The City of Toronto voted to order Toronto Hydro to add at least 17 more on-street chargers in 2022.
The move will help encourage EV adoption and help reduce tailpipe emissions in the city.
The funding comes from a five-year-old pilot project that launched back in 2017. The pilot project produced 17 chargers across Toronto, including 9 on-street locations and the remainder at other sites, including Green P lots.
City Councillors demanded more action, and thus we have another 17 ordered.
City Manager Chris Murray noted that this is nowhere near the number of spots the pilot project should have produced over five years.
He will work with Toronto Hydro to ensure that they focus more and deliver better results.
The 17 charging locations will cost the city in the seven-figure range. However, the City and Toronto Hydro will figure out how to accommodate the cost.
Further to this, Council voted to shift the responsibility of the on-street chargers and expansion of the program to the Toronto Parking Authority.
The city-owned Crown Corp operated Green P parking garages and metered on-street parking spots.
Toronto hopes to have 3,000 public EV charging spots by 2025 and 10,000 by 2030. However, they are miles behind and will need to speed up installations to come close to the 2025 goal.
