’t be long) by going to Canadian Tire. One of the two dispensers is charging an F-150 Lightning, and the other one was also pooched. I called Flo, they tried to reboot, still no luck. So back to Petro-Canada. Interestingly I pass a bank of about 10 or 12 Superchargers with a bunch of Teslas happily charging in the cool night air.

When we get back to Petro the Mach-E driver has left to get some dinner, so I try calling Petro-Canada Customer service. Absolute joke. I ask if he can reboot the dispenser - sorry sir, we don’t have that ability. We can’t actually see the units. All we can do is open a maintenance request. So fine, let’s do that. He says “Great, can you give me the postal code?”. Ummm…what? I said “I can give you the number of the dispenser”…. “Nope, that’s no good, I need the postal code”. I said Dude, I don’t even know where I am, let alone know the postal code!”. “Sorry sir, I need to postal code. How about a cross street?” C’mon man! This can’t be the only way to find a dispenser on your network!

Thanks for your “help” though…

So Petro-Canada, a publicly listed company (owned by Suncor) has no idea whether their dispensers are up, working, broken, or on fire. Absolutely no visibility into them at all. In fact, they don’t really have a good way of even finding them. YouTubers The Straight Pipes complain about them all the time, now I know why.

In the mean time a red GT has come and gone, deciding to try his luck further up the road. Next an ID.4, but she’s at least at 50% SOC. She leaves too. Then a Polestar, who tries and leaves as well.

So after waiting about an hour for the first Mach-E to charge (he came back at over 90%), it’s our turn. All is good until the dispenser tells me the card reader is out of service, so I must use the App. One more obstacle to climb before the electrons begin to flow. Five minutes later we are charging and heading to Michelin starred dinner at Denny’s. When we make it back, there is another Polestar trying his luck, and a guy in an IONIQ 6 asleep, waiting for me I guess. So although I only managed 44 kWh from a 350 kWh dispenser (I was expecting at least low 70s), and paying $38 for the privilege (about twice what I pay at IVY), I was happy to get a charge.

My wife an kids were great about it all, but had it been February I’m not sure how many smiles there would have been.

And each and every driver I spoke to said the same thing - our cars are amazing, but the charging is atrocious. Not news to me, but so far I’ve been able to avoid charging drama. I’m now in the Club…

I needed one quick top-up to make it home, and stopped at a great 150 kWh Shell ReCharge in Bowmanville and pulled 71 kWh, with zero drama. Never again, Petro-Canada….

So take heart Electrify American sufferers, I think it can actually be worse….

Mach-E Family Reunion….

Sponsored

 

[ChasingCoral]

Just returned from a week-end road trip to Montreal, which is usually uneventful. Except last night.

Planned for a final charge at the last ONRoute (Port Hope) before hitting the outskirts of Toronto, but when we pulled in (with 16% SOC), none of the dispensers were online. All four were unavailable, which has never happened to me before. Called Customer Service but they said all they could do was send a technician. Tomorrow. No problem - 13km down the road I had two options - two 350 kWh chargers at Petro-Canada, and as a back-up, 2 50kWh Flo units at Canadian Tire.

As we are heading down the 401, a silver blue Mach-E passes us, who we end up following to the Petro-Canada station. He takes the first stall, and I take the second. Fun! Two MAch-Es.

Then the “fun” starts - he’s good, pulling 44 kWh from a 350 kWh, which is better than nothing, but nowhere near the 114 he was getting last week. I get initialisation failures over and over again. So he says “it’s still broken?”. Now I know why he took the first dispenser

So I decide to kill some time waiting for him (he says he won’t be long) by going to Canadian Tire. One of the two dispensers is charging an F-150 Lightning, and the other one was also pooched. I called Flo, they tried to reboot, still no luck. So back to Petro-Canada. Interestingly I pass a bank of about 10 or 12 Superchargers with a bunch of Teslas happily charging in the cool night air.

