When Castlegar, British Columbia, landscaper Simon Lindley pulled into a truck stop in rural Alberta in an EV pickup truck, he wondered if he would get run off the road. After leaving B.C., Alberta was Lindley’s first stop in a road trip to prove that EVs can go the distance.
Lindley posted a vlog of the journey, which he calls the “Trucked-Up Coffee Stop Tour”, on his YouTube channel, Trucked-Up EVs. In a test of Canada’s EV infrastructure, he rated each province on ease of charging for long-range trips—while fuelling himself with caffeine.
His trip illustrated dramatic disparities in charger access, but also a growing nationwide community of EV-curious truckers that span from rural Alberta to Northern Ontario.
Accelerating From Zero
Lindley’s interest in EV trucks emerged after years of driving a gas-powered pickup around Castlegar for landscaping jobs.
“Trucks were part of work at different points in my life, and it’s a big cost!” he said. “It would eat into profits and time.”
Lindley has always been fascinated by high-tech cars, sparked by a childhood obsession with the Back to the Future movie series. When he got a Ford F150 Lightning in 2022, he was not only a convert to the electric pickup lifestyle—he also became EV-angelical about its cost-saving and environmental benefits.
Light-duty vehicles—including pickup trucks, SUVs, and minivans—account for about half of Canada’s transportation emissions, according to Transport Canada. Many truck drivers are resistant to downsizing, so to Lindley, part of the energy transition is shifting truckers from gas to electricity.
EVs are not an environmental panacea — as vehicles get bigger, their greenhouse gas emissions from production worsen regardless of their fuel source, the BBC reports, as does their strain on the grid. To Lindley, though, people don’t want to stop driving trucks, and EVs are much better than the alternative.
He started his YouTube channel in November 2023 to dispel what he calls “FUD: Fears, Uncertainties, and Doubts” about EVs. People worry about battery fires—which are up to seven times less frequent than gas- and diesel-powered vehicle fires, according to Motortrend—and range.
“I heard so many times about all the places that you can’t go in this country [in an EV],” he said. So, he decided to take a long drive and see them for himself, from the B.C. to Ontario.
On the way, he met up with viewers, interviewed other EV users, and stopped at dozens of truck stops for his beverage of choice: an oat milk latte.
“I’m trying to get out there and do goofy stuff with the truck and have fun, while promoting information that might surprise people,” said Lindley.
Cross-Country Journey Highlights EV Disparities
While his trip disproved the naysayers, it wasn’t always easy. The hodgepodge of charging infrastructure across the provinces was the biggest obstacle, said Lindley.
“There was a big variance in provinces that had privatized their grids and those that hadn’t.”
BC Hydro and Hydro-Québec have built public utility-operated EV charging networks, with Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan also incorporating public EV infrastructure. Manitoba is considering it, and Lindley said that Winnipeg was a difficult drive.
He said he was “horrified” by the state of disrepair across Petro-Canada’s national EV charger network. As Statistics Canada documents more Canadians buying EVs, Lindley says chargers should be better regulated to ensure they’re maintained. He found that many chargers in Northern Alberta didn’t work.
While the territory north of Slave Lake was an EV-charger desert, most of the Alberta leg of his trip was welcoming, said Lindley. The chargers were easy, and people ranged from curious to enthusiastic about his project.
“Many of them don’t own EV trucks, but they want to know more,” he said.
