Canadian cars turning electric without gov’t forcing issue: industry

OTTAWA (CP) — Great Britain and France intend to bar outright the sale of any gas powered vehicles by 2040 but even one of the biggest proponents of electric cars in Canada says that’s likely an impossible goal for this country.

France announced its policy in early July, followed by Britain this week, joining Norway and India as the only countries in the world with a plan to entirely phase out the sale of gas or diesel powered cars and trucks.

The Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change requires Canada to have a national strategy on zero-emission vehicles by next year and Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau has already signalled setting sales targets or quotas isn’t on his agenda.

Matt Stevens, CEO of FleetCarma, a Waterloo, Ont., based technology company aiming to help expedite the adoption of electric vehicles, said it might be good for Canada to aim towards a phase-out date for gas powered vehicles but he said 2040 is likely too soon for Canada.

Even though that’s 23 years away, Canadians drive far more trucks and SUVs than the British do, and the electric vehicle market in bigger vehicles is not as advanced as for sedans.

“One of the big challenges in our market is we buy a ton of pickup trucks and a ton of minivans and a ton of SUVs,” said Stevens.

More than half the vehicles sold in Canada are pickups, minivans and SUVs.

There are several hybrid and electric SUV models on the market but the first electric minivan — a plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica — just appeared on the market this year and there is no electric pickup truck yet.

Stevens said targeting 2050 to see a phase-out of gas powered vehicles might be more realistic but he also said the market is moving there quickly already.

Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, said the emissions standards Canada and the U.S. have jointly implemented are already pushing Canada towards gasfree cars.

“The only way we can get (to the standards) is greater electrification,” he said.

In 2011, there were only seven electric vehicle models available in Canada, said Nantais. Now there are more than 30. More charging stations are also being added for public use every month, with investments from the private and public sector.

“A year ago there were five non-Tesla fast chargers in Ontario and now there’s over 100,” said Stevens.

Michael Hatch, chief economist for the Canadian Auto Dealers Association, said the “heavy-handed” approach is not good for anyone but thus far he has no indication from the government that quotas or phase-outs are the way it intends to go.

He said incentives to get less-efficient cars off the road, help reduce the costs associated with buying electric cars and installing more charging stations are all critical and far better policy to encourage the electric car market.

In Canada last year about 0.6 per cent of all new cars sold were electric or electric hybrids. There are now about 32,000 electric vehicles on Canada’s roads.