Electric Cars and Other Green Tech - Government of Ontario, Canada Sees the Light

Apparently, a public talking-to by Al Gore, plus an impending election, have sharpened the mind of Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. He is now promising to lift the ridiculous ban on Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEV) such as the ones being made by Ontario-based ZENN Motor Co. McGuinty also promises big money to attract electric car manufacturers and other green technology makers to Ontario, Canada, starting with ZENN (now being assembled in Quebec), and on to GM's proposed Chevy Volt (currently rumoured to go to GM's Cobalt assembly plant in Ohio, USA).

The carrot, according to the Toronto Star:

"Grants from the five-year, $650 million fund will be available to both carmakers and other types of manufacturers, sources say.
"These include generators of clean energy, such as solar and wind power, and makers of cleaner fuels, among other products.
"The fund is a cornerstone of McGuinty's platform for the Oct. 10 provincial election.
"'I'll be saying to Detroit and I'll be saying to Japan ... let's partner and let's make them cleaner than they've ever been made before,' McGuinty said yesterday at a meeting of the Toronto Star editorial board. 'We know there are global markets to be exploited here.'"

Better late than never, I suppose. In McGuinty's case, though, "late" has had a tendency to turn to "later and later". The delays in his promised closing of Ontario's coal power plants, from 2007 to 2009 and then 2014, are notorious by now (see "The Trouble with Coal" sidebar story in the Toronto Star -- scroll down on the right side of this page).

Even this late in the game, though, McGuinty could have chosen to run on a better record instead of on promises. The quote from the NDP at the end of this article suggests that McGuinty may have been able to pass many of his "green" measures -- had he chosen to send them to the Legislature instead of to the Press:

"New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) said McGuinty's plan is electioneering that 'falls short on credibility' because it's based on his twice-broken promise to close coal plants.

"'There's an election coming. I think that's why you're seeing it today. If he's serious, if this is just not an election promise, recall the Legislature, put the measures before the Legislature and let's vote on them,' said Tabuns" [emphasis added].

Realistically, what happens after the election is what will count. Perhaps one day we would actually catch up to the innovative spirit in places like Ontario, California.

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"Driving on sunshine, whoa oh!.."* -- Hymotion, Solera and Veridian Test Solar PHEV Prius

Ontario, Canada-based Hymotion, the conversion kit suppliers for the Toronto PHEV test project, are moving right along. Hymotion have now added a solar panel to one of their converted PHEV Prius cars. Result: up to 14 km of "driving on sunshine" on a sunny summer day!

There is actually a history of such projects in Canada. In 2005, Steve Lapp, an engineer from Kingston, Ontario, had attached a solar roof rack to a "generation 1" (2001) Prius. He reportedly "...achieved an initial 10% fuel efficiency improvement". But "generation 2" (2004 or later) Prius can stay in EV mode longer than "generation 1" models. Therefore, Hymotion (and most competing PHEV conversion projects) have focused on the newer Prius. The fact that Hymotion now has major corporate backing for this idea (from Veridian Corp. and Solera in Durham Region, east of Toronto) shows that the concept is gaining momentum.

Moreover, Hymotion is now part of U.S.-based A123 Systems, who happen to be among battery suppliers being tested for GM's PHEV program. Will we see a solar-powered (or at least solar-augmented) Chevy Volt in the future? Stay tuned!

In the meantime, the Veridian Press Release says that

"The vehicle was recently on show at the Green Living Show drawing interest from [Ontario] Premier [Dalton] McGuinty, and many of the Ministers on hand to kick off the Green Show."

Let's hope that these politicians have finally gotten a clue, and would start promoting these types of technologies as the basis for future automotive policy in Ontario.

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* With apologies to Kimberley Rew and Katrina and the Waves, who originally wrote and performed "Walking on Sunshine".

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