Automotive News Canada - January 2023 - 24

24
* JANUARY 2023
Toronto gives EV
chargers lots of help
The city's parking authority is
playing catchup as concern grows
about a lack of street charging
in the face of rising EV adoption
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
OF THE 60,000 SPACES BELONGING TO TORONTO'S
municipally owned parking authority, exactly zero had
EV chargers at the start of 2022. But that's changing, and
rapidly.
With its off- and on-street parking, the Toronto Parking
Authority (TPA), referred to locally as Green P, can be a
" catalyst for EV adoption " in the city, said Philip Safos,
director of business development and partnerships.
" The big part of why we're doing this important work
is to make charging available to those who don't have
access, " Safos said, pointing to " garage orphans, " who do
not have a dedicated parking space where they can install
a charger, and those living in multiunit residential buildings.
Construction
was under way at 11 sites across the city
this fall as the TPA worked toward its target of opening
100 stations by the end of 2022. Its ambitions scale up from
there. The TPA is targeting 650 chargers at both on- and
off-street locations by the end of 2024.
Before rolling out the plan, Safos said, the TPA looked
at similar charging infrastructure strategies in Montreal,
Vancouver, B.C., and Victoria.
TRAILING OTHER CITIES
By contrast Hydro-Quebec's charging network, the
Electric Circuit, operates about 1,250 charging stations in
Montreal. Unlike Ontario, the province has EV sales mandates
and provincial rebates of up to $8,000 per vehicle.
But the TPA's distinction as the " largest municipally
owned commercial parking operator in North America "
gives it the scale to provide charging infrastructure that
will spread EV adoption across the city, Safos said.
The authority began working in earnest to develop its
charging road map in 2021 for its roughly 18,500 on-street
spaces and 40,000 spots in off-street lots. The latter is the
initial focus for the rollout of charging infrastructure,
The big part of why
we're doing this
important work is
to make charging
available to those
who don't have access.
Philip Safos
Director of business development and partnerships,
Toronto Parking Authority
partly because they " have a little bit more ease in terms
of construction, " Safos said. The TPA collaborated with
the utility Toronto Hydro to install 32 off-street chargers
in 2022.
The TPA is focused on sites that can be quickly converted
" to accelerate the rollout of EV charging, " Safos
said. It will also be thrown into the on-street market in
2023 when it is scheduled to take over a curbside pilot
program launched by the city in 2020. That pilot was slated
to include about 50 on-street chargers by the end of
2022.
The new infrastructure is likely to play an important
role in helping those without a dedicated parking space
make the transition to EVs. About half to 70 per cent of
Green P parkers live in the area, Safos said.
But as the TPA expands charging, it expects higher
demand from locals living in apartments or condos. This
projection matches the findings of a report released in
August and prepared for Natural Resources Canada by
the Montreal-based consultancy Dunsky Energy.
" For households that do not have access to charging
at home, public charging infrastructure can potentially
serve as a substitute, " the report says. " While this is typically
less convenient and more expensive than charging
To start, charging infrastructure is being
installed in off-street parking locations, in
part because they have " a little bit more
ease in terms of construction, " said Philip
Safos of the Toronto Parking Authority.
ILLUSTRATION: TORONTO PARKING AUTHORITY
at home, it may be the only option for some households. "
By 2025, the report estimates, 52,000 public charging
stations will be required in Canada to meet EV charging
demand. About 9,000 are in service today, according to
National Resources Canada.
MORE EVS ON THE ROAD
In the second quarter, the most recent period for
which data is available, there were 5,587 EV new registrations
in Toronto, according to Statistics Canada. This
was up from 4,176 in the first quarter.
The TPA's charging infrastructure plan feeds into
Toronto's net-zero goals. The city's TransformTO strategy
aims for 30 per cent of vehicles registered in Toronto
to be electric by 2030.
Safos declined to
provide installation
costs, saying the
scope of work varies
too much between
sites. The capital
expenses for the
charging program
would be funded
entirely from parking
revenue.
New EV
registrations
in Toronto
(by quarter)
4,176
3,601
In a typical year,
the TPA is a revenue
generator for
Toronto. In 2021, it
paid a $19.7 million
dividend to the city.
How proceeds
from the new
charging stations
will be managed is
a work in progress.
Safos would not say
2,894
2,810
1,875
5,587
Source: Statistics Canada
whether the TPA intends to operate the chargers for profit
or to break even.
" I do expect as we get more experience and also look at
other delivery models, we will have more clarity on the
long-term financials, " he said. " Right now, we're focused
on quickly mobilizing to support the net-zero plan and to
get chargers out on the ground to support customers. "
- ANC
North America's first and only source for lithium is a mine in Quebec
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
" There are plenty of suitors, " Phillips
said. " Lithium is in short supply. "
In fact, in North America's nascent
battery supply chain, Sayona Quebec will
be the only supplier over the short term.
" There's nobody else with spodumene
production coming in North
America for at least two years after, so
this is an important asset from the North
American supply chain's perspective, "
Phillips said.
By middecade, several lithium mines
currently in development could follow
the Quebec site into production. In
Canada, mining companies are advancing
hard-rock lithium projects in Quebec,
Ontario and Manitoba, as well as lithium-brine-focused
developments in
Alberta and Saskatchewan.
As it restarts operations in Val-d'Or,
Sayona Quebec also plans to process
the lithium concentrate produced at the
mine into a form of lithium that can be
integrated into EV batteries.
Phillips said the joint venture is studying
whether restarting an existing lithium
carbonate plant at the mine site will
be feasible or whether another part of the
province would prove better-suited to the
value-added-processing step. - ANC
Automotive News Canada - January 2023

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