Electric cars are the future
Over its life, I can expect to pay zero dollars for tune-ups, oil changes and brake jobs. No engine to tune, no oil to change and EV brakes are only used in emergency stopping situations, so there is no reason the pads and rotors won’t last the life of the car. Jeffrey Dornan
Re: Electric car industry gets a jolt of reality, June 28.
Oh really, no future for the electric car? Premier Doug Ford is right to do away with government measures to make the change easier on those who want to drive a superior car that lasts much longer with fewer repairs?
There is no worse contributor to air quality and human health than the internal combustion engine. With the EPA in America dropping goals and standards, while Europe and China are fully engaged in the development of technology that will leave us behind, we are at a critical point in deciding where we belong. Do we want to have government promote changes that will fight climate change and provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, or do we want to hold back a technology for short-term gain?
Ford has already made good on some commitments; his anti-green policies and actions will keep North America stagnant while the rest of the world responds with some hope for progress.
Peter Haley, Ottawa
Electric vehicles save money
The implication of this column is that electric vehicles (EVs) are a fad and totally impractical. As an EV owner, I can offer some facts to balance Randall Denley’s opinion. He says that chargers cost $1,295 to buy and $1,000 to install. My Juicebox40 (The Cadillac of home chargers) was $999, and the good folks at C&N Electric installed, inspected and certified it for $805. I received a 50 per cent subsidy from the Ontario Government.
My Chevy Bolt, fully loaded, was $50,000. I received $14,000 back from The Ontario government. It now has 15,000 kilometres in six months. It has cost me zero dollars to date. Over its life, I can expect to pay zero dollars for tune-ups, oil changes and brake jobs. No engine to tune, no oil to change and EV brakes are only used in emergency stopping situations, so there is no reason the pads and rotors won’t last the life of the car.
As for public charger use, Denley has completely missed the point. The chargers he refers to in his column are owned by Circuit Electrique of Quebec. They are Level 3 chargers that are there as a convenience and cost $17/hour paid through my CE account. The usage data Denley presents to show how “dusty” they are comes from PlugShare, a totally voluntary platform for EV users to tell each other about charging options. My experience is that us EV drivers are less than zealous about our reports, so his May and April dates mean nothing.
Furthermore, most EV drivers have opted for a charger in their house, and have no need for the public chargers. My Chevy Bolt can go 400 km on a charge, so I only plug in every second night. One can have a debate on how much the government should subsidize anything, but using Denley’s data to suggest that EVs are a bad idea is just silly.
Jeffrey Dornan, Manotick
No reason to go back to gas-powered cars
Randall Denley has repeated some common misconceptions about electric vehicles. Demand is not the issue: Just look at the waiting lists for every electric vehicle on the market. Dealers are resisting, trying to protect their business servicing more complex and less reliable gas cars, and manufacturers are taking too long to bring EV choices to market.
More than 90 per cent of EV charging happens at home at night at off-peak rates; we don’t need chargers on every corner like gas stations.
As for the usage of public charging stations, the map Denley is referring to only shows usage that drivers report online, and most drivers don’t “check in.” When I got my EV four years ago, we had to plan long trips carefully but the infrastructure is growing fast and now it’s easy: We did a 15,000-km road trip last summer. The transition to EVs is still in its early days but it’s accelerating. Having experienced the convenience, better engineering and cost savings, I will never buy another gas car. Peter Manson, Nepean
Charging stations are often private
A few quick points on EVs (electric vehicles). Our Chevy Volt cost $13,000 more than its gas clone, the Chevy Cruze, with the same options. Thus, there is a rationale for incentives.
On charging stations, the one at the University of Ottawa is private. I would charge there every Wednesday if it were public. The City Hall charging station is always being used, often with a second EV squeezed in beside it, ready for the first driver to plug it in when they leave. At IKEA, which has four level-2 spots and two level-3 spots, it is not uncommon for all of the spots to be taken. The one time we went downtown and tried to park at the EV spot in the city parking in the market, an oversized truck was in the spot. It got a ticket.
If I have to pay for parking, I look for lots with EV chargers, but I rarely look for a charger just for the sake of charging because the cost to pay for parking is up to $3 an hour versus pennies an hour at home.
Don Grant, Ottawa-Hull