The province with the most eager EV shoppers

[Summitric]

May 9, 2023 by Adam Malik

The province with the most eager EV shoppers​

Despite concerns, the interest level Canadians have to own an electric vehicle as their next car remains high, a new survey found. And interest is highest in Quebec.

The second annual Car Ownership Index from Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace, reported that about a quarter (26 per cent) of those interested in buying or leasing an EV are motivated by the idea of choosing a better car for the planet.

More, however, are looking at electrics as a way to save money spent at the fuel pump (38 per cent).

Still, costs to purchase are getting in the way. The survey found the biggest hesitation around purchasing or leasing an EV (31 per cent) is based on cost.

But that hasn’t slowed down interest in finding an alternative to an internal combustion engine. Turo’s survey reported that more than half of Canadians (54 per cent) plan to buy a hybrid or electric vehicle. That’s similar to what the survey found one year ago.

“Although the focus around car ownership and usage has shifted to affordability this year, the study shows several Canadians continue to seek EV and hybrid options,” said Christian Bourque, executive vice president and senior partner at Leger, which conducted the survey on behalf of Turo.

And it’s Quebecers who are the most eager to adopt EVs — 64 per cent said electric is their next choice.

What would help EV interest, the survey found, is growing familiarity around these vehicles with the buying public. If they had the opportunity to test drive an EV for a few days or weeks before making a decision to purchase, 54 per cent of Canadians said they’d be more comfortable buying one.

“Canadians’ lack of experience with EVs remains a strong barrier to adoption and, given the continued interest in extended test drives from our initial index into this year, we believe increased exposure to EVs may accelerate ownership in Canada,” said Cedric Mathieu, senior vice president and head of Turo in Canada.

 

[sirkdev]

I'm shocked by this Quebecers...

 

[Bnorth]

TBH I'm shocked it's not the urban wasteland yuppies in BC.

 

[ABMax24]

Quebec has stupid cheap government subsidized electricity and huge EV rebates.

Not really surprising at all.

 

[LUCKY 7]

TBH I'm shocked it's not the urban wasteland yuppies in BC.

I would of thought the same thing. When I was down in the lower mainland we were shocked at all the ev's

 

[lilduke]

From Doomburg:




"It’s not how you play the game, it’s how you place the blame.” – Don Simpson

On Saturday, the world was treated to a most incredible article in The New York Times. Ominously titled “Backup Power: A Growing Need, if You Can Afford It,” the piece tells a somber tale of those struggling with power outages, a phenomenon on the rise across the US. It goes on to describe how the affluent have taken rational but costly steps to insulate themselves from our newly unreliable power providers, remedies far out of reach for those struggling to make ends meet. Although the people profiled in the piece are undoubtedly legitimate victims of the current state of the US energy grid, the authors’ worldview as to how we got here is, well, a tad gaslight-y. See if you can spot the logical sleight-of-hand:

“As climate change increases the severity of heat waves, cold spells and other extreme weather, blackouts are becoming more common. In the 11 years to 2021, there were 986 weather-related power outages in the United States, nearly twice as many as in the previous 11 years, according to government data analyzed by Climate Central, a nonprofit group of scientists. The average U.S. electric utility customer lost power for nearly eight hours in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration, more than twice as long as in 2013, the earliest year for which that data is available.”

​

The future | The New York Times
According to the authors, the grid is an amorphous “thing” that was working just fine until the weather changed. Absent from the analysis is any consideration of how recent changes to the grid—the introduction of intermittent sources of energy, like wind and solar, and overloading it with new demand from the green electrification agenda—may be playing an originating role in these early signs of crisis. The one thing the Times does get right here is that the worst is yet to come (emphasis added throughout):

“Energy experts warn that power outages will become more common because of extreme weather linked to climate change. And those blackouts will hurt more people as Americans buy electric heat pumps and battery-powered cars to replace furnaces and vehicles that burn fossil fuels — a shift essential to limiting climate change.
‘The grids will be more vulnerable,’ said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California and an expert in disaster response. ‘That furthers the divide between the haves and the have-nots.’”

To aspiring central planners and their enablers in the media, empirical evidence that their policies are backfiring is merely proof of the need to double down. From this, a horde of otherwise intelligent people earnestly believes that proactively destabilizing the grid is not the cause of grid instability. Nowhere is this more pointed than in Germany, a country several years ahead of the US in its journey toward national energy suicide. Having invested untold billions in solar and wind energy, the country is now aggressively electrifying its transportation and residential heating sectors. Despite the resulting obvious need for more electricity, German Greens celebrated the closure of the country’s last three nuclear power plants in April, bringing to an end a decades-long obsession with severing their toes in the name of saving their feet:

“Anti-nuclear campaigners in Germany celebrated in Munich on Saturday as the country began winding down its three remaining nuclear power plants as part of a long-planned transition toward renewable energy….
Munich’s mayor, Dieter Reite, supported the delay but admitted on Saturday that he was pleased with this weekend’s shutdown.
‘The future isn’t named nuclear power. The future is named renewable energies. That will be our future. Since 2008, we in Munich have actually only focused on the expansion of renewable energies,’ he said.”

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Architects of progress? | Euronews
Given Germany’s multi-year lead in the race to the energy bottom, how events unfold as the implementation of Energiewende enters its final stages will be an instructive case study in the disastrous consequences of pursuing green utopian fantasies. What would Germany look like with full implementation of electric vehicle and heat pump mandates? How much electricity would be needed and where will it come from? What will be the impact on the German industrial base? The numbers are freely available, so let’s have a look at them...

 

[JayT]

Yep this is going to get real fun. Best thing to do is just get off grid and not worry about it.

 

[Pedaling pete]

How? With solar panels and wind? Ive seen how reliable those are. Plus not cheap to set up.

And It gets expensive quick running a generator 24/7.

For the time being the grid is the best option we have. Be a good idea to try to keep that intact...

 

[imdoo'n]

lol, interesting, wonder how it's going to happen! BS