Why advocates say Canada needs to rev up its electric car adoption

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When Judy Goodwin wanted to test drive an electric car, she didn't head to a dealership. Instead, she went to a non-profit facility in north Toronto called Plug'n Drive.

"They're hard to come by," she said of electric vehicles (EVs). "My sister tried to buy one and she couldn't find one that was available."

Not only does Plug'n Drive has a showroom where people can test drive zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs), its staff are also trained ambassadors who will answer questions about how to charge the vehicles, their range and their costs. 

"We have found that over and over again, just that experience of trying it is what convinces people," said Cara Clairman, the CEO of Plug'n Drive, which seeks to accelerate the adoption of EVs in Canada.

Whether driven by high gas prices or a sense of climate change-fuelled urgency, more Canadians are thinking about making the switch to electric vehicles (EV). According to a recent survey by KPMG, nearly 70 per cent of Canadians planning to buy a new vehicle in the next five years are likely to buy electric.

But at the same time, electric cars made up just under four per cent of all vehicle sales last year — even as Canada set a mandatory target for all new cars and light-duty trucks sold in the country to be zero emissions by 2035.

To meet that goal, advocates say much more needs to be done.

Nearly two-thirds of dealerships in Canada do not have a single electric vehicle available to purchase or test drive, according to a 2020 study commissioned by Transport Canada.

Now with the pandemic causing issues in the supply chain, it has become worse.

Boosting supply is essential to revving up electric car adoption by Canadians, said Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, a program housed at Simon Fraser University.

"They don't want to buy sight-unseen new technology, and they don't want to put their name on a list and wait for six or 12 months to get a car. When you need a car, you need it now."

Smith said the federal government needs a strong, national mandate around zero-emissions vehicles, requiring the country's car dealerships "to have the cars and to sell a certain percentage of [electric] cars."

While prices for zero-emission vehicles are falling, they remain more expensive than their gas counterparts — as much as $20,000 more, according to a recent TD report. The cheapest EV on the market, the 2022 Nissan LEAF, comes with a price tag of $37,498 before discounts.