Electrifying!

Tesla Inc., the Palo Alto, California-based electric car manufacturer, has announced it is adding nearly 100 new Supercharger recharging stations for electric vehicles across Canada after rolling out its new Model 3 EVs.

Tesla has stated its expansion of Canadian charging stations will more than quadruple the number of Supercharger sites in our country, from under 30 to nearly 120.

The company’s website shows it has a target opening of a Supercharger station in Sault Ste. Marie for the end of 2018 (exact timing of its opening and specific location is not yet known).

The website shows the closest operating Supercharger site is in North Bay, with a Sudbury site planned for the end of 2017, and targeted openings for the Sault, Espanola, Blind River, Batchawana Bay and Wawa for the end of 2018.

Recharging of a Model 3 takes about 30 minutes, and, along highly travelled routes, can provide up to 270 kilometres in range.

Superchargers are usually located at hotels and resorts, shopping centres and restaurants. 

The closest sites in neighbouring Michigan, according to a company map, are at Naubinway in the eastern Upper Peninsula and three in the Petoskey area, with a Supercharger planned for Mackinaw City by the end of 2018.

The Canadian expansion is part of a massive Tesla expansion of its Supercharger stations, 5,000 in all, to be installed across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Other companies have also revealed plans to add more than 30 other charging stations across Canada.

Tesla’s plan, once it is fully realized, will see most of the Trans Canada Highway equipped with Supercharger stations, from coast to coast, with the exception of Newfoundland.   

As of July, Tesla had taken 500,000 pre-orders of its new Model 3 worldwide, in an ambitious expansion plan.

So far, Tesla has never manufactured more than 100,000 vehicles in a year.

With its Model 3, the company hopes to bring the electric vehicle into the mainstream of automotive society with a starting price of $35,000, the vehicle having a range of up to 498 kilometres (310 miles).

The cars are expected to arrive on the market in significant numbers by late 2018.