Life is a charging station, gonna charge it all night long…
The full network of stations will allow electric vehicles to travel from Windsor, Ont., to Ottawa, or from Toronto to North Bay, Ont., as well as in and around major urban centres.
The stations — which will be placed at more than 250 locations including highways, workplaces and public spaces — are all expected to be in service by the end of March next year.
The government says the $20 million investment in the charging stations comes from Ontario’s $325 million Green Investment Fund, which supports projects that fight climate change.
Hey, it’s only money debt.
That’s fantastic. Let’s see now, a trip from Toronto to Ottawa (say 5 hrs non electric) will only take
how long given all of the stops to charge up? Great investment.
“The government says the $20 million investment in the charging stations comes from Ontario’s $325 million Green Investment Fund, which supports projects that fight climate change”.
How exactly this “fights Climate change” is left to the imagination.By definition climate is a global concern and a few earnest Ontarians can have no discernible effect, when millions of other Chinese, Indian, US citizens are acting oppositely.
Not explained is what an electric owner does when he rolls into the station to find 5, 10 others ahead. For gas, he can simply use another pump, maybe travel to next station and so on. Depending on the charging time,he might be cooling his heels for quite a while.
Lots of time for him to feel good about “fighting climate change”, after all that is what this exercise is really about.
Anyone that commutes to Toronto (either way) will agree. If the range of an electric car is 80 Km, if there is no traffic (no traffic clots or accidents), you might make it on a single charge (maybe), but if you have to sit for any length of time on a hot day, you’re screwed. And given that only 1% of people in the province have electric cars, installing more charging stations is not going to change the physics of charging a battery. How long does it take to charge a Chevy volt:
2016 Volt: Hybrid Electric Cars | Chevrolet
http://www.chevrolet.com/2016-volt-electric-car.html
Volt features dual 8″ diagonal LED color displays, including a center stack touch-screen display with Chevrolet MyLink†. A professionally installed 240-volt charging station allows Volt to recharge in as little as 4.5 hours. A convenient standard charging cord lets you charge wherever there’s an available outlet.
So if you run out of charge, you are going to need a minimum of 4.5 hours to restore it. How many times can you take a standard lead acid battery down to zero before it is finished? Somewhere between 4 or 5 complete discharges and the battery unit is toast and needs replacement. What happens to electric cars that are traded in for other vehicles (used or new)? They become scrap because it costs a minimum of $10000 to replace the battery pack and the car isn’t worth enough in a trade for a replacement (losing 35% the first year). And would people buy electric vehicles if they weren’t subsidized? The answer is a simple “No” because they aren’t worth it (the problem that Elon Musk is running into right now).
None of this government’s agenda makes any economic or scientific sense.
7000 electric cars.
Half of them on over night trips.
3500 cars at 500 charging stations for 7-8 hour charges.
Your wait time is 56 hours per station. Be sure your car has a bike rack package..
120 kilometer range, I can beat you anywhere you are going with a bicycle..
Talked recently to my Toyota service manager. He said no one in the dealership had purchased a Prius, fear of the trade in value.
This was sent looking very, very stupid. Think Ontarians will notice?
I think the batteries are Lithium, but they still have a shelf life, I think of 6 to 8 years, or so they claim. I also believe they can now go up to about (meaning less than) 170 klms, or at least that is what the Leaf claims. I was wondering how long it they take to charge at at a station, about 4.5 hours, wow, that must be frustrating. And I wonder who pays for the electricity at the stations?
Even with a longer (but still short range) and Lithium batteries, what you said is still totally true.
I wonder how much CO2 will be released by the tow trucks that will be hauling these dead battery bricks off the highways in the middle of winter. It is astonishing just how stupid ideological leftists really are.
Better yet, mount attachment for a strong moped so two people can ride it.
During your trip mark your electronic computer whiz GPS with navigation, mobile apps, and 7″ color display, for suitable gas stations.
Or be safe, carry a 5 gallon full petrol container..
PS, if you have a pacemaker / defibrillator, don’t ride in an electric car, it could throw your heart out of rhythm and/or kill you..
Wake me when it’s over should be our motto in Ontario. The insanity continues with the Wynne Liberal government. She and her pack of incompetent stooges continue with the rape and pillage of our province with taxes and more taxes, with green energy shit her expensive and expansive priority. We can’t afford any more but now the Feds and her pal the shiny puppet are going to add insult to injury with carbon pricing.
