By 2035 all cars, SUVs and light trucks sold in Canada must be electric, a goal experts describe as an ambitious one by the federal government as part of its plan to decarbonize the transportation sector and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
But will Canada’s infrastructure be able to handle all of these new electric vehicles?
There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer, as experts in the automotive and green energy industries say there are several factors to consider.
According to the federal government’s data, electric vehicles only made up 5.3 per cent of all vehicles, or 86,000 vehicles, in Canada in 2021.
The Liberal government’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan outlines an increase of up to 395,000 new Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) sales in 2026; 1.2 million ZEVs in 2030; and a whopping 2 million ZEVs sold in 2035 — which translates to 5 per cent, 16 per cent and 40 per cent of all ZEVs on the road, respectively.
There are several elements to improving Canada’s electric vehicle infrastructure. The most obvious is the need for a dramatic increase in charging stations, of which the federal government has committed over $1 billion to build 84,000 over the next four years.
Daniel Breton, the president of Electric Mobility Canada, a national not-for-profit working to advance electric mobility in Canada, said one of the main issues today in electric vehicle infrastructure is that there just aren’t enough of them for sale.
“Canadian consumers want to buy electric vehicles,” Breton said, “but they’re really hard to come by. That is why we think we need more infrastructure for electric vehicles and we need to make sure that the infrastructure is reliable.”
A new Volkswagen ‘gigafactory’ assembling electric vehicle batteries in St. Thomas, Ont. is expected to begin production in 2027, creating up to 3,000 jobs in the region.
A General Motors plant, just 50 kilometres away from the Volkswagen factory in Ingersol, Ont. converted their facility into Canada’s first full-scale electric vehicle manufacturer. By 2025, the plant is expected to make 50,000 electric vehicles a year.
CHARGING
Charging an electric vehicle at home may sound simple: you plug your car into an outlet and let the battery charge. But it’s a little more complicated than that.
According to Natural Resources Canada, there are three ways to charge an electric vehicle.
The first, Level 1, is when you use your vehicle’s portable cord and plug it into a standard 120 volt wall socket. This is the slowest speed — it will get you about 3 kilometres to 8 kilometres of juice for every hour it’s left charging.
The second level requires electric vehicle owners to install a Level Two charging station in their homes. A Level 2 charger will get you 16 kilometres to 97 kilometres of energy per hour charged. But Level 2s require more electricity voltage, about the same as a stove or air conditioner might — 208 to 240 volts.
And a Level 3 charger is a “DC charger that provides the fastest charging time,” Natural Resources of Canada says on their website, but these are typically found in public places and businesses.
Most electric vehicle owners opt to install Level 2 chargers in their homes because they work faster and more efficiently, but many homes in Canada are built with older 120 volt electrical grids, which put out significantly less electricity than a 240 volt grid.
When homeowners already have their stoves, fridge, air conditioners and other mega-electricity consumers plugged into their electrical grids, charging an electric vehicle at the same time may overload it and burn it out.
84,000
charging stations being built by the Government of Canada by 2027
$1 billion
invested to build more charging stations since 2016
$1.7 billion
in incentives for zero emissions vehicles
Over 185,000
incentives provided to Canadians and businesses
Nearly 20,000
publicly available charging stations today
But Kevin Lisso, the CEO and co-founder of the Toronto-based green energy company EnerSavers, says many chargers today are equipped with a load management system, where the charger is smart enough to find the remaining power on the grid, whether it be 10 available amps or 40 amps, and it won’t overload the system.
“It will charge your car a little bit slower for 20 amps, but then as soon as you go to bed at night and your washing machine is off, your dryer turns off, the air conditioning is off, then all of a sudden you have all of this power available, and the charger will find it and use it because it has load management built into it,” Lisso said.
Charging at home may work for many electric vehicle owners now, but Canada’s electrical grid infrastructure will need a significant overhaul when thousands more electric vehicles are on the road.
According to a study by the Canadian Climate Institute, the move away from fossil fuels to clean energy in electricity consumption will put much more strain on Canada’s electrical grid, especially during ‘peak hours,’ between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., when most people get home from work start using their appliances. This is also a prime time to plug in their cars to charge for the night.
In a study by Claude El-Bayeh, a University of Concordia postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he and his colleagues found that if too many electric vehicles charge at the same time, “it will create a lot of problems for the network and perhaps cause a blackout,” said El-Bayeh in the study.
“Instead of improving the stability of the network and reducing pollution by using EVs, you’ll have the reverse effect.”
One of the suggestions the study makes is to utilize batteries that are bidirectional, where “the vehicle discharges power from its battery back into the grid.” This will allow vehicles to store more energy than they need. When a bidirectional battery is plugged into a socket, it can feed electricity back into the grid, powering buildings and homes and easing the tension put on Canada’s electrical system.
Today, many provinces are rolling out studies and testing their electrical infrastructure. In Alberta, FortisAlberta, an electricity distribution provider for the province, offered customers who owned electric vehicles up to $250 to sign up for a study based on their car’s charging data.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE HEAVY
Another major issue with electric vehicles is that they’re significantly heavier than gas-powered vehicles.
“It’s a matter of physics,” said David Adams, the president of the Global Automakers of Canada. “The batteries are extremely heavy and the vehicles are extremely heavy.”
Adams explained that the larger the vehicle, the bigger and heavier the battery will have to be to power it, which makes it even more dangerous to cars on the road. He added that the tires for electric vehicles are also heavier than combustion engine vehicles because they are built to sustain the weight of the battery.
This added weight will put more strain on our roads. It also makes it much more dangerous for gas-powered vehicles when an electric vehicle and a gas-powered car collide.
In 2011, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that if a vehicle weighs 1,000 pounds more than another vehicle, it results in a 47 per cent increase in fatality risk.
Earlier this year, the National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. raised concerns over the increasing weight of electric trucks and Hummers, saying, “We have to be careful that we aren’t also creating unintended consequences: More death on our roads…[s]afety, especially when it comes to new transportation policies and new technologies, cannot be overlooked.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
