Drive Electric for #GreaterTorontoDay

Today is #GreaterTorontoDay, a day where everyone is invited to do a good deed to make the GTA a better place to live.

This being a blog about EVs in the Greater Toronto Area, I would say a Greater Toronto is an electric Toronto. A Toronto with less noise and less pollution all comes from a Toronto with more EV drivers on the road. This small good deed is one that will pay into the future for generations to come by not continuing to pollute the air and deplete the valuable and limited natural resources our future generations will rely on.

So what can you do? Well if you are already an EV driver you are covered, but if you are visiting this blog because you are on the fence about getting an EV or considering a purchase, then today is the day you should go for, or schedule a test driver for that EV you have been eyeing.

A simple test drive has been all it took for thousands to get hooked on driving electric. It will get you that one step closer to doing the good deed of driving an EV instead of a gasoline car in our city and make our city a truly Greater Toronto!

My good deed for today is offering my help and expertise directly to new potential EV buyers, If you want my opinion or advice on any EV question and any Questions specific to driving an EV in Toronto or Ontario as a whole, leave a comment below or email me at greatertorontoev@gmail.com and I will get back to you ASAP.

For more about #GreaterTorontoDay click here.

Ontario to spend $7-billion on sweeping climate change plan - EV Specific Details

The Globe and Mail unveiled details of the Ontario Liberal party’s plan to spend approximately 7 billion on a sweeping climate change plan. The details were debated by cabinet last Wednesday and subsequently obtained by the Globe and Mail. The Globe has published some of the highlights from the plan; many of which are incredibly positive for the eco-conscious. However some may be hard to swallow such as completely moving off natural gas as a heating fuel by 2050.

In and among the highlights were several huge initiatives for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles:

      ·     $285 million for electric vehicle incentives including:

o   The current up to $14,000 rebate for every electric vehicle sold.

o   The current $1000 charger rebate.

o   Taking the provincial portion off the HST of electric vehicle sales.

o   An extra subsidy for low and moderate income households to buy electric vehicles.

o   Free overnight electricity for charging electric vehicles.

o   More charging stations at government buildings including LCBOs.

o   Consideration to make chargers mandatory on all new buildings.

• $280-million to help school boards buy electric buses and trucking companies switch to lower-carbon trucks, including by building more liquid natural gas fuelling stations.
• $375-million for research and development into new clean technologies, including $140-million for a Global Centre for Low-Carbon Mobility at an Ontario university or college to develop electric and other low-carbon vehicle technology.

The most significant pieces of information here are:

• A dollar figure has been put on EV incentives, if $285 million went into $14,000 rebates alone that would be over 20,000 rebates!
• Taking the provincial portion of the HST off electric vehicle sales would be a huge boon to EV sales and could be as much as an additional $2,500 off each EV sale on average.
• Free overnight electricity for EV charging, presumably through special metering could be worth as much as $30-60 per month for each EV owned.

The plan is to be paid for by the province’s upcoming cap-and-trade system and aims to cut emissions to 15 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, 37 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050. On the electric vehicle side, the goals are to expand EV sales to 5 per cent of all vehicles sold by 2020, up to 12 per cent by 2025, and aim to get an electric or hybrid vehicle in every multivehicle driveway by 2024, a total of about 1.7 million cars.

All in all it is positive news. I will keep an eye on these initiatives and post updates when this plan is passed through the Ontario legislature. 

You can read the Globe and Mail's full article here.

What is and where is the best EV charging station in the GTA?

The few EV charging stations I have encountered and actually used in the GTA through the course of my EV ownership have been nothing to boast about so far. They have often been a single charger, awkwardly placed and often ICE'd (occupied by a gasoline car). Nothing fancy, nothing to look at.

Then today I was out in the west end for a meeting and I had an hour to kill so I figured I would find a charger, park and let the car sip some electrons while I sip my morning coffee and take care of some emails. I browsed through plugshare to find the closest charger to the office I was visiting and found this beauty.

First off, yes that is my car - a Chevy Volt. Yes, I know it is a PHEV/EREV and not a true EV, but don't crucify me, I drive it like an electric car. I plan to touch on PHEV vs. EREV vs. EV in the future so back on topic...

In the parking lot of Baka Mobile is this amazing 8 stall charging station with solar canopy that is open to the public. It is an impressive investment by the company and a great example of the investment others should be making into EV infrastructure. 

So that lead me to thinking, what is and where are the best EV charging stations in the GTA and southern Ontario for that matter. Where can we see the best examples of what EV charging in Ontario should be?

Leave a comment or send me an email at greatertorontoev@gmail.com and tell me what you think is Ontario's best charging station and it may get featured here. 

And if you want to now more about the company that made the investment in a charger like this on their property, their website is here.