Future of Transportation

New Jobs, Reduced Pollution, and Improved Health: Are You Driving Electric?

Mediaplanet sat down with Daniel Breton, President and CEO at Electric Mobility Canada, to discuss the challenges facing Canada’s EV industry and EMC’s EV Action Plan.

Supply chain: Needless to say, a vehicle, electric or not, is made up of a lot of parts. The same goes for charging infrastructure — different components must come together to see the production to its completion. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic that took the world by storm in 2020 decelerated the supply chain, and in fact, almost brought it to a halt. The electric vehicle (EV) industry, like many others, is currently playing catch up.

ZEV mandate: Canada needs to adopt a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate to ensure EVs are available for all Canadians.

Education and training: Players in our industry are working furiously to

educate the public on the benefits of EVs — not only on an individual level, but on a global scale. The more informed the public is, the greater demand will be for EVs. In addition to the need for better consumer education, investments in job training — both private and public — must be made to prepare the labour force for the influx of new technologies.

government incentives cover some or most of the cost difference of acquisition.  EVs positively impact climate change: GHG emissions are much lower when driving electric when charged with electricity from renewable sources.

Driving electric costs much less than gas (driving 100 kilometres can cost as little as $2).

For drivers hesitant to make the switch, what are some of the key benefits of EVs?

EVs save money: Driving electric costs much less than gas (driving 100 kilometres can cost as little as $2). Additionally,

These GHG emissions are still lower than gas-powered vehicles even when charged with electricity generated from fossil fuels.

Driving an EV is convenient: With EVs, there are no more stops at the gas station — most charging is done at home. Charging on the road is also easy — public charging infrastructure is growing to meet the needs of EV drivers across Canada.

Strategic Account Manager: Sierra Nardella Strategic Account Director: Jessica Golyatov Country Manager: Nina Theodorlis Content & Production Manager: Raymond Fan Designer: Lauren Livingston Content & Web Editor: Karthik Talwar All images are from Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve Maclean’s Magazine or its editorial departments. Send all inquiries to ca.editorial@mediaplanet.com

What challenges does Canada’s EV industry face, and how are we working to tackle them?

Daniel Breton President & CEO, Electric Mobility Canada

Read the full interview at innovatingcanada.ca

The Past, Present, and Future of EVs: An Adventure in Invention

The electric vehicle revolution began earlier than you realize. It’s going further than you can imagine. And at every step, Nissan has been present.

It’s been twenty years since electric vehicles (EVs) stormed onto the marketplace and into the public zeitgeist in a big way. However, it would be a mistake to imagine that these cars arrived on the scene in the early 2000s from nothing, wholly formed. Behind the scenes, the many technologies that go inside and under the hood of an EV had been in active development for decades. In the design centers of companies like Nissan, the spirit of discovery that made the first generation of EVs possible has only continued to accelerate in the years since.

We’re in the middle of the story and the next chapter is a thrilling one Believe it or not, the first electric cars can be found all the way back in the nineteenth century, predating even the earliest internal combustion vehicles. However, if we’re writing the history of modern EVs as we know them today, a good candidate for the first page of the book is found in post-war Japan. The year is 1947, and the country is in the grip of an acute oil short-

age. Off the assembly line at Nissan rolls the Tama, a compact electric taxi and general-purpose automobile with a 96km range and a top speed of 35km/h.

Flipping through the chapters that follow, the continual evolution and refinement of this technology tells many stories, including the overwhelmingly successful 2010 launch of the Nissan LEAF, the world’s first mass market EV. And when the book falls open to 2022, we find Nissan’s Formula E team speeding around the world’s premiere racetracks at speeds that exceed 300 km/h.

“The engineering lessons learned on the track find their way back into Nissan’s research and development centers where they inform non-stop innovation,” says Ken Hearn, Marketing Director at Nissan Canada. “From these learnings come the next generations of EVs embodied in vehicles like the all-new all-electric Nissan ARIYA, our latest EV and first 100% electric crossover. One charge can take you up to 490 km in the VENTURE+ model. And if you are commuting further than that in one day, a quick

30 minute charge over your lunch break will boost you up to an 80% charge.” We’ve come a long way since the Tama.

