When it comes to EV chargers, Canada is way behind the U.S., analysis shows

Canada's most populous provinces are falling behind many U.S. states when it comes to building fast charging stations for electric vehicles, a CBC News analysis shows, raising questions about whether this country's infrastructure is ready for a transition to cleaner energy.

Quebec and B.C. fare the worst among Canada's large provinces in terms of the number of publicly accessible fast charging stations compared to the number of electric vehicles on the road, according to CBC's analysis of data from Transport Canada, Statistics Canada and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The four North American jurisdictions with the best ratio of EVs to charging stations are all in the U.S. 

With more than 344,000 EVs, B.C. only has 924 charging stations, according to CBC's analysis, meaning there are 0.27 fast chargers for each car.

Quebec fared even worse. With more than 450,000 EVs on the road, the province has less than 500 fast chargers, meaning there are 0.11 chargers for each car.

The data from those two provinces, however, is marked by the fact they simply have more EVs than many other jurisdictions, meaning the supply of chargers hasn't caught up with demand for the vehicles. 

Out of the Canadian provinces and territories, Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador fare the best, with more than five and three fast charging stations per 100 cars respectively, though the absolute numbers for both are small. 

"We have a large and growing charging-infrastructure gap in Canada and if we have any hope of meeting the ambitious zero-emissions sales target from the federal government, we need to rapidly close that gap and roll out more public charging infrastructure," Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, said in an interview. 

By 2035, 100 per cent of new cars and light trucks sold in Canada must be zero-emissions vehicles, under federal rules. Experts say the number of charging stations will need to increase exponentially to meet that mandate.

Ontario, Canada's most populous province, has 0.38 chargers per 100 EVs, while Alberta and Nova Scotia each had fewer than one per 100.

Manitoba and P.E.I. each had more than one charger per 100 EVs, while Saskatchewan and New Brunswick each had more than three.

There are no fast chargers available for motorists in Northwest Territories and Nunavut. 

Observers worry the lack of chargers could hold back Canada's commitments to reduce climate change — and cause consumers major headaches given those targets. 

Canada is expected to need about 444,000 EV chargers to meet demand by 2035, Kingston said, up from about 20,000 in service today. That means the country will need a roughly 20-fold increase in the number of EV chargers in 12 years.