We are dead ducks, ordinary folks may as well lie down, there is no hope, go to the streets with tin cups or line up at food banks…..even they are lean. Opposition you say? What Opposition? If anyone can find out where they’re hiding please let us know.
Quick Charge 480 volt stations can charge a car in 15 to 40 minutes. The problem they’ve experienced in California, is that people don’t wait with their cars while they’re charging. They hook up and then take off for hours running errands and shopping. This leaves a line up of angry people waiting for the charger.
Watch for the cost of this project to rise dramatically and there’s no way they’re going to get this done by March. The network of charging stations promised in California years ago is still not up and running.
“And I wonder who pays for the electricity at the stations?”
Indeed. So do I.
At a minimum, drivers should be charged the household rate of kilowatt hours plus additional taxes and infrastructure surcharges as applicable.
By all means make it cheaper than gas but not “free” or a pittance. For example, work it out so that it’s half as much as gas or the equivalent of, say, 50 cents a litre.
Someone in the media should be looking into who has the contract to build these charging stations. Guaranteed some of that money will come full circle and end up in Liberal coffers.
And the electricity comes from where?!
Meanwhile, Alberta is becoming Ontario West. Red Rachel’s adopting the same policies and many of her staff come from there.
At least we have something resembling an opposition in the legislature.
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“douglas reed says… given that only 1% of people in the province have electric cars”
this isn’t about logic, douglas… it’s about appealing to your key demographics on an emotional level.
look at the 70 million dollars wynne just plopped into her in-vitro fertilisation program specifically dedicated to women who find actual p@n!s to be abhorent.
“One of the significant demographics interested in IVF will be women suffering from so-called “social infertility” – that is, women who reject the increasingly obsolete and icky idea of male-female procreation… (which would’ve absolutely, positively in no way influenced Ontario’s first gay Premier).
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I stayed at a new hotel in Kincardine. There were 2 charging stations, credit card operated, did not say what the cost would be. There were also 4 electric car only parking spaces.
What do you bet that that new hotel was forced to put those in as a condition of being allowed to invest in a hotel?
There was a phone-in on CBC radio about electric cars (should Ontario subsidize electric car purchases). One caller, who is disabled, complained that the $14,000 rebate was more money than the government pays to disabled people in a year. Fair point.
But the “expert” brought in to answer questions was very one-sided (yes – I know. How unlike the CBC). He mentioned that it is hard to get off fossil fuels because they are so heavily subsidized. He went on to claim that electric cars can be set to charge when wind and solar energy are peaking to maximize the green benefit. But minutes earlier he had mentioned that most people charge their cars at night while they sleep. Solar and wind peaking at night? The level of stupid is overwhelming.
What is the expected dividend payout from this investment?
What is the expected capital gain on this investment?
Well if there is no dividend and no capital gain expected, then perhaps this investment should be called a tax.
Can you imagine the problems in places like L.A.,where there will be hundreds waiting at charge stations?.. Fights in the lineups,etc?.. These will be modernday stagecoach stations. Masses of pissed off people every 200 miles!.. This will be hilarious to us gas powered driver,if we are “allowed” to still exist.
Let’s see, there are 6.7 million cars on the road in Ontario of which 7,000 are electric. To bring the electric/hybrid to 5% of the fleet would mean selling 335,000 electrics in four years and they’ll be served by 500 “free” chargers for a car to charging station ratio of 670/1.
Progressives don’t understand math at all.
Frank Q. said: “And the electricity comes from where?!”
Windmills, obviously. They’re still frantically putting them up in West Lincoln outside Hamilton.
I guess they think the overnight charging stations will take up some of the excess wattage they’ve been charging us $0.50 per kWH and giving away to NY state for $0.10 per kWH.
Good luck with the electric car in January, the battery life drops to under half in cold weather.
There is another issue with lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries. My son did a design with LiPos for his 4th year engineering project and made the mistake of letting a LiPo become completely discharged. They can be permanently damaged if they are completely discharged OR there longevity can be reduced (fewer recharge cycles). And the manufacturers recommend that you don’t let them sit and discharge but recharge on a regular basis (at least once per month) or similar problems will occur.
The absurdity of Ont economic planning may be observed in this scheme. All those niggling eco-charges (taxes) on purchasing keyboards, tires, and the automobile Clean Air tax accumulate a lot of revenue. Rather than put this toward paying down the deficit which at least would be useful, Ont assigns bureaucrats to dream up a scheme to spend this green revenue stream. This is the solution, and once it gets going further taxes will need to be collected to sustain the program.That there is no correlation whatsoever between world climate and Ont purchase of electric cars is irrelevant.
