Sufficient charging infrastructure is widely acknowledged as a necessity for electric vehicle adoption, but as EVs march toward primacy, the Canadian government’s modest commitment to public charging infrastructure threatens to leave drivers competing for their next charge, a recent report warns.
Ottawa’s pledge to help build 50,000 new chargers over the next eight years sounds significant, but weighed against the rapid shift to EVs, the figure is “not very ambitious,” said Brian Kingston, head of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association (CVMA), which produced the report and represents the Detroit Three automakers in Canada.
Based on its current goals, Canada risks falling behind other leading EV jurisdictions, despite the country needing more charging infrastructure, on average, not less, Kingston said.