Electrify Canada expands across provinces

Volkswagen’s charging subsidiary Electrify Canada has arrived in the province of Québec with the opening of two ultra-fast charging stations. Additional stations in the province will open in early 2021.

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The first Electrify America station in Québec is located at the Premium Outlets Montréal in Mirabel, with the second location about 150 kilometres away at the Canadian Tire in Trois-Rivières.

The Premium Outlets Montréal station builds on an existing partnership Electrify Canada holds with the outlet owner Simon. A “sister station” can be found at the Toronto Premium Outlets. It was the first EA station in Canada and was opened a year ago.

Both of the Quebec stations come in a four-charger set-up with charging speeds of up to 150kW and 350kW, the company claims. Electrify Canada also says it will soon install overhead canopies at the new locations.

Rob Barrosa, chief operation officer at Electrify Canada, said that Quebec was “such an important market for electric vehicles, and we are eager to expand our services throughout the province to better support the growing local EV community.”

The network’s expansion across Quebec will continue with an additional four fast-charging locations, scheduled to open by early 2021. Additional Electrify Canada charging locations in Quebec will include stations in Drummondville, St-Romuald, Repentigny, and Sherbrooke.

Electrify Canada also expanded into British Columbia and Alberta within the last six months, increasing its network offering to 16 locations with 64 chargers.

The company also announced a new pricing structure offering competitive rates and a simplified pricing structure. Customers now benefit from two power levels, from 1-90kW and 1-350kW, reduced rates for the 1-350kW power level, and the elimination of session fees.

Electrify Canada has yet to introduce kWh-based pricing as Electrify America has. The companies both belong to Volkswagen AG. The carmaker had to set them up as subsidiaries charged with installing infrastructure for electric cars in North America, following the court ruling in the diesel-gate scandal over emission fraud.

Update 3 February 2021: Electrify Canada has delivered an update on its growth throughout 2020 with the opening of eight new stations in Ontario and expansion into the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec. The VW subsidiary says there are now 18 charging sites with 72 fast-chargers across four provinces.

In the last few months, Electrify Canada opened new locations in Barrie, Hamilton, Kingston, Ottawa, and Sarnia. As usual, each station is equipped with four individual chargers that offer charging speeds of up to 150kW and 350kW for capable vehicles.

They now focus on opening 32 charging stations with a total of 128 fast chargers in 2021. Drivers can expect further expansion throughout Ontario, says Electrify Canada, with stations in London and Cornwall, projected to open by mid-2021.

electrify-canada.ca, electrify-canada.ca (update expansion)