Sooke Electric Vehicle Extravaganza

With the coming of Spring comes the arrival of Island Electric Car Shows and the first one up is also brand new to the local scene. The Transition Sooke Speaker Series in partnership with Emotive and the Victoria EV Club will be presenting the premiere “Electric Vehicle Extravaganza” at Sooke’s Edward Milne Community School on Saturday March 23rd from 2:30…

How To Charge An Electric Car

The transition from driving an ICE car and one powered solely by electricity is both effortless and endlessly confusing. Effortless, because all you have to do is plug in the car. Confusing, because everybody gives you a different set of rules for doing that. Every time EV drivers gather, the discussion eventually turns to — “Just what’s the best way…

One Step Plug & Charge Arrives

The days of carrying multiple cards or key-fobs and hoping a charging station will take your credit card have come to an end. Hubject, a European collaboration between German automakers, charging-station manufacturer Siemens, and European charging network Innogy, and is now spreading to North American networks. Both Chargepoint and Greenlots have signed on to use Hubject’s system which allows drivers…

The 10 Minute Charge Has Arrived

While ICE manufacturers keep harping on “range anxiety” and “lengthy charging times” to scare off potential EV buyers, it appears you may soon be charging your car in the same amount of time it takes to fill-up with gas. At this month’s Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, GBatteries demonstrated that it could charge a 60-kwh battery pack, made up…

Governments Get Behind Charging Infrastructure

The Quebec government — along with the province’s pension fund manager — are investing $4.5 million in AddÉnergie, acquiring a stake in the company, while the federal government will provide $1.5 million. At the same time, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also announced an additional investment in the company, the dollar value of which was not disclosed. Louis…

North Vancouver Mandates EV Parking

Beginning June 1, 2019 the City of North Vancouver will require all new residential parking spots to include energized outlets capable of providing Level 2 charging or higher for EVs. Larisa Lensink, environmental sustainability specialist for the city, stated that “In the last five years, the EV landscape has changed significantly. EV sales have increased exponentially each year and in…

BC Hydro Updates Service

BC Hydro has issued the following update regarding support for their charging system. I believe this is the service change we’ve been expecting… “We went live today with moving fast charging support to the BC Hydro call centres. The new number is being applied with stickers to all the Greenlots fast chargers over the next few days and all the…

Chargepoint to Expand Charging Network

Last week, ChargePoint announced it has raised $240 million to build enough chargers to support 2.5 million electric cars worldwide. While ChargePoint is currently the largest EV charging network, a court mandate to settle diesel emissions cheating charges has Volkswagen already building the Electrify America network to rival Tesla Superchargers. Competitors such as EVgo are also expanding and Tesla announced…

The BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) has issued a first phase report arising from its “Electric Vehicle Charging Service Inquiry” proceedings. The BCUC is essentially ruling that all EV chargers will be exempt from regulation paving the way for the reselling of electricity for EV charging by anyone in an open market. Final implementation is expected soon, and it will mean…

BC Announces Zero Emission Mandate

Members of the VEVC were out in force at the BC Legislature on Tuesday as Premier John Horgan and Third Party Leader Andrew Weaver made a joint announcement on the province’s electric vehicle future. The provincial government, in partnership with the BC Green caucus, will introduce legislation next spring to phase in targets for the sale of zero emission vehicles…