Quebec pushes public chargers via private companies

The Quebec government is investing nearly $60 million to expand its public network of EV charging stations by 30 per cent. The province has selected 81 projects so far and expects around 400 new charge stops to be created through these public-private partnerships.

Quebec’s Environment Minister Benoit Charette said as much in a statement on Monday, where she specified that 367 new charging stations would be available at 131 sites across the province. The funding amounts to the equivalent of just under 41 million euros. The grant per station amounts to CA$ 164,000, or about € 110,000.

The announcement followed a call for projects that ended in October 2022; the government of Quebec selected 81 projects totalling 367 terminals of 100 kilowatts or more, distributed across 131 sites in the territory.

The program was geared to offer financial support to private companies enabling them to purchase and install public charging stations public. These will complement Hydro-Québec’s Electric Circuit network. The latter reportedly also works to roll out 4,500 charging stations by 2028 in partnership with Québec’s municipalities.

Today’s initiative is also part of the Canadian government’s plan for a greener economy by 2030, which includes having 1.6 million electric vehicles on the road by that year. With these new fast charging stations, 40% of all public chargers currently available in Canada will be located in the province of Quebec.

“The public charging offer is essential to Quebec’s successful transition to an electric vehicle fleet,” said Benoit Charette. “This call for projects was a success well beyond our expectations, and I am very happy to see that the private sector wishes to get massively involved in this social project that is the electrification of transport.”

Quebec currently has approximately 1,200 public charging hubs available. According to government data, a total of 169,397 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were registered as driving on the roads of Quebec as of 31 December 2022.

globalnews.ca, newswire.ca (in French)