Principles of accessibility and availability underpin charging expansion plans to ensure half of all kilometres driven in Vancouver are in zero-emissions vehicles by 2030

In the words of Ian Neville, “It’s a win.”

Neville is senior sustainability analyst for the City of Vancouver and lead author of its 2016 EV ecosystem strategy. The “win” he’s referring to is last week’s vote by Vancouver city council to adopt the city’s Climate Emergency Action Plan.

“It’s the first milestone of a few to get the Climate Emergency Action Plan going,” says Neville.

That plan — a comprehensive set of initiatives focused on transportation, buildings and natural carbon sequestration — is designed to help the city meet its goal of reducing emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.

EVs front and centre

Given that 39 per cent of the city’s emissions are from gas-and diesel-powered vehicles, measures related to electric vehicles and minimizing gas-powered vehicle usage are front and centre.

The overarching transportation goal: to ensure that by 2030, 50 per cent of kilometres driven on Vancouver’s roads will be by zero-emissions vehicles. Under that umbrella, new measures include:

• Making EV-ready infrastructure mandatory in non-residential developments, like schools and retail buildings
• Increase access to public charging stations in underserved areas or areas where residents do not have off-street parking or a high density of rental units
• Expanding the city’s existing fast-charging network with a goal of having chargers within 10 minutes of anywhere in Vancouver
• Electrifying more of the city fleet, which currently has over 130 EVs
• Developing a zero-emission parking plan

With the plan’s passage, Neville says the city is evaluating different ways to put these goals into action.

Pilots and consultation

On the parking and charging front, for example, he says they’ll start with some pilot studies — possibly “low-power charging off of light poles, or finding low-use parking areas that are in neighbourhoods that people can park their car and charge overnight.”

The infrastructure requirements are a bit more complicated. Neville says they’ll require revised construction standards for non-residential buildings. Before doing that, they need to meet with industry professionals and look at studies for different designs and costs. He’s hoping this will be ready to go ahead by the middle of next year.

In an e-mail to Electric Autonomy Canada, Suzanne Goldberg, director of public policy at charging station producer ChargePoint — on whose network the majority of city-owned charging stations in Vancouver operate — says they are looking forward to seeing the plan become a reality.

“[It] epitomizes the reality of transitioning to electric, which is that no one policy or action alone will get us to a fully electrified future,” says Goldberg.

Focus on accessibility

Neville says all of the city’s initiatives are linked by a focus on accessibility, to counter assumptions about EVs being only for the wealthy or the reality that charging still isn’t widely available to all.

“I think our job is to kind of knock out some of those barriers, so making it easier for people to charge and kind of readying things so that as vehicle prices continue to fall that it becomes available to more people,” he says.

Accessibility is something that Goldberg sees an important step to ensure success.

“The plan’s focus on equity is significant to providing Vancouver’s citizens that access throughout the city, and not just in pockets of neighbourhoods,” she says. “Through the plan, it is clear that the City will help ensure that those who may not have at home charging capabilities will have ready access to charging near their homes, including fast charging.”