Toronto City Council approved the installation of 32 new EV charging stations for 17 residential on-street permit parking locations.
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In 2023, the Toronto Parking Authority will take full responsibility for the operations and maintenance of all existing and future on-street chargers, and will see the rollout of at least 50 additional charging stations by the end of that year.
The City of Toronto and Toronto Hydro have successfully concluded the Residential and Downtown On-Street Electric Vehicle Charging Station pilot, which was launched in October 2020, and are on track to install 32 additional on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging stations by the end of the year.
The 20-month pilot saw 17 on-street EV charging stations installed in nine locations across the city. Usage of the chargers generally increased month over month, with an energy consumption total of 127,923 kilowatt hours (kWh) from October 2020 to April 2022.
At an average net greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation factor of 1.012 kgCO2e/kWh, this represents nearly 130 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e) that would otherwise have been emitted from internal combustion engine equivalents.
The City is also increasing EV adoption by requiring new buildings to have the infrastructure to support EV charging, providing funding to support and encourage EV charging infrastructure to be installed in existing buildings and providing public EV charging stations in Green P parking lots (up to 500 by the end of 2024) and at City-owned properties and facilities.
The City is also undertaking planning and policy developments to support the expansion of EV charging infrastructure in Toronto.
City Council adopted an ambitious strategy to reduce community-wide GHG emissions in Toronto to net zero by 2040 – 10 years earlier than initially proposed. The City’s target is one of the most ambitious in North America. ■
A very active and complex mid-May weather pattern is set to produce numerous areas of severe weather, heavy rain, high winds, and anomalous temperatures through this weekend.