2016Electric
Well-known member
Fair Warning: Rant Ahead
Well, after having my 2016 Soul EV Luxury since October 2015, I can safely say that it's easily one of the nicest cars that I've had the pleasure to own and drive. It's smooth, quite, reliable, worked great on the extreme cold days we've had this winter (Ontario, Canada) and its got plenty of get-up-and-go around town.
So what's my problem then? Well, it's that I love the car so much that from time to time, I'd like to take it on some longer distance trips. Why is that a problem? It's a problem because of the woefully poor state of DC fast charging infrastructure in Ontario - even around the heavily populated areas running around Lake Ontario, from Niagara Falls to Oshawa.
In total, there are 4 DCFC in the GTA - two by Pearson Airport (Mitsubishi HQ and Nissan HQ). The Mitsubishi DCFC is public (that is, anyone can use it), but it is almost always broken, and is only turned on during business hours (so no weekend or evening use)... so that's pretty useless. The Nissan DCFC is also often broken, and has a large sign stating "Leaf Use only" in front of it. Ok, fine.. not expecting to be able to fill with juice for free - I'd be more than willing to pay (as I am sure many others would be too).. but it's not an option when the station is simply closed or you are technically not allowed to use it.
That leaves the other two stations, both north of the 407. One is operated by Powerstream and is around King Rd/Hwy 400. It's free and usually working, and would be a great location if there were a sister station in, say Barrie, to make such a trip back and forth possible, but alas it is not so.. so the station is sort of uselessly stranded and too far north of the 401 to be practical to top up along that route (or even 407 really). The last station is at Markham community centre on Hwy 7, east of the 404. It's a paid station at around $10 an hour, so not a terribly high premium on the cost of expensive Ontario electricity. No one should expect a free ride, anyway. But again, the station is sort of stranded and not really of much use to get from one city (say Hamilton) to another (i.e. Markham).
So that's it. No more stations built in ages, and the ones that are there are of very limited use. I suppose that's why the Ontario government announced a paltry $20 million grant program to build DCFC across the entire province this last December. Aside from the fact that the sum pales in comparison simply to the dollars this government routinely wastes on who knows what (think $1 billion lost to cancelling an electrical plant)... we shall see how this actually turns out... and who knows how long it will actually take (if it happens).
That brings me to my beef with Kia. Both Mitsubishi and Nissan offer EVs with a DVFC option, as does Kia. However, both Mitsubishi and Nissan have at least offered the goodwill gesture of installing a DCFC at their HQ (at least for the optics of caring for their customers). Notice that Kia has done no such thing...
Not that they are compelled to, but you'd think given the size of the company and the huge marketing push for these vehicles, they'd at least follow the lead of their competition.
People pay good money for an EV, and then pay extra to have a model equipped with the DCFC option, yet there is almost no where to use DCFC in Ontario.
This past week, I called Kia Canada to enquire about whether or not Kia had any plans to install such a charger, or perhaps a few of them. The agent was unhelpful, to say the least. They suggested I check the CAA website, where I could find a map of available chargers... Well, gee, thanks.. very helpful (not). Initially, the agent refused to say whether or not Kia had plans to install any quick chargers, so I asked to speak to a manager who might know...
The manager was rude, abrupt, and said that they had no information on such a plan, and even if they did, they would not discuss internal company policy. I indicated that I felt this was a somewhat unsatisfactory (unacceptable) answer, and the manager hung up on me. I called back to file a complaint about the rude manager, and a few days later another manager called back to apologise for the previous interaction. That said, the second manager also indicated Kia has no plans to support building any DC fast chargers.
I believe Kia should be more proactive about this, and show they truly support their product. I got the distinct impression that Kia Canada is not really happy to be selling the EV here in the first place... almost as though they didn't really have a choice, and are begrudgingly selling it for some unknown reason. Certainly the employees I spoke to were less than enthusiastic about the product - an odd position given this was coming from Kia Canada HQ.
That's about it.. my thoughts are, if enough people pressure (complain) to them, they may take some action and install a charger here and there (maybe at their Mississauga HQ and a few key dealership locations along the QEW)... that would be nice. I'm sure most of us would be willing to pay something to use the chargers, making road trips possible, etc. But, it's hard to do that when the chargers simply aren't there.
