Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a major new national electrification strategy. The plan includes bringing back the iZEV EV purchase incentives program, efforts to encourage production of EVs and EV components such as batteries on Canadian soil and other investments.
One of those other investments is to go towards expanding the existing EV charging infrastructure in Canada. Inadequate access to reliable EV charging stations is a top reason cited by those wary of ‘going electric’ for their continued wariness.
Ottawa confirmed this week that that aspect of the new electrification strategy will involve the addition of 8,000 new chargers nationwide. It’s estimated there are currently 33,000 installed and operating across Canada, which makes the new push substantial though not game-changing.
A start, but only that
The federal government is earmarking $84 million out of its $1.5 billion total investment to get the charging stations installed. With 8,000 the target, that means just over $10,000 per charger. A new total of 41,000 chargers in Canada would also still leave the country far short of the total of 447,000 chargers one study concluded would be needed to allow for reaching the fed’s original goal of 100 percent of new vehicle sales being EVs by 2035. That study was prepared for Natural Resources Canada in 2024, and it helps explain the Carney government’s backtracking on the EV mandate (the target is now 75 percent by 2035).
It’s not known at this point if the plan calls for the installation of Level 2 or Level 3 fast-charging stations, or some combination of both. Nor has the government provided a timeline for when the new chargers might be installed and operational.