The federal government has signed off on funding for nearly 2,500 recent electric-vehicle chargers concentrated in and around Vancouver.
Natural Resources Canada announced the $18.5 million investment through its Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP) within the West Coast city Feb. 24. The funds will back the installation of recent charging stations for a series of 26 private and non-private projects at workplaces, transport hubs, multi-unit residential buildings, and along key highway corridors.
“Investing in additional EV chargers, just like the ones announced today across Greater Vancouver and the country, will put more Canadians in the motive force’s seat on the road to a net-zero future and help achieve our climate goals,” Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of Natural Resources, said in a release.
Vancouver and its suburbs will likely be home to 1,880 of the two,416 recent charging stations, but several of the federally backed projects extend across British Columbia or into other Canadian provinces.
BC Hydro will receive the biggest single portion of the funds, securing just in need of $3 million to put in 56 Level 3 charging stations at public locations throughout the province.
Latest chargers for PCI King George Developments Inc.’s mixed-use buildings in Surrey, B.C. come an in depth second. The true estate developer will add 782 Level 2 chargers, plus a single Level 3 charging station, at multi-unit residential and office buildings within the Metro Vancouver city with $2.9 million in assistance from Ottawa.
And, $1.6 million in funding for the Vancouver Airport Authority to put in 46 Level 2 and 28 Level 3 stations in Richmond, B.C. rounds out the highest three contributions.
An entire list of the 26 projects to receive funding is available here.
On a proportional basis, B.C. is the leading EV adopter amongst Canadian provinces. Within the third quarter of 2022, the newest period for which data is obtainable, 17.6 per cent of recent vehicles registered within the province were battery-electric or plug-in hybrids, in keeping with Statistics Canada.
A scarcity of infrastructure is often cited as among the many impediments to widespread EV adoption in Canada. Ottawa has pledged to assist construct 34,500 recent charging stations across the country by 2027.