What we imagine today, we drive tomorrow

As researchers, drivers, and engineers continue to push the envelope of what is possible in venues like Formula E, there is a slower revolution happening in terms of what is normal and expected.

Technologies like hands-off single-lane assisted driving and adaptive all-wheel drive with independent wheel braking have gone from science fiction to daily lived experiences in the seeming blink of an eye. With accelerating developments in tech, flagship EV offerings like the Nissan LEAF are getting roomier, smarter, and more advanced with every iteration. “On roads across the globe, over fifteen billion kilometres have been driven collectively by Nissan LEAF owners since its debut,” says Hearn.

There’s a lot of road left. Today’s EVs are fully-charged and ready to take us off the edge of the page to where new stories begin.

This article was sponsored by Nissan Canada.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NISSAN

The engineering lessons learned on the track find their way back into Nissan’s research and development centers where they inform non-stop innovation.

Explore the future of electric mobility at nissan.ca

Frank Campagna

Going Green Is a Team Sport. We Need to Support Ridesharing Drivers to Go Electric

Uber Canada is moving toward its ambitious zero-emission platform goal through a series of smart collaborations and incentives.

As the largest mobility platform in the world, we know that our impact goes beyond our technology. We’ve made a commitment to operate a zero-emission platform globally by 2040 and in Canadian cities with supportive policies — like Montreal and Vancouver — by 2030.

One of the ways we’re going to achieve this is by helping drivers on the Uber platform go electric. In a recent survey of drivers in Canada, we found that 71% are interested in switching to an electric vehicle (EV). This is significant as we know that these drivers drive more than the average person, meaning that each one who switches to an EV has an outsized impact on putting green kilometres on our streets. But we also know that it can be challenging for drivers to make a big decision like transitioning to EV. That’s why so many of

Leading the Future of Transportation with Sustainable EV Battery Recycling

Li-Cycle’s innovative battery recycling process is transforming how we deal with electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries.

Tania Amardeil

Today, one technological shift is changing the future of transportation – electric vehicles (EVs). This movement towards clean, sustainable transport is leading automakers to quickly ramp up EV production.

As the world’s largest economies continue to encourage electrification and the mass adoption of lithium-ion batteries — which power EVs — it’s becoming increasingly imperative that our planet also has a sustainable solution in place to support recycling at every stage of the lithium-ion battery lifecycle.

That’s where Li-Cycle comes in. Since its inception, Canadian company, Li-Cycle, has created a sustainable and scalable solution to strengthen the EV battery supply chain by recovering up to 95% of all materials, including battery-grade lithium, nickel and cobalt, found within spent lithium-ion batteries.

Li-Cycle co-founders Ajay Kochhar and Tim Johnston met while working at a global engineering firm. “We were constantly wondering what was going to happen to all these batteries being made when they died,” says Kochhar.

our sustainability efforts have been focused on supporting drivers in making the switch from gas to EV.

Going green is truly a team sport. Progress toward a fully electric platform will only be achieved where we band together across the ecosystem — government, industry, ridesharing companies, and NGOs. Teaming up will continue to be vital in delivering our common goal of a cleaner, greener future.

Visit uber.com to learn more.

Laura Miller Head of Policy & Communcations, Uber Canada

Kochhar and Johnston launched Li-Cycle, a lithium-ion battery recycling company, in 2016. Since then, Li-Cycle has achieved a growing list of accomplishments, from its first mini-pilot in Canada to the launch of its demonstration Spoke & Hub in Kingston, Ont., to upgrades that enable 5,000 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries to be recycled annually. Li-Cycle is now 300-plus people strong and has expanded into the U.S. In 2023, Li-Cycle’s North American Hub will be commissioned in Rochester, NY, with the capacity to recover battery-grade materials from the equivalent of 90,000 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries and battery manufacturing scrap per year.

Game-changing technology

The recycling is undertaken using Li-Cycle’s proprietary two-stage Spoke & Hub Technology. “The Spokes are decentralized facilities where we mechanically break down the batteries safely,” says Kochhar. “The Hub is a chemical process wherein we take the intermediate products from the Spokes and recover the individual battery-grade raw materials.”