When we get back to Petro the Mach-E driver has left to get some dinner, so I try calling Petro-Canada Customer service. Absolute joke. I ask if he can reboot the dispenser - sorry sir, we don’t have that ability. We can’t actually see the units. All we can do is open a maintenance request. So fine, let’s do that. He says “Great, can you give me the postal code?”. Ummm…what? I said “I can give you the number of the dispenser”…. “Nope, that’s no good, I need the postal code”. I said Dude, I don’t even know where I am, let alone know the postal code!”. “Sorry sir, I need to postal code. How about a cross street?” C’mon man! This can’t be the only way to find a dispenser on your network!

Thanks for your “help” though…

So Petro-Canada, a publicly listed company (owned by Suncor) has no idea whether their dispensers are up, working, broken, or on fire. Absolutely no visibility into them at all. In fact, they don’t really have a good way of even finding them. YouTubers The Straight Pipes complain about them all the time, now I know why.

In the mean time a red GT has come and gone, deciding to try his luck further up the road. Next an ID.4, but she’s at least at 50% SOC. She leaves too. Then a Polestar, who tries and leaves as well.

So after waiting about an hour for the first Mach-E to charge (he came back at over 90%), it’s our turn. All is good until the dispenser tells me the card reader is out of service, so I must use the App. One more obstacle to climb before the electrons begin to flow. Five minutes later we are charging and heading to Michelin starred dinner at Denny’s. When we make it back, there is another Polestar trying his luck, and a guy in an IONIQ 6 asleep, waiting for me I guess. So although I only managed 44 kWh from a 350 kWh dispenser (I was expecting at least low 70s), and paying $38 for the privilege (about twice what I pay at IVY), I was happy to get a charge.

My wife an kids were great about it all, but had it been February I’m not sure how many smiles there would have been.

And each and every driver I spoke to said the same thing - our cars are amazing, but the charging is atrocious. Not news to me, but so far I’ve been able to avoid charging drama. I’m now in the Club…

I needed one quick top-up to make it home, and stopped at a great 150 kWh Shell ReCharge in Bowmanville and pulled 71 kWh, with zero drama. Never again, Petro-Canada….

So take heart Electrify American sufferers, I think it can actually be worse….

Mach-E Family Reunion….

Signs of what happens when an oil company provides EV charging services.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Signs of what happens when an oil company provides EV charging services.

Exactly my thoughts! Makes it look like they care, but call me skeptical.

Shell on the other hand definitely seems committed, especially with what they are doing in Europe. Coll stuff.

 

[Tim_C]

Have you tried Electrify Canada? I had pretty good results, especially with the "Oshawa Mid" station which is about 50km from Port Hope.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-city-and-back-all-on-electrify-canada.30204/

 

[MellowJohnny]

Have you tried Electrify Canada? I had pretty good results, especially with the "Oshawa Mid" station which is about 50km from Port Hope.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-city-and-back-all-on-electrify-canada.30204/

Thanks Tim - I’d been avoiding them based on US experiences but maybe I’ll give them a try. I’ve used EA in Buffalo a few times with no issues.

I like IVY because of the services at the ONRoute plazas, but I also like consistent charging

 

[Glen Boise]

Could part of our various problems with DCFCharging be that too many of those involved in the decision making have no experience with living with a BEV? Requesting a "postal code" to locate a company's charger is a sign of that. Many users of DCFC are not locals. They are not going to know such a thing. Did we not see this with the experiences of the CEO's of EA and Ford driving BEV's cross county? Both of whom had troubles charging at some sites.
In addition, DCFC is a relatively new technology with many of the machines untested to the long term environmental stresses of locations out in a parking lot. Places where the Sun can easily raise temperatures to above 100 degrees, even when the air temperature is lower, and the wind in winter will blow snow through the cooling vents into the equipment.
Plus, you get what you pay for. Buying cheap equipment is the road to unreliable service. Does not the reputation of Tesla Superchargers for reliability come from their investing in good equipment? Also, they have had many more years of experience with their equipment. It does not help that everybody and their brothers are out there trying to buy DCFC equipment so they can provide service.

