The Editor:
I highly recommend someone hold local EV charging companies accountable.
The government "strongly encouraged" gas stations to add DC Fast chargers for non-Tesla vehicles and we have them in Burnaby from Chevron and Shell but they have been more-or-less broken since they were installed.
For fast chargers there are not many that operate greater than 50 kilowatts (kW) —most modern cars can take roughly 150kW.
In the Metrotown neighbourhood you have a few choices: Chevron at Imperial Street and Central Boulevard, and at Willingdon Avenue and Canada Way. Each location has four DC Fast Chargers.
These chargers don't have enough power going to them and rely on an internal battery inside the chargers to "buffer" so they can provide high current to the cars.
The problem is when there is sustained usage, they drop from 200kW charging speed to 8kW charging speed; essentially dropping the speed from Level 3 DC fast charging speed to Level 2 home charging speed.
This drop in speed is usually by mid-morning and all chargers are crawling by the end of the day after sustained failures to charge.
There's also a Shell Gas station at Boundary and Marine. There are two charging stations here but when one is in use, the other one goes out of service, saying "No Power."
Besides these, there is a single 50kW charger inside Metrotown mall on P1 (further away than the Level 2 chargers). This one is operated by BC-Hydro and often does not work.
It is also priced prohibitively so it is a last-resort option only.
Someone needs to expose this inadequacy and shine a light on the fact that maybe gas stations who have a self interest to make EV's fail are perhaps not the best place to put DC Fast Chargers.
- David G., Burnaby
