Regarding Question 1 …

Regarding Question 1 (charging gaps):

Highway 60: One notable gap is that there is no level 3 (aka DC fast) charger along highway 60 between Renfrew and Huntsville. That is a distance of 248km without a high-speed charger. This corridor is used by many, including for access to Algonquin park and several other provincial parks along the route. A level 3 charger within Algonquin park, along highway 60 would be fantastic; potentially suitable locations include the west gate visitor centre of Algonquin park, and the canoe lake portage store. For a corridor this long, there should be several high speed chargers along it - Madawaska or Killaloe would also be great.

Highway 7: There is no level 3 CCS and/or CHAdeMo charger along highway 7 between Havelock & Carleton place, a distance of 180 km. There is a Tesla supercharger in Perth but that is still 150km between Havelock and Perth, and tesla superchargers are not accessible for many EV drivers. This is another well travelled route that provides access for many to cottages, for travellers taking the scenic route from the Ottawa area to the GTA, and access to bon echo provincial park.

Highway 10: There are no level 3 chargers between Orangeville and Owen Sound along highway 10, a distance of 111km. Highway 10 is well travelled, including for those travelling from the GTA to the Bruce Peninsula.

Highway 6: There are no level 3 chargers between Owen Sound and Tobermory, a distance of 106 km. This route is used by many to access various recreational opportunities on the Bruce peninsula include the Bruce peninsula national park and for accessing the ferry services to Manitoulin island.

Regarding Question 2 (use-case):

Like many EV drivers I have access to home charging, and only require public charging when I am travelling on longer-trips between cities or accessing rural locations. I need access to public charging anytime I go on a trip that is longer than 140 km. On such trips, only high speed (>50KW) charging is useful, and charging is needed at minimum every 100 km (preferably every 50km) along the route in order to ensure convenient access and enable me to plan charging stops conveniently to coincide with meal and bathroom breaks. Every time you need to stop to charge on a long trip adds 30-60min to trip length, so you want to avoid situations where you need to make extra charging stops due to gaps (e.g. an extra stop when the battery is still 3/4 full to top up before a long stretch of highway with no fast charger).

Its also really helpful if the fast chargers are located at places with amenities such as bathrooms and restaurants. Imagine being on a road trip with young kids and having to stop for 45 minutes at some random parking lot to charge where there is no bathroom, no food or refreshments, and nothing for the kids to do. Its enough to make you pull your hair out!

Regarding Question 3 (challenges):

The first challenge with accessing public charging is that most of these "publicly available" charging stations are only available to those with memberships to that specific charging network. Publicly available chargers should be accessible to anyone with a debit or credit card, just like gas stations. Imagine if every gas station in Ontario suddenly stopped taking payment by debit or credit card and only allowed payment via proprietary apps or chain specific RFID cards? Ontarians would be outraged! As an EV driver, I am outraged that I need to carry around 6 different RFID cards and membership to all these charging networks, each with their own apps, passwords, usernames etc. to track. Its extremely frustrating when you roll up to a charging station and realize you forgot the member card to that charging network, and/or the password for the cell phone app needed to authorize the charge. Plus, payment via these RFID cards is less reliable than direct payment via credit card or debit, as the charging networks experience software glitches much more frequently, or perhaps you forgot to top up your account with that specific charging network. Outrageous - especially considering that almost every public EV charging station has been subsidized by the federal and/or provincial government. Make them allow payment directly via credit card and/or debit as a condition of public funding, please!

Another major challenge accessing public charging is that the charging stations are not very reliable and are often out of order, sometimes for months at a time. I have stopped at an out of order charging station more times than I can count, whereas it is relatively rare for a gas station to be out of order, and when it happens they are usually back up quickly. Please look closely at the reliability of the various charging networks to help prioritize funding decisions.

Finally, many of the charging locations only have one or two high-speed chargers. So its increasingly frequent that they are in use when I need them. Given that people typically charge for 30-45 minutes, you can't just wait for your turn as you would at a gas station. Therefore, it is ideal if there are at least three chargers at the same location, at least on highly travelled routes.