Vancouvers Regina Chan poses for a photo op at Drumheller, Alberta during the first day of the 2019 EcoRun.AJAC/John Walker CALGARYOn the face of it, AJAC choosing Alberta as the location for the 2019 EcoRun seemed a little like setting up a Beyond Meat concession at the Calgary Stampede.A hyper-miler challenge deep in the heart of oil country? Why, we might as well have just plastered We Love Justin bumper stickers on the 20 vehicles taking part in the 877-kilometre, two-day event and really stick it to our friendly host province. But when the dust had settled, and the green jersey awarded to the most miserly of the 19 automotive journalists taking part, it turned out that holding the 8th annual EcoRun in Wild Rose Country underscored both the advancements made and the challenges that remain in terms of electric vehicle adoption.Five of the 20 vehicles in the challenge were plug-in EVs, one was a hydrogen-powered EV, and three were plug-in hybrids. The remaining dozen were a mix of hybrid and gas-powered vehicles, including a diesel pickup truck. That latter group caused no issues for event organizers. It was the former one that provided, quite literally, some near-sleepless nights. Ambitious was a word that crossed my mind when I received the two-day drive itinerary ahead of the event, the first day a 485-km odyssey that began bright and early in Edmonton, with the first leg taking us south to Red Deer, the second heading east then south to Drumheller, and the final leg of the day southwest to Calgary. Likewise, day twos 392-km route was broken up into three legs, taking us on a path from Calgary to Longview, Longview to Canmore and Banff, then a blast east on the TransCanada Highway back to Cowtown.The average advertised full-charge range of the five all-electrics was 390-kilometresfrom a low of 377 (Jaguar I-Pace) to a high of 415 (Hyundai Kona EV)so it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that each days drive would need to include an extended stop at charging stations. That wouldnt pose much of problem if the event was staged in and around Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal as those big urban centres have an established charging network. Turns out Alberta doesnt.Such is the lack of such infrastructure in the province that EcoRun organizers had to rent and truck in portable chargers to Drumheller and Banff to ensure the EVs could go the distance. And even then their best-laid plans went sideways, first when it was discovered that just a third of the nine charging stations at Edmontons Rogers Place secured for overnight charging actually worked, and then the next night when a thunderstorm caused a flicker of power outage that disabled the chargers powering up the I-Pace and Nissan Leaf Plus. Meaning each needed to be pulled from a scheduled leg from the next days drive to ensure they had enough battery power to make it back to Calgary. A more dire situation, though one that was known by EcoRun organizers from the start, was that the hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo wouldnt be available for the second days drive, to be replaced by a gas-powered Elantra. Turns out there are no public hydrogen stations in the province.The lesson? Without a robust, and reliable, charging network, EVs will never be more than daily urban transportation. Clearly Alberta isnt there yet, but the good news is that plans are underway to begin stringing together a charging network along the well-traveled east-west corridor of the province. By years end the Peaks to Prairies EV Network will see 20 public fast charging stations installed across southern Alberta. The stations will be owned and operated by ATCO, a Calgary-based electric utility company, and will run on the FLO network, Canadas largest EV charging network. Better still, 100 per cent of the electricity supplied to the stations will be from renewable energy sources. So, if the EcoRun was held in Alberta again this time next year, the charging logistics that challenged organizers would be minimized greatly.Despite those challenges, and the expected grumbling of some of the, lets just say less-EV-enthusiastic journalists (insert Drumheller dinosaur joke here), the 2019 EcoRun was a big success from the one true metric that matters: fuel economy.For the first time in the eight-year history of the event, the 5.0 L/100km overall average fuel consumption threshold was broken. The Natural Resources of Canada average for the 20 vehicles is 5.59, but the assembled drivers managed a thrifty 4.7, from a low of 1.8 equivalent for the Chevy Bolt to a high of 8.0 for the Ford Explorer Hybrid (for full results visit ajac.ca/ecorun).The highly coveted Green Jersey went Michel Crepault of Montreal, with myself and Torontos Jim Kenzie rounding out the podium. And one final note. As a first-time competitor I was struck by how different the drive portion of the EcoRun is to other drive events I take part in. Typically, fuelled as they are by equal parts ego and
Origin: Home on the Range Anxiety