Can British Columbia Be a Canadian Hub for the Electric Car?

Posted on 04. May, 2009 by Bernice Paul in Transportation

The emerging green economy has been touted as our lifeline out of this global recession. More and more we hear about green-collar jobs meant to stimulate a new kind of economy – one that values environmental and social sustainability as primary building blocks for growth.

Of course, for car manufacturers (the Detroit Three included), pursuing alternative fuel technologies is not only about entering a greener market but about survival. And one venture-backed firm in California has a particularly intriguing concept for capitalizing on all the electric vehicle buzz. In fact, Better Place proposes making the world a “better place” by changing the way we think about fueling-up. Based on the cellular phone business model, its consumers would just purchase mobility devices (well, cars) and operating minutes (the charging of batteries) separately.

Revolutionary? Or maybe the idea is just the touch of innovation we need to spur us into creating the kind of urban village we have so far only imagined. Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson certainly seems into it, lately tweeting about an EV future in this city.

Meanwhile, Better Place has already developed partnerships with Israel and Nissan-Renault to install 100,000 charging posts throughout Canada. Obviously, Israel is onto something, perhaps because it comes from a state surrounded by petrostates, one that would do well to build a transportation sector independent of foreign oil. Indeed, California, in particular the Bay Area, has already negotiated a deal with Better Place, with Ontario now following suit. Maybe now is the time for British Columbians to also take a serious look at our existing mobility options – and rethink our oil dependency.

Tags: BC, BEST, electric cars, Environment

4 Responses to “Can British Columbia Be a Canadian Hub for the Electric Car?”

Eduardo

08. May, 2009

Very interesting, but I wonder if the car manufacturers are fully committed to electric cars, and if they went into mass production, could the electric grid accomodate the extra power required?
ksbchu

08. May, 2009

I believe electrical cars are very friendly to our power grid.
Mostly they operate during day time, and are recharged overnight when the load demand is low and our hydro supply is plenty or imports are cheap. The best thing could happen in the future is that when smart meters and intelligent circuits are more popular, parked vehicles would have the option of supplying power back to the grid when both load demand and price are high.
Bernice Paul

12. May, 2009

Hi Eduardo,
Everywhere we look these days the electric vehicle is on display as part of the solution to urban transport carbon emissions. I believe auto manufacturers now feel the ‘heat’ (bail-out packages, ahem) and see the writing on the wall. Oil prices might be hovering in the $60/barrel range now, but it’s promised that the $150 days will be back on the horizon. Consumers are going to feel the pinch and this time round, will start demanding alternatives to gasoline. It starts with us!
Bernice Paul

12. May, 2009

Hi ksbchu,
Good point about differential demand. A friend of mine who works at BC Hydro in the clean tech area recently looked at “worst case” scenarios; ie, if everyone plugged during the day when demand is high (unrealistic) but the outcome was something like 20% increase on daytime demand. Optimism that the right infrastructure is on the way… Concord Pacific just unveiled plans for its latest downtown project: http://bit.ly/h4lrf