EV sales are overtaking charging stations in Canada — and that's a problem
Electric-vehicle charging infrastructure is having a hard time keeping up with EV sales.
Last year, at least 180,000 new EVs hit the road in Canada, a 49 per cent jump from a year earlier, according to BMI, a Fitch Solutions Inc. market research company.
Transport Canada lists 28,188 charging points in total in Canada today, and while estimates of exactly how many chargers were added in 2023 vary, most place the figure around 6,000 — meaning a roughly 33 per cent year-over-year increase.
Charging infrastructure is key to EV adoption. Among consumers who said they would not consider purchasing an EV for their next vehicle, 72 per cent cited a lack of charging station availability as a top concern, according to an Autotrader Canada survey conducted in March.
But there are many challenges to installing EV charging infrastructure in Canada. Here are five of them.
New chargers need to be installed at a pace to match EV sales, but some data suggests that isn’t happening yet.
In Canada, the ratio of EVs to public charging stations is around 20, which is double the global average of 10, according to a January 2024 report by consulting firm Mobility Futures Lab and Pollution Probe, a non-profit environmental group.
The report, which surveyed 1,522 EV owners across the country, found that the outlook for EV charging is generally positive and trending in the right direction, but it also identified a number of weaknesses.
It noted EV sales had “remarkable growth” of 44 per cent in 2022, compared to 36 per cent growth in public charging points.
Of course, many consumers primarily charge their vehicles at home, but the report still noted that a separate survey found that 44 per cent of EV drivers in Canada “expressed concern about the
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