Electric vehicle owners need better infrastructure

A lot of Flatlander readers wrote in to share their thoughts on electric vehicles (EVs) after last week’s article. 

Some readers are interested in buying them, and others are less so because they are wary of the technology.

Tim wrote: “I am curious . . . as to why this topic has been chosen?” 

The reason The Flatlander chose to look at EVs is that it seemed like a natural next step to follow our first big journalism feature on lithium mining, as both Saskatchewan and Manitoba hope to benefit economically from this resource, which is needed for EV batteries. 

The demand for EVs is expected to grow significantly over the next 10 to 30 years, especially as governments like Canada start to nudge people in that direction with financial incentives.

But even without government intervention, the horse has left the barn when it comes to EVs. 

EVs are gaining popularity. The sale of EVs increased by 2.7 per cent over the spring of 2021 to 2022. In the second quarter of 2022, EV sales accounted for 5.6 per cent of the total auto market.

Some of the reasons EV sales are growing are because although EVs are expensive to buy, they are cheaper to maintain. 

Also, the charging infrastructure is expanding, even though the local EV drivers we talked to say it could be much better. They also say the available infrastructure has grown significantly over the past four or five years. 

Some Flatlander readers say the provincial governments should invest more in EV infrastructure; others say tax money shouldn’t be invested in charging stations. Regardless of how you feel as a reader, it’s still worth knowing what the provincial governments are doing.

Manitoba Hydro and SaskPower are working to improve the power grids to accommodate EVs. 

As of Mar. 31, 2022, there were 1,288 EVs registered in Manitoba, according to Manitoba Hydro’s Market Forecast & Load Research March 2022 report.I have about half a dozen reader questions and comments on EVs that I will address in next week’s issue.

In the meantime, here is the second and final half of The Flatlander’s look at EVs.

Instead of breaking the article into parts, as I did with the lithium article, I’ve made the whole article available online all at once. 

You can read the full article here.

If you are just interested in Manitoba or Saskatchewan, you can click on the links below to jump to the part of the article about your province.

• Challenges in Manitoba’s north
• Secondary highways lack charging infrastructure in Saskatchewan
• EVs are still a tough sell on the Prairies

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