What’s it like to drive an EV in Canadian winters? Albertans weigh in

Tired of hearing that his electric vehicle (EV) can’t function in Canadian winters — or go the distance — Jef Fisher sought to prove critics wrong.

Having driven EVs since 2014, Fisher told Postmedia he took his 2021 Tesla Model 3 to Victoria, B.C., from St. John’s, N.L, with help of a companion to alternate driving. From Feb. 27 to March 4, 2022, the travellers drove the vehicle more than 7,000 kilometres — through temperatures that dipped below -30 C — in about 116 hours, he said.

“Expectations were that it absolutely could be done, and that it would be as gruelling as any other drive in a regular car across the country in winter,” Fisher said in a phone interview. “There’s so much misinformation about what electric vehicles can and cannot do.”

While comprising a small slice of vehicles on the road, vehicle registration figures from Statistics Canada show battery electric vehicles in the country have steadily climbed to 58,726 in 2021 from 236 in 2011. Alberta has also seen registrations trend to 3,527 in 2021 from 377 in 2017.