By: Jean Rath
In September 2024, my husband, Christopher, and I traded in our gas-powered Toyota Corolla for an EV truck (an F-150 Lighting from Moose Jaw Ford). We decided on a truck because we discerned that it would be easier to be with one than without one here in Moose Jaw (we had just moved here from Ottawa. Why? Three very small and very adorable grandchildren). We chose electric because that was going to be our next vehicle anyway.
Before we bought the truck, though, Christopher looked into the kind of infrastructure that exists nationally. We do, after all, want to travel around the country. He concluded that enough infrastructure was in place for us to comfortably buy our EV.
“What do you think of the colour,” asked Chris, our salesman. “I love it,” was my reply. I really do. Grey is my go-to colour. And slate is so beautiful. But the colour, of course, is beside the point.
I love our truck. It coddled us through our first Moose Jaw winter. Admittedly, we didn’t drive anywhere ambitious. Our truck sat in our garage, plugged into the recharger we attached to the garage wall, recharging happily while we lived life at home. It was always ready to go for a Co-op run, dinner at Veroba’s, or a quick expedition out of town. We went no farther east than Regina, no farther west than Mortlach, no farther north than Buffalo Pound Lake and no farther south than halfway to Gravelbourg. On a reasonable winter day, all those destinations were easily done on one 80% (recommended maximum for regular use) charge provided by the recharger in our garage.
Buffalo Pound Lake
The only ambitious travel we attempted that winter was a jaunt to Regina on a not-reasonable winter day. A -35ºC night meant that the truck was slow to charge. When we climbed into the pre-heated cab in the morning, we discovered that the truck had not reached its 80% because the very cold weather had slowed the charging rate. It was charged enough to get us to Regina, though, so we set off.
On the highway, the horizon was lost behind a fog of ice crystals. The power plant to the south and the industries to the north had their emissions on full display in the cold; they were thick and white and going straight up and then suddenly sideways as they hit a different-temperature layer of air. In Regina, it was not surprising that nobody was out walking! We discovered that many Reginans were enjoying the humming refuge of warmth and humanity that is The Everyday Kitchen, which is where we went first. Reinforced by our brown butter-glazed sourdough donuts, we set off to do those things that Moose Javians do in Regina: Value Village, Costco, and Home Depot.
Then it was off to the Northgate Mall, and while I was inside buying clothes (the Northern Reflections there is the best one in town), Christopher went to the charging station at the Wheaton Chevrolet, across the street from the mall. 24 minutes and $8.39 later (quicker than it took me to shop), we had enough power to easily travel down the frozen highway back to Moose Jaw. But first, burger and onion rings at Chappy’s Restaurant & Lounge was just the thing for a cold day.
So our EV – and the EV infrastructure in Regina – served us well during the winter. But come spring, I was clamouring to go see my sister Kathleen in Rossland, BC.
I hadn’t been to Rossland in thirty years! Kathleen and I had seen each other in plenty of other places and for plenty of reasons, but I hadn’t actually gone to her living space since we made a family trip out there in 1995. Small children plus air travel from Ottawa plus busy lives – with a pandemic thrown in, too – prevented any further trips into those beautiful BC interior places. But now that we had moved to Moose Jaw, we were in driving range of Rossland!
But was Rossland within driving range of our truck?
Find out in the next instalment of My EV Adventure.
P.S. In the summer that followed this trip to Regina, we upgraded our in-garage EV charger, and cold weather no longer results in slow charging.