The Great Eastern Canada Tesla Road Trip

Last Updated on May 9, 2020 by Jane

At the end of August we went on an epic road trip of Eastern Canada in our Tesla Model 3. We started west of Toronto where we live, drove through Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, back through New Brunswick, down through Maine, Massachusetts and back up through New York State and Ontario. We basically did a big circle. It was long and the last couple of days we were definitely over it but it was also really amazing to see a very different part of Canada and get down into Boston. Buckle up for the Great Eastern Canadian Tesla Road Trip.

Tesla Road Trip – What you NEED to Know

The first thing people ask us when we were planning this trip, after not being able to hide the shock on their face, is “aren’t you afraid of running out of charge”?

The short answer is NO.

Just like you would have to plan out your road trip if you were driving an ICE vehicle, you need to plan where you are going each day with an EV.

We are incredibly lucky at this point in the game that there is a pretty robust network of Tesla superchargers along the Trans Canada highway. But if you take a look at the plugshare map you can see how many charging stations are really out there. Not just Telsa.

To put things into perspective we only had to charge at a non-Tesla charger twice through our entire 9 day journey. And no, we didn’t run out of charge.

The great thing about a technology driven car like Tesla is that the car actually tells you how to optimize your drive and will tell you when and where you need to charge.

Total Kilometers Driven: Approximately 4500 Km

Charges per day: 2 – 3 charges per day depending on how intense our driving was.

Need a referral to get 1500 free supercharger KMs? Click HERE.

Day 1: Driving to Montreal

We left fairly early that first day and didn’t even have much of a breakfast as we knew our first charging stop would be right by a Denny’s. Tesla supercharging stations tend to be located at one of three options; gas stations, mall parking lots, or hotels.

Most of the time this means these locations have food fairly close by so we tried to time most of our stops around meals to allow for charging. That first stop was in Belleville and the charging station is in the mall parking lot. We walked across the parking lot to get to the Denny’s for a washroom break and some food. By the time we were done our breakfast, the Telsa was fully charged up.

We stopped again in Cornwall. The charger was at a hotel parking lot. There were quite a few restaurants along the round-about.

We went to the oldest Harvey’s ever. It hasn’t been updated in a very long time as the decor was the same as when I was a kid in the 80’s. We got to Montreal by early afternoon.

We spent a few hours exploring Old Montreal. It was a Saturday which meant it was a bit insane people wise. But there was also an event with all sorts of people dressed up in historical costume and some animals we could feed. Personally I love these older parts of Quebec because they feel so much more European than the rest of Canada.

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After Old Montreal we drove outside the city to Saint-Hyacinthe. We stayed at the Hotel Dauphine which had a destination charger. The hotel was renovated and was quite comfortable. The destination chargers are slower than a supercharger but we were able to get a full charge overnight.

One thing you will notice driving through Quebec is the amount of Teslas and other EVs on the road. Quebec is one of the best provinces to buy an EV because they have both a provincial and federal tax rebate.

Day 2: Rivière du Loup

Driving through this part of Quebec was quite nice with two lane divided highways the entire time. We stopped to charge in Levis which is the sister city to Quebec City. We also charged in Rivière du Loup before we caught our whale watching boat tour for the afternoon. The charging in Rivière du Loup was again at a hotel in kind of a nowhere part of the town. Ideally Tesla would add a charging station closer to the boat cruise area. That would have been fantastic.

After our whale watching tour which I will tell you all about in another post we had dinner at Mike’s (great pizza) and then continued driving. We charged once more in Saint-Leonard before stopping for the night in New Brunswick.

Day 3: Hopewell Rocks and Moncton

One of the things I noticed when we started driving through New Brunswick is that most of the chargers are found at Irving Oil gas stations. Which I actually preferred since you were guaranteed to have a washroom and convience store. Sometimes you would also have a Tim Hortons or some other restaurant.

The other thing I noticed was how mountainous this part of Canada is. I never really associated mountains with New Brunswick. The drive is quite scenic.

You will also start to notice signs to watch out for Moose! We didn’t actually see any on our drive though. We did see a baby bear on the side of the road. Road kill in Ontario is mostly limited to racoons, skunks and cats.

