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Electric Vehicle Design Charrette

Building a World-Class EV Infrastructure in Ontario

nAn Electric Vehicle Design Charrette was hosted in Toronto by Summerhill Impact and Plug’n Drive on September 17, 2013. It was attended by 37 stakeholders invited from the EV infrastructure and electric mobility industry, automotive industry, recycling industry, electric utilities, federal and provincial ministries/agencies, consultants, and environmental and conservation groups. Many valuable observations, comments and ideas were generated for enhancing EV infrastructure and advancing EV industry prospects in Ontario.n

Take-away Messages

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  • Ontario’s electricity generation results in some of the lowest GHG emissions anywhere. The potential environmental, health and economic benefits from vehicle electrification are significant and long-term.

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  • With the Canadian automotive sector primarily located in Ontario, there is an opportunity to become a significant EV component supplier.

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  • The smart meter network in Ontario could support an intelligent EV charging infrastructure.

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  • Ontario has no public EVSE initiative, but has an opportunity to benefit from what others have learned. Private organizations have taken initiative to install public charging stations across the province. There is an opportunity to benefit from lessons learned in other jurisdictions; however, the opportunity also exists for the provincial government to decide what level of involvement is needed in the Ontario context, which is unique from others, especially with regard to the electricity distribution system.

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nTen recommendations were generated with #4 being of particular interest to auto recyclers:nn4. Regulators should standardize battery chemistry and/or require auto manufacturers to release battery performance data so that a proper life cycle analysis of battery life can be done and a regulated recycle/reuse program can be established for used EV batteries. The Ministry of Energy and the Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association could standardize the End-of-Life Electric and Hybrid Vehicle battery recovery processes and could support the establishment of a secondary market for batteries.nnThe final report of the Design Charette can be downloaded here.