By next summer, most ONroute rest sites in Ontario will be equipped with electric vehicle charging stations.
The announcement will be made later today by Energy Minister Todd Smith and Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, who said each station would have at least two chargers, with busy spots having more.
The Ivy joint network of Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation will install the pay-per-use charging stations, which will not be funded directly by the provincial government.
After Premier Doug Ford came to power in 2018, the government stopped building a network of public charging stations, with agencies and companies stepping in to meet some of the demand.
Ford also cancelled electric vehicle rebates that year, but in recent weeks has been speaking about wanting to make Ontario an electric vehicle manufacturing leader.
Chargers at 17 out of 23 ONroute stations along Highways 401 and 400 should be open by the summer, with another three open by the end of next year, while the rest stops in Maple, Ingersoll and Newcastle are being renovated and won’t have chargers for another couple of years.
“This deployment will reduce barriers to EV ownership, supporting Ontario’s growing EV manufacturing market, critical minerals sector and help achieve Ontario’s goal of building at least 400,000 electric and hybrid vehicles by 2030,” Smith said in a statement.
Natural Resources Canada provided a $3.45-million loan to Ivy for the project, amounting to 30 per cent of the total cost.
Source_ globalnews.ca
