The rise of electric vehicles has many moving parts, and we don’t necessarily mean the ones found beneath the body panels.
It seems like every day that Automotive News Canada is reporting on new battery technology, supply-chain partnerships and infrastructure challenges.
Automakers are striking mineral deals in Canada to make sure they can build batteries for their EVs. If you told me two years ago this would happen, I wouldn’t have believed you. That’s how rapid the change is right now.
Acquiring minerals will largely govern the rate at which automakers can build EVs to sell. Put simply, no minerals, no EVs.
In another story on charging infrastructure, there’s no cohesive national plan for adding charging stations to new residential developments. This is an issue since nearly half of Canadians live in condominiums, rental apartments and other homes that lack private driveways.
Some cities are requiring installation in buildings, but that’s hit or miss, and more miss than hit.
There’s still a long way to go until 2035 when all new passenger vehicles sold will have to be zero emissions. How much will change before then? How many more moving parts will there be?
For infrastructure, it seems logical to at least wire new multiunit buildings for EV chargers, and to have a national strategy or code to do so.