Ontario is making it easier to use electric vehicles to get to and from work by assisting employers, commercial building owners and managers to install charging stations at their workplaces.
This investment is part of Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan and is funded by proceeds from the province’s cap on pollution and carbon market.
Earlier this week, Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca was at the Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre in Toronto to announce the new Workplace Electric Vehicle Charging Incentive Program.
The province will support employers and commercial building owners that wish to offer electric vehicle charging for their employees or tenants by helping with the cost of installing charging stations. This program supports Ontario’s ongoing work in communities across the province to increase the number of electric vehicle charging stations and make it easier for people to use electric vehicles.
Ontario is investing proceeds from its carbon market into programs that help households and businesses reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money on energy costs. These programs include home energy and social housing retrofits, public transit and electric vehicle incentives and infrastructure.
Making it easy for people to switch to electric vehicles and reduce their carbon footprint is part of Ontario’s plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.
Quick Facts:
– The Workplace Electric Vehicle Charging Incentive Program will provide 80 per cent of the capital costs to install level 2 chargers, up to $7,500 per charging space.
– Applications are now, and reviewed and processed in the order they are received, until the program funding is exhausted.
– Level 2 charging stations use a 240 volt system (similar to a clothes dryer plug) and can fully charge a vehicle from a zero per cent charge in about four to eight hours.
– It is estimated there are over 1,300 public chargers available in Ontario, including chargers not funded under the Electric Vehicle Chargers Ontario program.
– Ontario’s Electric Vehicle Charging Incentive program has provided incentives worth approximately $2.2 million for the installation of almost 2,600 home charging stations since January 2013.
– Ontario’s five-year Climate Change Action Plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 15 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, 37 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050.
– Greenhouse gases from cars account for more emissions than those from iron, steel, cement, and chemical industries combined.
– There are more than 16,000 electric vehicles currently on the road in Ontario.
