Automotive News Canada - April 2017 - v2 - 19

* APRIL 2017

GM Canada will send
the Chevrolet Bolt, pictured,
and Volt electrified vehicles to the
soon-to-open Electric Vehicle
Discovery Centre in Toronto's
north end. ( P H O T O : G M C A N A D A )

EXPOSURE
Plug'n Drive to open a centre
for free public test drives
By MICHAEL GOETZ
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

SELLING A CONCEPT, NOT A CAR

"It is totally different than going to a dealer," says Clairman.
"We're not really trying to sell you a particular car. We're really trying to sell you a concept. Why are these cars good for the environment? How can they save you money? What's
the value proposition of electrified transportation? Why are we moving in that direction ...
all things that someone would ask before making the switch. Communicating the features
and details of the car? That's what the dealers
are really great at."
The 6,000-square-foot (600-square-metre)
facility, previously a solarium showroom,
will also become the
Plug'n Drive head
office.
The opening is
planned for May.
Plug'n Drive is
funded by corporate
sponsors, including Ontario Power
Generation and
other stakeholders,
but recently received
some Ontario government funding.

PLUG'N DRIVE, A NOT-FOR-PROFIT
organization committed to the widespread
adoption of electric vehicles will soon open
the Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre (EVDC)
in Toronto's north end, at 1126 Finch Ave.
West.
"Try to imagine Science-Centre-meetscar-showroom," said Cara Clairman, Plug'n
Drive's founder and president.
Plug'n Drive is touting the EVDC as the
first facility in the world to focus entirely on
providing experiential learning about EVs
and the EV movement.
Utilizing a onestop-shop approach,
visitors will be able to
learn about relevant
government programs
(such as Ontario's
Climate Change
Action Plan), the
environmental and
economic cases for
moving to electric-vehicle transportation,
charging and other
day-to-day logistics of
CORPORATE SUPPORT
owning and operating
an EV.
David Paterson,
Visitors will also
GM Canada's
be able to test drive
vice-president of
EV models that are
corporate and envialready on the marronmental affairs,
ket.
says the automaker
Automakers will
supports the Plug'n
be charged a fee for
Cara Clairman, Plug'n Drive founder and
Drive initiative
president, says the new test-drive and
having their EVs on
and will send both
learning centre is about exposing people to
site and available for
Chevrolet Bolt and
EV technology and not selling them cars.
test drives, but there
Volt models to the
(PHOTO: MICHAEL GOETZ)
is no charge to visicentre.
tors or for the refer"We love what she
rals that dealers will receive from the centre.
is doing [and] we're excited about the plans
Clairman says the number of test vehicles
to create a home where people can do test
and participating automakers are still to be
drives."
determined.
He says that GM likes that the Ontario
"The inside space can only hold so many,
Government helps to sponsor the initiative.
but we'll take as many as we can get for outGetting mass adoption of EVs will require
side."
collaboration on many fronts, said Paterson.
Clairman started Plug'n Drive seven years
Among the most pressing concerns at this
ago, after becoming aware of a gap in how
early stage are awareness and education, and
consumers learned about EVs. She designed
he thinks the new centre can play a big role in
Plug'n Drive to fill that gap.
both areas.
Plug'n Drive has held test drive and learn"In fact, we've encouraged Cara to expand
ing events in Ontario and in five other provthe Plug'n Drive capabilities to other
inces.
provinces." - ANC

Electra Meccanica President Mark West, left, speaks at the
store opening with company CEO Henry Reisner.
(PHOTO: STEVE MERTL)

Doors open, orders begin
to pile in for Solo EV
Company opens
first retail outlet
in a shopping mall
with a second
store planned
By STEVE MERTL
VA N C O U V E R C O R R E S P O N D E N T

VANCOUVER - ELECTRA
Meccanica, which expects
to begin delivering Solo single-seat battery-electric vehicles this spring, is open for
business.
The tiny space, tucked into
a well-travelled corridor of an
underground shopping mall
in the downtown Vancouver
Bentall Centre, has room for
a display vehicle, brochures
and company swag.
The Vancouver-based company also plans a second Solo
store in suburban Richmond,
B.C., president Mark West
said at the February grand
opening.
Electra Meccanica, an outgrowth of long-established
custom-sports-car builder
Intermeccanica, expects to
deliver vehicles to its first
B.C. customers in May, West
said.
Sales to customers outside the province await completion of compliance-certification testing by U.S. and

Canadian regulators on a
pre-production unit, expected in the second half of 2017,
he said.
"It's just a normal process that anyone has to go
through," said West.
Electra Meccanica has 475
refundable deposits of $250
from customers interested in
the three-wheeled Solo, which
retails at $19,888 before any
EV incentives are applied.
The company plans initially to market the Solo in B.C.
and down the U.S. West Coast
but has ambitious plans for
China, where one of its five
pre-production vehicles was
sent, and Europe.
The Solo is pitched as the
ideal vehicle for single occupants who commute 50 kilometres or less. It's claimed
to keep up comfortably with
freeway traffic and have a
range of up to 160 kilometres.
The Solo is currently being
assembled in a suburban
Vancouver facility. Company
founder Jerry Kroll recently
posted on Electra Meccanica's
blog that he had toured a
plant in China that will begin
supplying parts for the Solo
later this year, and eventually
complete cars.
Kroll told Automotive News
Canada previously he hoped
for a production capacity of
up to 100,000 vehicles. - ANC

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