2022 Canadians to Watch

CHOSEN BECAUSE:

The seemingly unstoppable electric-vehicle market is finally at a point Louis Tremblay had hoped it would be when he co-founded charging company Flo in 2009.

Tremblay, 39, is now guiding a fast-growing team of nearly 400 staff as Flo expands its assembly operations and network in Canada and now the United States. The company added to its Shawinigan, Que., footprint last fall, opening a second plant. Through the rest of 2022, it will ramp up production at another new charger-assembly site, in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Tremblay said that expansion south, begun in 2018, presents opportunities.

“The Canadian market is a great one, it’s really good for our company, but we needed more scale, and the North American market for us was the answer.”

Flo operates a network of more than 60,000 charging stations across North America, and it will soon have manufacturing capacity to add 75,000 stations a year.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

“If we want to promote EV adoption, everyone needs to feel that they can go anywhere and charge on a reliable charging station. This is the big challenge ... that I hope we’re going to tackle with the rest of the industry.”