 

[Billyk24]

Could part of our various problems with DCFCharging be that too many of those involved in the decision making have no experience with living with a BEV? Requesting a "postal code" to locate a company's charger is a sign of that. Many users of DCFC are not locals. They are not going to know such a thing. Did we not see this with the experiences of the CEO's of EA and Ford driving BEV's cross county? Both of whom had troubles charging at some sites.
In addition, DCFC is a relatively new technology with many of the machines untested to the long term environmental stresses of locations out in a parking lot. Places where the Sun can easily raise temperatures to above 100 degrees, even when the air temperature is lower, and the wind in winter will blow snow through the cooling vents into the equipment.
Plus, you get what you pay for. Buying cheap equipment is the road to unreliable service. Does not the reputation of Tesla Superchargers for reliability come from their investing in good equipment? Also, they have had many more years of experience with their equipment. It does not help that everybody and their brothers are out there trying to buy DCFC equipment so they can provide service.

Who makes the hardware for the Tesla superchargers? Can or can not other vendors purchase such hardware?

 

[ChasingCoral]

Who makes the hardware for the Tesla superchargers?

Tesla

Can or can not other vendors purchase such hardware?

No

 

[Billyk24]

Tesla


No

Maybe true. I have read somewhere Tesla charges $60,000.00 just for the hardware. This might be V2 or V3.

 

[SpongeBad]

I have found Petro Canada to be the least reliable network on road trips. Electrify Canada is hit and miss. Flo almost always works, but I've never seen anything more powerful than a 50kW charger. We had a nightmare return trip from Vancouver in 2022 that was partially courtesy of Petro Can and EC (documented here).

We actually had the best luck recently in a drive across BC with the Chevron chargers at their "On the Run" stores. They're a little weird, in that they use a backup battery in (or near) the charger to avoid drawing as much power from the grid, so if that battery is dead they're very slow, but if the battery is charged, they work incredibly well. As a nice bonus, they had a promo going on, so all the charging was free as long as you had their app.

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Interestingly I pass a bank of about 10 or 12 Superchargers with a bunch of Teslas happily charging in the cool night air.

I do not know why but this struck me as really funny (the comment and the image). The underlying resentment is great. I also picture Mac in the movie Cars longingly passing all the "sleeping trucks" while Lightning McQueen makes him continue driving.

 

[Billyk24]

I have found Petro Canada to be the least reliable network on road trips. Electrify Canada is hit and miss. Flo almost always works, but I've never seen anything more powerful than a 50kW charger. We had a nightmare return trip from Vancouver in 2022 that was partially courtesy of Petro Can and EC (documented here).

We actually had the best luck recently in a drive across BC with the Chevron chargers at their "On the Run" stores. They're a little weird, in that they use a backup battery in (or near) the charger to avoid drawing as much power from the grid, so if that battery is dead they're very slow, but if the battery is charged, they work incredibly well. As a nice bonus, they had a promo going on, so all the charging was free as long as you had their app.

Also utilized to avid demad charges

 

[Mauser]

I share the sentiment. I've never had a good charging experience with Petro Canada at any of the locations I've hit; Canmore, Carstairs, Hwy 1 west of Calgary. However all Electrify Canada stations have been a much better experience, and charge speed.

The reason I hit up those Petro stations is that my RBC Mastercard had a $300 free charging promotion...

 

[AnthonyM4X]

Just returned from a week-end road trip to Montreal, which is usually uneventful. Except last night.

Planned for a final charge at the last ONRoute (Port Hope) before hitting the outskirts of Toronto, but when we pulled in (with 16% SOC), none of the dispensers were online. All four were unavailable, which has never happened to me before. Called Customer Service but they said all they could do was send a technician. Tomorrow. No problem - 13km down the road I had two options - two 350 kWh chargers at Petro-Canada, and as a back-up, 2 50kWh Flo units at Canadian Tire.

As we are heading down the 401, a silver blue Mach-E passes us, who we end up following to the Petro-Canada station. He takes the first stall, and I take the second. Fun! Two MAch-Es.

