Canadian government funds charging infrastructure
This week, the Canadian government announced a total investment of over $32 million (CAD) to install 853 electric vehicle charging points across the country. The initiative should also raise public awareness about zero-emission vehicles and advance green transportation initiatives.
The various initiatives now funded are mostly aimed at charging infrastructure for electric cars. The other projects include 2 hydrogen stations in British Columbia, funding for transport companies, investment in hybrid diesel-electric forestry harvesting trucks in British Columbia and Quebec, a public communication project in the form of a “dynamic zero-emission vehicles virtual showroom” and investments in six clean energy technologies projects.
The clean energy technology projects include support to develop a pilot for heavy-duty electric truck charging stations in Ontario. This project should be a model for other utilities and businesses aiming to electrify heavy-duty transportation activities. Another project aims to advance smart charging for the Toronto electric bus fleet, while the other projects are concerned with different aspects of electric car charging, including shared platforms, grid balancing and a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) project.
The funding measures, in addition to existing programs for electric vehicle purchase and charging infrastructure, are supposed to support Canada’s new mandatory target of 100-per cent zero-emission light-duty vehicle sales by 2035.
Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources “We’re giving Canadians the greener options they want to get to where they need to go. We’re building a coast-to-coast network of electric vehicle charging stations from St. John’s to Victoria, and raising ZEV awareness. This is how we get to net-zero by 2050.”
The Canadian government says that since 2015, it has invested over $1 billion to make EVs more affordable and charging infrastructure more locally accessible.
According to the government, there are over 6,000 publically accessible charging stations across Canada, which is still only half the amount of the approximately 12,000 gas stations currently available. The recent investments in charging infrastructure should, the government says, result in a further 17,000 charging points.
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