The benefits of EVs depend on where you live.

➊ An EV doesn’t go far enough for my driving needs. The majority of Canadians drive 60 km or less per day and fully electric cars can travel 120–150 km on one charge. If you do take frequent long trips, plug-in hybrids have all-electric driving modes for your city driving and gasoline back-ups for your highway driving.

➋ An EV just transfers pollution from the tailpipe to the power plant. Over 75 percent of Canada’s electricity comes from hydro and nuclear, which are both lowemitting energy sources. Those jurisdictions in Canada that still rely heavily on coal and natural gas (Alberta, Nova Scotia), have put plans in place to phase out fossil fuel generation over the next 15–20 years.

➌ EV batteries have a short life span. EV batteries will last 12–15 years before they’re no longer serviceable, but they’ll still work — they just won’t hold the same amount of charge as a brand new battery. ➍ EVs are like golf carts and are only really good for driving around town. EVs can travel at highway speeds no problem and actually have better acceleration than gas cars because electric motors get full torque off the line unlike gas engines that need to gear up.

➎ There aren’t many EVs for sale. There are 18 models available in Canada from 11 different manufacturers, including: Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Kia, Nissan, Mitsubishi, smart fortwo, Tesla, Porsche, and Volvo.

➏ Charging my EV is going to cause a blackout. An EV draws the same electricity as your laundry dryer and we have a surplus of electricity at night that is either given away for free or sold at a loss.

➐ There aren’t enough charging stations. Canada has more than 4,300 public charging stations across the country, they just tend to be in hard to see places like underground parking lots. Nonetheless, the majority of charging takes place at home, overnight when it’s most convenient and the cost of electricity is lowest, so many EV drivers rarely use public charging stations.