The entire process involves minimal wastewater production, no direct emissions, and substantial net environmental benefits via indirect greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Most importantly, it maintains zero waste diversion to landfills.

Li-Cycle’s processes are leading the way in ensuring that lithium-ion batteries are recycled in the most efficient and environmentally responsible way, with the least amount of environmental impact.

Learn more about Li-Cycle at li-cycle.com

This article was sponsored by Li-Cycle.

Laura Miller

The Tipping Point: How Electric Vehicles Became the Norm While We Weren’t Looking

The argument for EVs has always been multifaceted: climate change, gas prices, the appeal of new technology. But the newest argument is quite simple — they’re some of the most practical vehicles on the market.

D.F. McCourt

Just a decade ago, the people shopping for electric vehicles (EVs) were a select few — the keenest tech enthusiasts, the fuel-price fatalists, and the profoundly eco-conscious. Since then, the world has become much more tech-forward, gas prices are back above 2012 highs, and we have all, out of necessity, become very aware of our personal climate impacts. But there’s more to it than that.

Today, more than one in ten new Canadian vehicle registrations are electric vehicles of some stripe. What was only recently a niche market is now a robust segment with fully-developed offerings that fit the needs and budgets of even Canada’s most pragmatic car buyers. EV buyers are truly embracing the future of transportation today, as the industry transitions to more sustainable and environmentally-minded people movement.

A natural shift in thinking “We’re at the tipping point right now,” says Elias El-Achhab, Chief Operating Officer of Kia Canada. “People that are looking for more technologically advanced models with slicker styling, more functionality, and the latest and greatest in advanced driver systems and autonomous features are shifting to EVs naturally.”

That “shift” is the S in Kia’s global Plan S strategy which, in the Canadian market, includes a commitment to introducing seven all-new electrified models by 2025. Through initiatives in green manufacturing and partnerships like the Ocean Cleanup project, they’re also working to elevate our understanding of what sustainability means.

What concerns do Canadian shoppers have about EVs?

When surveying Canadians, the biggest concerns are still around range, charging infrastructure, and lifestyle. It’s true that much of Canada is made up of dense urban centres with vast spaces in between them. If you live in the prairies and have a lot of driving distance, an EV is probably not the right model for you today, but we’re working with governments and other entities to grow the infrastructure and change that. We’re also working to expand and support the adoption of electrified vehicles through a large network of EV-certified dealers and our first-ever EV Education Centre located in Vancouver.

Who would benefit most from making the switch to an EV?

Global players like Kia are all-in on the EV future. And even more Canadian drivers are pushing their chips into the middle as well, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s also the sensible thing to do.

Visit kia.ca/en/about-kia/sustainability to explore Kia Canada’s EV offerings and sustainability commitment.

This article was sponsored by Kia Canada.

If most or all of your driving is in and around a city, then all-electric vehicles are the obvious choice, or a plug-in hybrid if you have to occasionally travel somewhere further like Northern Ontario. On a PHEV, you can have up to 51 kms of all-electric range alone for driving around the city and then utilize the internal combustion engine (ICE) as backup for longer journeys.

What style of EVs make sense in the Canadian market?

Canadians prefer SUVs and crossovers in ICE models, so it’s natural to assume that’s what they’re going to want in electrified models as well. As a part of our Plan S strategy, we’ve launched several vehicles within this segment within the last year including the Sorento PHEV, EV6 and upcoming Sportage PHEV later this summer.

Why should Canadians be looking to Kia for their EV needs?

Number one is our proven experience. We’re already in our third generation of electric vehicle models and design, with a growing lineup that is fitted directly toward the Canadian consumer. We have models with all-wheel drive, with all the convenience and safety features that we are known for, packaged in striking design. And our proven, real-world range is a crucial buying point. We understand the Canadian market and we’re committed to providing EVs that make sense for Canadians.

Q&A with Kia Canada COO Elias El-Achhab on the Canadian EV Market

Every movement starts with a commitment.

At Kia, we know the movement towards sustainable mobility requires a bold commitment to change. Under our brand vision to provide sustainable mobility solutions, we are committed to realizing carbon neutrality by 2045, through our 3S activities. Sustainable mobility. Sustainable energy. Sustainable planet.

Learn more at kia.ca/sustainability.