An old friend, currently living in Coronach, Saskatchewan, had his 40th birthday this weekend and off Lloyd went to visit. Part of this was to get a look at the newish charger in Assiniboia on the way out and add it to the Plugshare network. In reasonable weather, you can make it to Coronach on about 2/3 a tank of electrons in the Tesla Model S. This is February, the average daytime temperature was in the negative teens, and we figured the car would take it’s customary 30% hit. Still didn’t need to stop in at the charger but hey why not!

Cold but clear for the drive out and the guys (Rick, cheerful sidekick this trip) were off. It’s about 200km to Assiniboia from Swift Current and our Model S has a 460km range in ideal conditions. They arrived at the Assiniboia Peavey Mart, where the charger is, with 29% left on the battery having used an average of 229wh/km. Turns out the charger here is not much better than what you’d get from a home plugin, running at 12a / 120 volts. Still, it exists and we love Peavey Mart for that.

* When I say we love Peavey Mart, I’m only half joking. At no cost to users, a whole slew of the Peavey Marts in Western Canada provide charge stations. This makes having an electric car in semi-rural Saskatchewan much more doable.