Plugged In

Battery degradation. Like range anxiety, charging infrastructure and cold-weather running, how long a new electric vehicle’s battery will last is one of the very real concerns would-be, first-time EV buyers have when considering to go all-electric. Battery degradation is a big deal. No one wants to see their range go from say, 400 kilometres to 300 kilometres during the life of their vehicle.

On this week’s episode we’re diving into some real-world battery degradation data with Charlotte Argue, a senior manager with Geotab who recently wrote an extensive paper on the subject based on information compiled by the company over the last five years.

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One of the more contentious issues surrounding electric vehicles in Canada are so-called ZEV mandates, which sets target dates for EV sales. Several provinces have such mandates, including British Columbia and Quebec, but it is the federal government mandate that has really puts stakes in the ground. 

As a reminder, Canada’s zero emission vehicle mandate requires automakers ensure that 20 per cent in 2026, 60 per cent in 2030 and 100 per cent in 2035 of their vehicles sold in Canada are ZEVs. The PBO report set out to find if other words are these ZEV targets are realistic. 

The short answer, according to the report findings, is they are not. To discuss this and other issues — including Chinese EVs — is Global Automakers of Canada president David Adams, an industry expert specializes in analyzing the disruption and evolution of both the automobile and the automotive industry in Canada. That includes zero emission vehicles and their adoption as well as the regulatory environment necessary to support the adoption of automated and connected vehicles.

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Misinformation. Add that to hunger, thirst and war as existential threats to our survival. In this age of dubious news sources, weaponized artificial intelligence and bad state actors, society has never been so polarized. 

That’s certainly true of the electric vehicle segment, where bogus studies from both sides of the issue muddy the waters and further confuse consumers. Our guest Dan Caesar, and the team he leads at Fully Charged and Everything Electric, has made it a career to provide honest reporting and balanced viewpoints to the pressing issue of sustainable living, driving and, well, existing. 

We start off with a chat about the past, present and future of EVs then transition to discussing the upcoming Everything Electric Show, taking place in Vancouver in early September. And at the end of the episode, which marks the end of Season 8 of Plugged In, Andrew provides a code to get you 20 per cent off tickets.

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Just as electric vehicles are seen as a sustainable solution to the world’s transportation needs, solar energy is considered essential to achieving our planet’s clean energy needs. 

Which makes the combination of the two seem only natural. That’s certainly what GoSun founder and CEO Patrick Sherwin thought, and the result is a clever, roof-mounted and expandable solar power panel that plugs directly into the vehicle that is carrying it. 

It’s an obvious solution for off-grid camping, van lifers and work sites, but it’s also an elegant solution of using the sun’s rays to charge up your car’s battery pack.

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User-case is a term often associated with electric vehicles, as while some people’s needs and requirements of a vehicle can be perfectly suited to an EV, others will find major shortfalls in going all-electric. 

The same is true for heavy trucks and buses, and one of the clear winning user cases for an EV bus is the variety that picks up and drops off school children. To prove that point, Ontario-based Pollution Probe teamed with several partners on the Calgary Electric School Bus Pilot Program. 

The eight-month, real-world test saw an all-electric Blue Bird bus do daily routine routes for a number of months in Calgary. Most importantly, many of those school days were in the depths of a Prairie winter, so the findings are relevant for many school districts across Canada. Our guest on today’s Plugged In podcast is Cedric Smith, Pollution Probe’s director of transportation and one of the key players in the pilot program.

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It all started in the depths of Covid, when Sloane Paul wanted to make her classic Bronco more ‘driver-friendly,’ and not so loud. But when she searched for a company that could convert her beautiful truck into an electric vehicle near her Toronto home, she came up empty handed. 

The entrepreneur in her sensed an opportunity, and after convincing her clever brother Tom Chep to join forces with her and figure out how to turn the Bronco into an EV, the duo created a company to do just that for others who want the benefits of an EV powertrain — smooth, quiet, easy to drive — combined with the sentimentality of a classic vehicle.

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Ken Bokor is the host of the EV Revolution Show on YouTube, and for years has done some of the most in-depth sales tracking of electric vehicles in Canada. He’s also a loud and proud Tesla, owner and while he does see some logic to the recent upheavals to the automaker’s workforce and operating environment, he can’t help but admit he is a little concerned about the direction Elon Musk is taking the company. 

Ken remains bullish about EV adoption in Canada, and to prove the point lists off a number of coming-soon EVs as proof that global automakers are far from folding the tent when it comes to all-electrics.

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We’re kicking off Season 8 of the Plugged In podcast with guest Nathan Yang, the Vice-President and Chief Product Officer for Flo, a Quebec-based company that has installed over 100,000 public, private and residential EV chargers since its founding in 2009.

We begin with a birds-eye view of Canada’s public charging network — the successes, failures and possible solutions — then dive into on how Flo is playing a part, along with a number of other charging solution companies, in expanding and improving the public charging infrastructure across North America.

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Increasingly we’re seeing fully electric cargo vans and trucks zipping around our neighbourhoods as an increasing number of businesses are discovering the benefits of going electric.

On this episode of the Plugged In podcast, host Andrew McCredie is joined by Charlotte Argue Senior Manager, Sustainable Mobility at Canada-based Geotab, the world’s largest telematics company.

Charlotte has been active in the electric vehicle space since way back in 2009, and her current job is to focus on enabling fleets in reducing carbon emissions with data-driven solutions, and sharing aggregated insights to inform large-scale vehicle electrification strategies. She is a subject matter expert in fleet electrification and a champion for connected vehicle technology solutions in the EV industry.  

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On today’s episode of the Plugged In podcast we welcome back long-time friend of the show Ken Bokor, one of the country’s pre-eminent EV experts. Not only does the Toronto-based host of the EV Revolution Show on YouTube know the technical aspects of electric vehicles, but his detailed research into sales data also provides an up-to-date snapshot of where things stand in terms of EV adoption in Canada.

We’ll hear his thoughts on the headwinds that electric vehicles sales and production are currently experiencing, then we’ll talk about which all-new EVs he’s most excited about and why. If you’re in the market for an electric vehicle, this is a show you should listen to. And, of course, subscribe to. 

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