As I've said before, we did a piece of this trip 10 years ago, in the same Subaru Outback we took this time. 10 years ago it was a new car, purchased in 2012. Now it is not. So inevitably, once we're 50 km over the border to Canada, and our cell phones aren't working (different issue resolved later that day), I get a low oil light on the car.

I take the next exit that says there would be a gas station, but their isn't. I get back on the highway. Another 20km and there is another exit marked with a gas station. I get off, and wander a bit, finally landing at this Irving station. Inside the only 5W-30 oil I can find is in a 5L bottle (I need 1L). So $60 CAD later I've got oil.

Sitting in front of my car where I parked to go in is a DC Fast Charger, with CCS and CHADMO plugs. I'm am so over gas cars.

It taunts me

EV Infrastructure

From our balcony in Maine we were staring at 4 Level 2 chargers at the College of the Atlantic. In Fundy there were Level 2 chargers in 3 locations in the park, plus another bank in the beach in Alma that we could have walked to.

Level 2 chargers in Fundy National Park

I had gotten asked multiple times if we took our EV on this trip. The answer is no, because it's a Chevy Bolt, which disqualifies it for 2 reasons. The first is that it's fast charge is real slow. I only does 50kW, so the battery refills would have been 45 minutes to an hour at fast chargers. Secondly, it's small. We filled the Subaru, plus the pod on top, for the trip.

But what it made me realize is that in a more reasonable EV we totally could have done this trip. We're looking to replace the Subaru next year with an all electric, and the chargers in this corridor would have made this trip a breeze.

What was curious though, is we didn't see hardly any EVs in New Brunswick. I has a conversation with an older couple near the chargers above, who were thinking about getting an EV, but said they basically never saw them anywhere. They had never seen a Tesla in the wild. Given the charge infrastructure we saw, that surprised me. It appears that only the provinces of Quebec and BC actually provide incentives for EV purchase. But it was a pleasant talk, and I helped dispel some myths for them.

Camping with an EV

We brought our Coleman propane camping stove on this trip so that we could cook in the park in Fundy. One of it's igniters is no long working, and doesn't look very fixable after I took things apart later. So when we were coming back we stopped off at LL Bean in Freeport and looked at all kinds of fun camp goodies. Which included a new camping stove.

But a few days later I started doing the math. We're looking at getting the Volvo EX90 as our large EV to replace the Subaru. That's supposed to have some bi-directional charging features. An induction hot plate peaks at 1500W (though it would typically run much lower). Running it for an hour on max would use up about 4 miles of range on the Volvo. Realistically running a fully induction camp kitchen for the weekend could be done by giving up 10 miles of range or less.

I am no longer going to even consider new camp stove. And have been excited all week by the idea that we've only got one more year of propane cylinders camping before I'm instead packing my induction hot plate and maybe and extension cord.

Back in the US of A

The notable lack of EVs in New Brunswick was rapidly changed once we got to Freeport, where there were piles of them, including getting passed by 2 Rivians in short order on I-95.

The clean energy transition is happening. We need it to happen faster, that would be better for all of us. But it is now inevitable, and the funding from the IRA is going to massively accelerate things here in the US. Seeing all those signs of the transition while out on vacation this year made the trip that much better for me.