Ontario Moves To Create Electric Car Infrastructure

California-based Better Place will establish a Canadian head-office in Ontario. They will build an electric car demonstration and education centre in Toronto to lay the groundwork to help get electric vehicles running on Ontario roads. By May 2009, the Ontario government will release a study which will look at ways to speed up theintroduction of electric vehicles including:

- Financial incentives designed to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles
- Preferred access to transportation grid to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles
- Forward looking procurement policies to speed government adoption of electric vehicles into fleet services where appropriate
- Coordinated public education and promotion of electric vehicles as a mode of personal transportation.

Better Place will build

...an open network of battery exchange stations and charge spots in homes, businesses and parking lots.

...which electric car owners will then subscribe to. Places to charge your Zenn, in other words.

You know, without a lot of fan-fare, the McGuinty Libs seem to be taking a lot of interesting if small steps in the right direction.

Good News On Electric Vehicles

Low-speed vehicles such as the ZENN electric car are finally going to be allowed on Ontario roads.

Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said yesterday such city commuter vehicles would be roadworthy – once equipped with additional safety features. Low-speed vehicles 'are a new kind of vehicle and it will take a new set of standards to allow them to be safely driven on Ontario roads,' he said."

The top speed on these things is only about 40K, so obviously they are not highway ready. But if you live downtown in one of the large Metropolises like T.O. or Montreal (where they are already in use), that is usually about all you need (and all you can manage, given the traffic). I can see The City of Toronto itself making use of these things--they already employ a small fleet of smart cars.

The company website can be found here, a good Western Standard piece on Zenn cars can be found here.