Then the “fun” starts - he’s good, pulling 44 kWh from a 350 kWh, which is better than nothing, but nowhere near the 114 he was getting last week. I get initialisation failures over and over again. So he says “it’s still broken?”. Now I know why he took the first dispenser

So I decide to kill some time waiting for him (he says he won’t be long) by going to Canadian Tire. One of the two dispensers is charging an F-150 Lightning, and the other one was also pooched. I called Flo, they tried to reboot, still no luck. So back to Petro-Canada. Interestingly I pass a bank of about 10 or 12 Superchargers with a bunch of Teslas happily charging in the cool night air.

When we get back to Petro the Mach-E driver has left to get some dinner, so I try calling Petro-Canada Customer service. Absolute joke. I ask if he can reboot the dispenser - sorry sir, we don’t have that ability. We can’t actually see the units. All we can do is open a maintenance request. So fine, let’s do that. He says “Great, can you give me the postal code?”. Ummm…what? I said “I can give you the number of the dispenser”…. “Nope, that’s no good, I need the postal code”. I said Dude, I don’t even know where I am, let alone know the postal code!”. “Sorry sir, I need to postal code. How about a cross street?” C’mon man! This can’t be the only way to find a dispenser on your network!

Thanks for your “help” though…

So Petro-Canada, a publicly listed company (owned by Suncor) has no idea whether their dispensers are up, working, broken, or on fire. Absolutely no visibility into them at all. In fact, they don’t really have a good way of even finding them. YouTubers The Straight Pipes complain about them all the time, now I know why.

In the mean time a red GT has come and gone, deciding to try his luck further up the road. Next an ID.4, but she’s at least at 50% SOC. She leaves too. Then a Polestar, who tries and leaves as well.

So after waiting about an hour for the first Mach-E to charge (he came back at over 90%), it’s our turn. All is good until the dispenser tells me the card reader is out of service, so I must use the App. One more obstacle to climb before the electrons begin to flow. Five minutes later we are charging and heading to Michelin starred dinner at Denny’s. When we make it back, there is another Polestar trying his luck, and a guy in an IONIQ 6 asleep, waiting for me I guess. So although I only managed 44 kWh from a 350 kWh dispenser (I was expecting at least low 70s), and paying $38 for the privilege (about twice what I pay at IVY), I was happy to get a charge.

My wife an kids were great about it all, but had it been February I’m not sure how many smiles there would have been.

And each and every driver I spoke to said the same thing - our cars are amazing, but the charging is atrocious. Not news to me, but so far I’ve been able to avoid charging drama. I’m now in the Club…

I needed one quick top-up to make it home, and stopped at a great 150 kWh Shell ReCharge in Bowmanville and pulled 71 kWh, with zero drama. Never again, Petro-Canada….

So take heart Electrify American sufferers, I think it can actually be worse….

Mach-E Family Reunion….

I want to add a similar issue with PetroCanada chargers. Just spent the weekend in Gatineau Quebec and I was excited to find two 350kW PetroCanada chargers really close to my Airbnb.

Every time I tried to use one of them, it would start up fine, start charging and then after about 30 seconds, would just stop charging. Acted normal, no charge fault messages anywhere. Just stopped.

This happened with both chargers and I tried them both on different days. Didn’t bother calling customer service as I figured they’d be useless.

During the trip (drove from New Brunswick to Ottawa and back) I must say I was really impressed with the Circuit Electrique chargers from Hydro Quebec. I guess electric companies will be better at providing working chargers than the fossil-fuel dinosaurs!

 

[933233311602]

> Interestingly I pass a bank of about 10 or 12 Superchargers with a bunch of Teslas happily charging in the cool night air.

This is why Ford has made a deal with Tesla for future Fords to use the Tesla charging network.

Telsa has done amazingly well to get high-quality, high-amp chargers into high-traffic locations.

https://media.ford.com/content/ford...n-access-to-12-000-tesla-superchargers--.html

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