Canada’s ambitions to charge electric vehicles are not ambitious enough, according to the industry group

Petro Canada’s EV charging station will be on display at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto on February 14, 2019.Christopher Katsarov / The Canadian Press

An industry group representing some of Canada’s largest automakers says public electric vehicle charging capacity is nowhere near what it takes to drive larger electric car sales.

Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association, says a national electric charging network takes years of careful planning to ensure that charging points are available when and where people need them.

He says Canada didn’t do the planning and instead has a broken response with very little ambition compared to the rest of the world.

Europe is aiming for one public charger for every ten electric vehicles, and California is aiming for one in seven, while Canada is hoping to have one charger for every 20 electric vehicles by 2025.

Canada currently has 0.06 chargers for every electric vehicle on the road, according to the International Energy Agency.

Canada is in the early stages of mandating that all new vehicles must be zero emissions by 2035, and Mr Kingston says that will only happen if the price is right and charging is easy and accessible.

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