Toronto EV driver can’t use closest overnight charging station because of permit restrictions | CBC News

A Toronto-based Uber driver spends nearly half an hour most days walking back and forth between an on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging station and his home.

John Chen says he could cut that walk down to eight minutes each way if the city allowed him to use a closer charging station in his neighbouring permit parking zone.

He can’t charge his EV at home because he doesn’t have a designated parking spot and relies on street parking.

Despite living on the edge of his own parking zone near Coxwell Avenue and Dundas Street, Chen says the city told him he can’t get a permit for the other zone to use the closer charger overnight.

“I just think it’s dumb considering the city really wants people to get electric vehicles,” said Chen, who rents an EV. “This is certainly not helping with their targets.”

The city’s net zero emissions strategy includes a 2030 goal of 30 per cent of registered vehicles in Toronto being electric. But EV experts told CBC the city needs to rapidly increase the pace and scale of EV infrastructure if it hopes to meet its targets.

A recent report from the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) found that Toronto’s charging capacity is well below industry standards. At the current pace, the report said there will only be one public charger for every 70 electric vehicles by 2040, despite the International Energy Association’s recommended ratio of one charger for every 10 EVs.

The Atmospheric Fund (TAF), a Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area climate agency, says every solution needs to be on the table.

“We need to invest more in expanding the network as quickly as possible, so that folks outside of a permitting zone can have new chargers within their permitting zone,” said Ian Klesmer, director of strategy and grants for TAF. 

“We need to be thinking about how to streamline permitting processes to make it as easy as possible for people to access existing infrastructure.”

Chen told CBC Toronto he only puts up with the inconvenience of charging because as a ride-sharing driver, his savings from not buying gas make it worthwhile.

He drives a Polestar 2. He says he averages about 300 kilometres a day driving for Uber, and that the car’s battery range is between 300 and 400 km, depending on how much highway driving he does.

No parking permit exemptions for EVs

To incentivize EVs in the short term, Chen argues the city should make EV charging stations exempt from on-street permit parking restrictions, or allow EV drivers to obtain permit parking for whatever zone has the closest charger to their home. 

CBC Toronto asked the city why there aren’t permit parking exemptions or special permits for EV drivers. In a statement, a city spokesperson said parking permits are issued regardless of vehicle type, so there’s “an equitable distribution” to all residents who rely on them.

Only about 60,000 vehicles — five per cent of all registered vehicles in Toronto — have a residential on-street parking permit, according to the city. It’s unclear how many of those vehicles are electric, because the city doesn’t ask residents applying for a permit to specify if their vehicle is electric. 

Next month, a Public Electric Vehicle Strategic Plan will go before the city’s infrastructure and environment committee. 

The city says the staff report is expected to provide a better understanding of where EV drivers are in Toronto and where they’ll likely be in years to come. That information will then be used to help determine where to add additional charging.

5-minute walk max for charging

Klesmer says access to nearby charging is essential for drivers to make the switch to electric.

“Who would be willing to walk half an hour every day round trip just to get their car charged?” he said. “When we looked at this, people were willing to walk about five minutes and that’s kind of the maximum.”

A lack of publicly accessible charging infrastructure is one of the major issues holding back mass adoption of EVs, according to Olivier Trescases, director of the University of Toronto’s Electric Vehicle Research Centre.

“It’s the perennial chicken-and-egg problem,” Trescases said. “We still have a long way to go.” 

There are currently 97 public EV charging ports at just over 50 on-street charging station locations in Toronto. The city also operates another 310 charging ports across 30 Green P parking lots through the TPA.

Klesmer says there’s a scarcity of on-street charging in Toronto compared to cities like Montreal, which has more than 800 on-street chargers.

All of the current on-street charging stations in Toronto are Level 2 chargers, according to city data, which can take six to seven hours to fully charge a regular EV. 

Prioritize fast-charging

Trescases believes the city should prioritize Level 3 fast-charging stations in neighbourhoods, which can juice up a vehicle to 80 per cent from empty in 30 to 45 minutes. 

“If you don’t have access to overnight charging, it makes a lot more sense to pay a bit more and just get more range so that you can charge maybe once a week at a fast charger,” he said.

Another alternative is to install chargers closer to people’s homes in other publicly accessible locations, like parking lots for grocery stores, malls, schools, libraries and arenas, according to Klesmer.

“If we can really ramp up charging in those areas, then we can ensure that every Torontonian is within a five-minute walk of an EV charger,” he said.

Other options rejected by the city last year included allowing private installation of on-street charging stations in front of residents’ homes and allowing EV charging by running an electrical cord covered with an accessible ramp over the sidewalk to an on-street parking spot. The electric vehicle cord is a licensed option in Vancouver.

New vehicle registrations for battery electric cars in Ontario have risen from 0.4 per cent of all new registrations in 2017 to 5.7 per cent last year, according data from Statistics Canada. 

Those numbers are expected to continue to grow, given the federal government has set a mandatory target for all new light-duty cars and passenger trucks sales to be zero-emissions by 2035. 

“We have this tsunami of EVs coming our way,” said Klesmer. “We need more charging everywhere.”