Have EV will travel: EV road trip stops in FSJ
Have an EV will travel.
That’s what BC couple Richard and Nicole Ivity have set out to prove with their Great Canadian EV Road Trip, which stopped in Fort St. John on the weekend. Braving the sudden chill and a little snow, they spent four hours in the city, speaking with both enthusiasts and the curious about their journey in their EV pickup truck.
Combining enterprising spirit, a passion for the environment and a love of adventure, the couple came up with the idea for an EV road trip in 2023, and travelled throughout Canada, using the Plug Share app to help them find EV chargers on their journey.
They’re now on their second road trip, and on the way back from Fairbanks, Alaska, the Ivitys stopped in Fort St. John at the Canadian Tire chargers on October 26 before heading to Tumbler Ridge for another event on October 27.
Driving a Chicago-manufactured 2023 Rivian R1T EV pickup, with an electric quad motor, Nicole Ivity says that improvements in the availability of chargers along their route has made this second road trip much easier.
“There are more chargers now than our first trip,” Ivity said when she chatted with The Broken Typewriter while the pair showed off the Rivian to local EV enthusiasts. “Most of the new chargers are fast chargers.”
The slower speed chargers, she said are the off-grid ones that run on generators, like those at Pink Mountain.
Using an app called Plug Share, Ivity says they can easily find chargers throughout BC, the Yukon and Alaska. The app also indicates whether a particular charger is being used, and if there are any issues with the chargers.
In the two Great Canadian EV Road Trips, the Ivitys have travelled as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska and as far east as St. John’s, Newfoundland which they reached on December 17, 2023.
Motivated by their commitment to a greener future, the Ivitys, through their Great Canadian EV Road Trip, aim to help pave the way for more widespread EV adoption and use, and according to their website, “address the tough questions that may be holding Canadians back from embracing this transformative technology.”