Toronto shifts its electric vehicle charging network into high gear. But will it be enough?

A Toronto Parking Authority plan approved last week will see the number of city-owned charging stations quadruple over the next two years.

Thestar.com
Dec. 20, 2022
David Rider

Toronto is set to quadruple the number of public-use electric vehicle chargers -- but one EV owner says that might not be enough to stop him from going back to gas.

“Likely my next car will be full combustion, given the lack of innovation by the city on electrified home parking pads,” said Todd Anderson, a Riverdale resident who, like many people living in or near downtown, has no driveway.

For years Anderson has run a cord from a charger he installed on his lawn across the sidewalk to his hybrid Chevrolet Volt -- when he manages to nab a nearby on-street parking spot, during the part of the year those spots are legal.

The closest city-installed charger is 1.6 kilometres from his home. The $2-per-hour cost is, he estimates, about 70 per cent more expensive than charging at home and pricier even than running his Volt on gas.

Barring the city letting him install a front-yard parking pad so he can charge on his property -- pad permissions largely ended over concerns about rain run-off, tree removals and curb cuts that eat up parking spots -- Anderson might buck the EV trend.

Others, however, see a lot to like in Toronto Parking Authority’s plan, approved last week, to keep expanding the charger network over the next two years. Under the plan, the current 117 chargers in Green P parking lots and 47 on-street are expected to grow to more than 500 in parking lots and more than 150 on-street, including on residential roads.

Early this year the city transferred responsibility for EV charging infrastructure to the TPA after an on-street charging pilot project by the city transportation department and Toronto Hydro languished with little progress.

Getting motorists to switch from gas guzzlers to EVs, or better yet walking, biking or on public transit, is vital to Toronto’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2040 to help reduce flooding, extreme storms and other climate-change impacts.

Cara Clairman, chief executive of Plug’n Drive, a Toronto-based non-profit promoting EV use, calls the plan “pretty aggressive compared to where the city is right now.

“We’re making progress,” she said. “I’ve been driving an EV since 2011 when there was one charger in the whole GTA -- it was pretty brutal. So this is a step in the right direction.”

Green P lots are the “low-hanging fruit,” TPA chief executive Scott Collier recently told the agency’s board, because it’s easier to install equipment there than along roads where there is competition for space in the right-of-way.

The parking agency sees a revenue opportunity in catering to the growing number of EV owners, as well as a chance to encourage gas motorists to go electric -- a switch that is vital to Toronto’s climate-change plan.

“As the largest municipally owned operator of commercial parking services in North America, TPA is uniquely structured to win,” states Collier’s presentation to the board.

Vancouver, where pro-EV provincial policies like those in Quebec have shot adoption rates ahead of Ontario’s, is pushing parking lot and gas station owners to add chargers. Their $243 business licence fee will jump to $10,000 if they fail to install charging infrastructure by 2025.

Most planned parking authority chargers are in or around downtown, where most Green P lots are. Some wards in areas such as Etobicoke and Scarborough are not scheduled to get a charger, prompting board member Coun. Chris Moise to urge the agency to ensure every ward gets at least one.

Clairman says suburban commuters, including highrise residents, are a “sweet spot” for boosting EV use. People there generally drive more than downtowners, but even driveway owners need public charging options when out and about.

For Anderson, the answer isn’t more chargers that will still cover only a fraction of the Toronto. It’s city council allowing installation of permeable parking pads, with strict rules including use only for EVs, not gas-powered cars.

“I have no reliable, guaranteed and close-proximity charging options presented by city at this point.”