Canada cannot meet its climate targets without ensuring that the one-third of Canadians who live in apartments and condos have access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure, says The Atmospheric Fund.
Toronto-based TAF has launched a letter campaign urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to allocate $1 billion over four years in next year’s federal budget for equitable EV readiness in multi-residential buildings (MURBs) “to ensure the EV wave reaches across the population.”
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McMaster University, the City of Kelowna, numerous climate action groups, and several condo organizations have signed on.
“People without driveways deserve EVs too,” writes TAF, adding that equitable EV readiness means an energized outlet in each MURB parking stall to support easy installation of future Level 2 chargers.
The measure will help Canada close in on its EV adoption targets, which are in turn critical to meeting the country’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets, TAF says. It will also be a big step in improving air quality and public health for urban Canadians.
So far, while bulk EV-ready retrofits are “far cheaper per stall than incrementally adding individual chargers,” TAF says progress has been “limited and piecemeal” because landlords and condo boards lack the upfront capital needed to meet future charging needs.
That’s an obstacle of the federal mandate requiring all new car and light truck sales to be zero-emission by 2035.
“Today’s incremental approach delays the total number of installations, drives up costs, increases the risk of stranded assets, and dissuades residents from switching to EVs,” TAF says.
Canada does have a dedicated fund for EV charging infrastructure—the Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP). But TAF says it lacks a provision to support electricity upgrades and construction costs in MURBs. “A funding stream designed for comprehensive EV readiness in multi-family buildings will give all residents charging access much more cost-effectively than an incremental approach.”
TAF adds that the model for success already exists, pointing to British Columbia’s rebate program, launched in December 2020. It funds most of the EV-ready planning costs for building owners, and up to half of their infrastructure and installation costs.
“A best practice federal program would go beyond supporting EV-ready planning and support comprehensive electrical assessments for full building electrification readiness, including for applications such as space and water heating, cooking, solar panels, and storage,” TAF writes. “At minimum, an EV-ready program should complement funding for planning building electrification.”
Most of the conversation around electric vehicles is based on a false premise that simply switching to EVs will address the climate and environmental problems with internal-combustion-engine vehicles. Affordable public mass transit needs to be a much bigger slice of the transport pie.