Canada needs to build millions — not thousands — of EV charging stations, industry group says

The federal government is promising to spend close to $880 million over the next four years to build about 65,000 new charging stations for electric or fuel cell-powered passenger vehicles.

But an industry group representing some of Canada's biggest automakers says Canada needs to be building millions of stations.

Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association, said a national electric-charging network needs years of careful planning to ensure the charging stations are available when and where people need them.

"We haven't done the planning and we haven't put the investment into a charging network," he said.

Canada is mandating EV sales — 50 per cent of new cars sold in 2030 must be emissions-free, growing to 100 per cent in 2035 — but nobody is taking the lead to make sure people know what that means in terms of how much electricity, or how many charging stations, will be needed, said Kingston.

The association represents three of Canada's biggest automakers — Ford, GM and the new multinational Stellantis, formed earlier this year in a merger that now represents brands such as Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler.

Kingston said automakers are committed to the transition to electric — the three companies the association represents are investing $100 billion US in electrification over the next few years, with plans to bring 120 new EV models to the market.

But he said new models and more supply would solve only one piece of the electric transition, because if the charging networks don't keep pace, people aren't going to make the switch.

Or, even worse, they're going to switch back, he said.

A study published in the journal Nature Energy last spring said as many as one in five zero-emission vehicle owners went back to gas because of inconvenient charging access.

"So I just use that as a caution to government that, you know, we better start planning this like tomorrow," he said.

He argues Canada hasn't done the planning and instead has a fractured response, with very low ambitions, compared to the rest of the world.

Canada currently has about 15,000 public or semi-private chargers available, and at least another 2,000 are in various stages of construction with public funding. Natural Resources Canada has another $180 million in the existing budget to build 17,000 or so more in the next three years.

The Liberals promised to spend another $700 million by 2026 to build an additional 50,000 new ones.