As for Gor wondering who has the contract, a CBC story reports Hydro Quebec will build some of the stations. It just doesn’t get any more ridiculous in Ont.
“The absurdity of Ont economic planning may be observed in this scheme.”
Just accept the idea that they’re stealing the money. As soon as you do that, all the absurdity suddenly makes perfect sense. They don’t pay down the debt because they’re STEALING THE MONEY.
http://store.evsolutions.com/turbodock-16-amp-commercialworkplace-ev-charging-station-with-pedestal-p60.aspx
4 dock commercial station on a pedestal for $5695 retail.
Government of Ontario is spending $20,000,000 for 500 stations at 250 locations, or $40,000 per station. Whose pocket are they lining with the other $30,000 per station. (being generous with the install at $3300 each)
Yes, they’re stealing the money and we are sitting back watching mumbling among ourselves. It’s futile, we are what amounts to a dictatorship in Ontario and federally for that matter, they listen to no one and the Opposition are impotent, they may as well go home. It’s hard to support stupidity but tha’s about what the Opposition parties are doing by doing squat…not even making a noise.
Judging by the way electric vehicle drivers behave on the highway … I fully support their stopping … regularly and often … to recharge their golf cart automobiles
The old WF Buckley adage now applies to present day Ont. The first 30 names in the Walkerton phone book would do a better job of managing Ont’s business affairs, then the elected Liberal cabinet.
“It says there are nearly 7,000 electric vehicles currently on the roads in Ontario.”
Guaranteed that a significant portion of these 7K electrics were purchased by municipalities throughout the province.
We have charging stations put in by our local gov’t outside our recreational facilities. I have never, and I mean NEVER ever seen anyone hooked up to it. $35,000 sitting idle.
“Toronto to North Bay” sounds impressive – until you look at a map of Canada! It’s a bloody big country!
Fossil fuels subsidised? Why? Where? In most places fossil fuels and beverage alcohol are major cash cows!
Everybody, especially Liberals, know where electricity comes from, it’s that funny little hole in the wall that looks like a sad face.
Just when you think you’ve seen the absolute pinnacle of Liberal stupidity they take it to another level. “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad” is the phrase that Ontariowe-nians are living by, and the problem is that they are committed to pulling the rest of us down the Wonderland rabbit hole!
Liz J said: “It’s hard to support stupidity but tha’s about what the Opposition parties are doing by doing squat…not even making a noise.”
I expect the “opposition” parties are generally in on it. They’d have to be, given the amount of money we’re talking about here. Billions flying around.
And for two elections we’ve watched the Conservatives snatch defeat from the very jaws of victory, in the face of two major scandals. That’s a serious track record of fail. A stuffed toy would have done better.
Now the new guy is sitting and saying nothing at all. I don’t even know who he is.
That’s what I’d be doing if the Wynners cut me in for a slice. No proof, mind you, I’m just sayin’.
Antenor said: “Everybody, especially Liberals, know where electricity comes from, it’s that funny little hole in the wall that looks like a sad face.”
I always thought it looked more shocked than sad. Like it just read its electric bill, and found an extra zero in it. =o
Those refill stations won’t free.
Establishments are free to charge whatever they want.
And in Ontario, ther is the time-of-use charge too. No daytime driving.
The modern “big” lithium battery a pretty scary thing. Because of the dangers, they are made from literally hundreds of the little “18650” cells that you can find in rechargeable battery packs for drills, computers, and other electronic devices. But even these are prone to spectacular failure. And when one cell goes, the rest will likely follow (remember the Tesla fires?).
And when they get the battery packs to be truly safe and reliable, there’s the issue of charging time. At best, even with really, really efficient (time-wise, not energy-wise) charging stations, you are still talking about recharge times of a quarter hour or more. That may not seem long, but think about waiting in the “charging lane” with 4 vehicles in front of you.
Further, if you can figure out how to recharge those big electric-storage packs in 5 minutes or less, think about what happens when those things go bad… as fast they can charge, they are capable of discharging much, much faster. A damaged battery is likely to be a burning battery, and unlike a gasoline or diesel fire, you simply cannot put it out until the discharge is complete.
I may be a high school dropout,…………. but I KNOW, petroleum based motor vehicles will NEVER BE REPLACED BY THE ELECTRICALS!………….. ANYWHERE ………………… NEVER …. EVER !!
………………..I AM