Thoughts?
Well, after having my 2016 Soul EV Luxury since October 2015, I can safely say that it's easily one of the nicest cars that I've had the pleasure to own and drive. It's smooth, quite, reliable, worked great on the extreme cold days we've had this winter (Ontario, Canada) and its got plenty of get-up-and-go around town.
So what's my problem then? Well, it's that I love the car so much that from time to time, I'd like to take it on some longer distance trips. Why is that a problem? It's a problem because of the woefully poor state of DC fast charging infrastructure in Ontario - even around the heavily populated areas running around Lake Ontario, from Niagara Falls to Oshawa.
In total, there are 4 DCFC in the GTA - two by Pearson Airport (Mitsubishi HQ and Nissan HQ). The Mitsubishi DCFC is public (that is, anyone can use it), but it is almost always broken, and is only turned on during business hours (so no weekend or evening use)... so that's pretty useless. The Nissan DCFC is also often broken, and has a large sign stating "Leaf Use only" in front of it. Ok, fine.. not expecting to be able to fill with juice for free - I'd be more than willing to pay (as I am sure many others would be too).. but it's not an option when the station is simply closed or you are technically not allowed to use it.
That leaves the other two stations, both north of the 407. One is operated by Powerstream and is around King Rd/Hwy 400. It's free and usually working, and would be a great location if there were a sister station in, say Barrie, to make such a trip back and forth possible, but alas it is not so.. so the station is sort of uselessly stranded and too far north of the 401 to be practical to top up along that route (or even 407 really). The last station is at Markham community centre on Hwy 7, east of the 404. It's a paid station at around $10 an hour, so not a terribly high premium on the cost of expensive Ontario electricity. No one should expect a free ride, anyway. But again, the station is sort of stranded and not really of much use to get from one city (say Hamilton) to another (i.e. Markham).
So that's it. No more stations built in ages, and the ones that are there are of very limited use. I suppose that's why the Ontario government announced a paltry $20 million grant program to build DCFC across the entire province this last December. Aside from the fact that the sum pales in comparison simply to the dollars this government routinely wastes on who knows what (think $1 billion lost to cancelling an electrical plant)... we shall see how this actually turns out... and who knows how long it will actually take (if it happens).
That brings me to my beef with Kia. Both Mitsubishi and Nissan offer EVs with a DVFC option, as does Kia. However, both Mitsubishi and Nissan have at least offered the goodwill gesture of installing a DCFC at their HQ (at least for the optics of caring for their customers). Notice that Kia has done no such thing...
Not that they are compelled to, but you'd think given the size of the company and the huge marketing push for these vehicles, they'd at least follow the lead of their competition.
People pay good money for an EV, and then pay extra to have a model equipped with the DCFC option, yet there is almost no where to use DCFC in Ontario.
This past week, I called Kia Canada to enquire about whether or not Kia had any plans to install such a charger, or perhaps a few of them. The agent was unhelpful, to say the least. They suggested I check the CAA website, where I could find a map of available chargers... Well, gee, thanks.. very helpful (not). Initially, the agent refused to say whether or not Kia had plans to install any quick chargers, so I asked to speak to a manager who might know...
The manager was rude, abrupt, and said that they had no information on such a plan, and even if they did, they would not discuss internal company policy. I indicated that I felt this was a somewhat unsatisfactory (unacceptable) answer, and the manager hung up on me. I called back to file a complaint about the rude manager, and a few days later another manager called back to apologise for the previous interaction. That said, the second manager also indicated Kia has no plans to support building any DC fast chargers.
I believe Kia should be more proactive about this, and show they truly support their product. I got the distinct impression that Kia Canada is not really happy to be selling the EV here in the first place... almost as though they didn't really have a choice, and are begrudgingly selling it for some unknown reason. Certainly the employees I spoke to were less than enthusiastic about the product - an odd position given this was coming from Kia Canada HQ.
That's about it.. my thoughts are, if enough people pressure (complain) to them, they may take some action and install a charger here and there (maybe at their Mississauga HQ and a few key dealership locations along the QEW)... that would be nice. I'm sure most of us would be willing to pay something to use the chargers, making road trips possible, etc. But, it's hard to do that when the chargers simply aren't there.
Thoughts?
