The Province of Ontario is…

The Province of Ontario is to be commended for the actions taken to support electric vehicle adoption as part of Ontario’s transportation and climate change action strategy. The City of London supports the overall direction outlined in MTO Discussion Paper on on Electric Vehicle Incentive Initiatives.

The City of London has worked with London Hydro and other stakeholders to explore public EV charging infrastructure, as outlined in our November 1 staff report to our Civic Works Committee on November 1, 2016 - http://sire.london.ca/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=1332&doctype=agenda&itemid=…

Specific comments regarding the MTO Discussion Paper are as follows:

1 .With respect to EV charging:

1.1. Level 1 (120V) charging should also be included within the scope of the multi-residential and workplace program. For multi-residential, every PHEV on the market now can be completely recharged overnight using 120V even with a lower 8A draw (the default setting when most EVs plug into a generic wall outlet with a shared load). For workplaces, assuming an eight-hour workday, a dedicated Level 1 charger (120 V, 12A) is capable of adding about 50 to 65 kilometres of range, which would completely recharging most PHEVs currently available. This range is also likely suitable for most BEV drivers, since the majority of commuters travel less than 50km to work, especially in municipalities outside of the GTHA. Providing Level 2 charging would be overkill for PHEVs in both situations. Including the provision of Level 1 charging alongside Level 2 charging would allow EVCO to stretch its program dollars to provide a much greater reach of EV charging across Ontario

1.2 For publicly-available EV stations, the Province should create a model bylaw that allow municipal/parking authorities to ticket and tow non-EVs parking in EV charging spots

1.3 Regarding the role of LDCs, previous work undertaken by the City of London (the Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy) indicates that the public sees the LDCs as the best entity to manage EV charging locally. LDCs are seen by the public as being in the business of delivering electricity to customers. The siting of Level 3 charging is dependent upon the availability of high-voltage power lines, which the LDC is best suited to assess. Consideration should also be given to allow LDCs to own and operate EV charging infrastructure at public sites such as municipally-owned parking lots, community centres, arenas, and other publicly-owned destinations.

1.4 Regarding the first round of EVCO, the application window was far too short to allow municipalities to assess participation in the program and report recommendations to council for their approval. This was aggravated by having the short application window straddle the Christmas and New Year’s Day holiday period when many key staff were not available to assess the EVCO program. The selection of public charging sites should take into consideration whether those sites have received support from the LDC and the municipality, or that as a minimum that the municipality and LDC have been informed of the proposed location. Both the City of London and London Hydro were surprised that none of the proposed locations that it provided support for during the first round were selected, and that the locations that were selected were completely unknown to both the City of London and London Hydro.

2. With Respect to EV Education & Awareness:

2.1 The City of London encourages the MTO to work in partnership and cost-share with municipal governments and their respective electricity local distribution companies on the promotion of EVs and EV charging at the local level. Both the municipal government and their LDC are able to promote programs more effectively at the local level. In addition, cost sharing EV promotion with municipal government and their LDC will allow the MTO to stretch its program funding further.

2.2 Like most high-efficiency products such as LED light bulbs, “sticker shock” likely holds people back from looking at EVs, even with the EVIP in place and lower operating & maintenance costs. Given that most people finance/lease new vehicles, campaigns should focus on bi-weekly/monthly EV operating costs being similar to, or lower than, equivalent-sized gasoline-powered cars with a lower sticker price due to the combination of EVIP and lower operating & maintenance costs

2.3 The City of London is currently working with CrossChasm/FleetCarma on a pilot project to test their MyCarma OBDII-based datalogger program as a public education tool promoting both ecodriving and EVs. This is based on their previous dealership program, MyCarma, but expanded to allow participants to select new(er) vehicle options over a range of manufacturers. In our MyCarma London pilot project, currently being tested in London workplaces, the MyCarma dataloggers are loaned to the participant for a week, after which the participant gets a report card based on their current vehicle and real-world driving on both the impact of their driving habits and vehicle choices on their fuel costs. Results to date show promise, as this proven to be popular when promoted at workplaces

2.4 Regarding fleets, ensure that municipal fleets are also eligible to participate in any fleet EV programs being contemplated. Consideration should be given to providing cost-sharing for fleet managers to participate in EV-based fleet programs.

[Original Comment ID: 196574]