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All-Electric Cross Canada – Race Against Time

This morning, Monday, September 13th Kent Rathwell, President and Founder of Sun Country Highway will be hitting the road for the fastest all-electric trip across Canada. This “race against time” will begin in St. John’s, Newfoundland at Km 0 and end in Victoria, British Columbia at Mile 0 of the Trans Canada Highway (aka The World’s Longest Green Highway). The clock will begin at 9:30 a.m. (Newfoundland Standard time).

This 5-day trip in an all-electric SUV an Audi e-Tron, will set the fastest electric car (EV) trip across the widest point in North America. Kent will be completing this journey with Harvey Soicher.

In honour of Harvey’s late wife, Mary Ann, the trip is being called Mary Ann’s Electric Drive 2.0. The couple had planned to buy an electric vehicle and drive across Canada to visit the East Coast once they retired, but sadly, Mary Ann lost her battle with cancer before they had the chance.

Harvey and Kent will be making approximately 38 stops to charge on the ever-expanding Canadian network of EV Charging stations. Kent, explains “The main purpose of this non-stop drive is to show that you can now drive in an EV very quickly and with minimal inconvenience or no inconvenience at all.  In most cases, charging happens next to or very close to important amenities like restrooms, restaurants  retail stores, and more.”

The second purpose is to raise funds for the Vancouver General Hospital & University of BC Hospital Foundation,  Mary Ann’s favorite cause of  Parkinson’s research and functional neurosurgery.  Harvey explained that Mary Ann had suffered a life-threatening ruptured brain aneurysm which she fully recovered from thanks to the emergency brain surgery performed by Dr. Chris Honey of Vancouver General Hospital.  Dr. Honey’s main work is research on Parkinson’s and other brain disorders.  Every Christmas Mary Ann acknowledged and thanked Dr. Honey by sending him a card and a nice donation for his research; and just before her passing gave his research fund a legacy donation. Harvey is committed to continuing her support and therefore asking for donations for Dr. Honey’s work which is administered through the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation.   The link to find out more info and to easily make a secure donation with a tax receipt is here.  http://vghfoundation.ca/mary_anns_electric_drive

In Wawa there are three places for an EV to get re-charged: the inagural location – the Wawa Motor Inn (Sun Country), PetroCan (DC fast chargers, also known as level 3 or 3+) and SP&G (6 SuperChargers).

Brenda Stockton
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