We made it to Hopewell Rocks before noon. There are EV charges at the parking lot there but no Tesla Superchargers or destination charges. It would be a great location for one though! We made sure to charge before and after as there wasn’t something close by at that time.

Read More: A Day at Hopewell Rocks

Day 4: Halifax

We made it to Halifax by late morning. First we booked a tour and stopped for lobster rolls before touring the city. We charged at the supercharger at Enfield before and after our day in Halifax on top of our first charge of the day in Aulac.

Read More: One Day on the Halifax Waterfront

We spent the night in Turo. We could have easily spent a few more days in the Halifax area exploring places like Peggys Cove and Lunenburg but we ventured off to yet another province the next day.

Day 5: Charottetown PEI

We got up early the next day to make the drive to PEI. We took the ferry across to the Island and drove back across confederation bridge. There was a beautiful sunrise on our drive to the dock and were close to the front of the line for the ferry. We didn’t bother paying for priority boarding and had no trouble getting on the ferry. Also note that it costs less to come back via the bridge than the ferry. Also note there is no EV parking or plugins on the ferry across.

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When we disembarked from the ferry we took the direct route into Charlottetown. We lucked out and found a Tesla destination charger at the parking lot for the Delta hotel in downtown Charlottetown. Parking was free and we got the charge we needed to get back to Aulac for the final charge for rest of our drive that day.

We spent the night in Saint John New Brunswick. This was one of our sketchier charging situations. We charged our car at the dealership around the corner from our hotel. It was a destination charger and we left the car there as long as we could. After we brought the car back over to the hotel we got permission to use the outdoor plugs to do some slow overnight charging. The night desk team were so pumped to have a Tesla parked there they said yes!

Day 6: On the road through Maine

Bad weather set in as the tail end of a hurricane was hitting the east coast of Canada. Halifax got the brunt of it but we faced some really crap driving conditions. Wind and rain make for less efficient conditions. We had to stop to charge at a non-Tesla station to get just enough charge to make it to the next supercharger.

Even after that charge the GPS kept wanting to route us back to the closest supercharger. We had to turn off the trip planner until we got closer to the US border. When we got there our charge was in the red but we made it even though it really felt touch and go across the border. Regenerative brakes saved the day.

If we were to do the same Tesla road trip this year it wouldn’t be an issue because there are two new superchargers in this area of New Brunswick and Maine solving our Day 5 and Day 6 charging difficulties.

We stayed the night in Augusta Maine before starting the last leg of our trip.

Day 7: Boston

As we got closer to Boston we noticed two things.

New Brunswick and Maine superchargers were scarce. You needed to charge where they were. Boston you could choose from multiple options.

Traffic also increased. Eastern Canada and Maine are relatively rural. Their cities are fairly small. Boston is a massive city. It was definitely an adjustment driving in a busy metropolis with one way streets. It took us three times around the block to figure out how to get parking at our hotel!

We spent the time in Boston eating pizza in the North End, doing a tour and wandering some of the historic districts of Boston.

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We could have easily spent more time in this city but at the same time it was time to bring our road trip to a close.

Day 8 & 9: Tesla Road Trip homeward bound

The last two days were driving days. We stayed in our worst Best Western off the interstate in East Syracuse, New York. We were all tired and ready to be at home. The supercharger in this area was at a convention center and the only thing close by was a KFC which you had to cross a highway to get to. If we did this trip again I would change where we spent the night. Chargers were easy to come by on this leg of the journey so it was focused on just getting home.

Tesla Road Trip Takeaways

The biggest learning experience from our Eastern Canada road trip was that you can easily take an EV on a long road trip. The only area that we couldn’t find Tesla superchargers we were able to charge at alternatives. And today that area has brand new superchargers.

When we got our Tesla Model 3 I figured we would use our gas powered car for all our long haul trips. That we would use the Tesla only for city driving and day trips we could do on one charge.

But we have done the opposite. The Tesla is driven for all our road trips. We take it to the cottage and either charge uptown at the free chargers or slow charge over our stay. We take it to visit family in the GTA. If there is bad weather that affects efficiency there are plenty of superchargers we can use to top up our battery.

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If range anxiety is one of the things holding you back from getting an EV as your next car, let our Eastern Canada Tesla Road trip show you that electric vehicles are not just city cars. Get referral credits here.