More fast chargers coming as electric car ranges improve

MONTREAL — Canadians will purchase a record number of electric vehicles this year as the growing sales of cars with longer ranges is prompting a push to increase the number of fast chargers, the head of the country’s largest charging network says. Addenergie CEO Louis Tremblay says its Flo network of 4,000 charging stations includes just 150 fast chargers. That’s fine when 60 per cent of electric cars in some provinces are plug-in hybrids that include internal combustion engines and almost 80 per cent of vehicle charging is done overnight at home. But as ranges increase, there will be more need to support their use for intercity travel, Tremblay said.

“I see a big shift coming,” he said in an interview from Calgary.

By early 2019, Addenergie is targeting to have 6,300 public and semi-public charging stations, including 300 fastcharging units.

“While the car will have double the autonomy, we’ll be doubling, tripling the fast charging network and we’ll have more and more intercity travel by full electric cars,” he said.

About 20,000 electric vehicles are expected to be sold in Canada in 2017, up from about 11,000 in 2016. Navigant Research forecasts Canadian electric vehicle sales will grow at a compounded annual rate of

29 per cent to reach about 140,000 per year in 2026.