Electric Vehicles

In Norway, where more than one third of cars on the road are electric, standard combustion engine vehicles catch fire around 5 or 6 times more often than EVs.

Emergency services were called to around 30 fires per 100,000 standard cars on the road per year during 2018–2022, compared with around 5 EV fires per 100,000 vehicles.

It should be noted that traditional fuels such as gasoline and diesel are extremely flammable but safety measures were put in place to lower the chance of fuel combustion happening outside of the engine itself.

Modern EV batteries are typically warranted for at least 8 years and 160,000km but they typically last at least 15–20 years or more (time will tell once batteries reach that age.)

Battery technology is also changing rapidly making batteries increasingly more efficient and long-lasting.

Old batteries are typically replaced when they reach about 80% of their original capacity which means they can still be used for grid/long-term storage.

Modern batteries can also be recycled decreasing pressure on mining for precious minerals.

A recent report analyzed over 8,000 battery tests across 36 automakers—covering EVs ranging from brand new to 2 years old and over 250,000 km of use—and found average battery health at 95% of original capacity. The average battery capacity for vehicles 8–9 years old is 85%. Testing found that charging and usage habits matter more than mileage when it comes to battery health.

It gets pretty cold in the Scandinavian nation of Norway that has been adopting EVs faster than any other nation with 9 out of 10 new vehicles sold being EVs. The number of electric cars on the road now outnumbers gas cars.

Clean Energy Canada analyzed a number of popular electric car models, comparing their total ownership costs with that of gas equivalents. With just one exception, the electric version of every car analyzed was cheaper, usually significantly so.

With new markets opening up to Canadians for more affordable EVs, the costs will only continue to go down.

EVs do lose some range during extreme cold, but studies have shown no more than 30% and as low as 8% for some makes and models.

Modern EVs also have considerably more range than required for most daily journeys and most modern EVs have battery heating options that preheat the battery before driving to reduce range loss.

Cold weather can also increase gas car fuel consumption by up to 28%, reducing range and increasing fool costs and unlike a gas car, EVs do not have problems starting in cold weather.

Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) yield 52% to 77% lower lifetime carbon emissions than conventional gasoline cars, despite producing higher emissions during the initial manufacturing process.

Most of Canada's electricity, also comes from non-polluting sources. But even when electrical grids are powered by fossil fuels, it is still less carbon intensive to charge a battery than to burn gasoline in a vehicle directly.

They are also far more energy efficient than gas cars. EVs use about 87-91% of the energy from battery and regenerative breaking to propel the vehicle. Gasoline vehicles only convert about 16-25% of the energy from gas into movement.

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Electric vehicles, on average, are cheaper to own than gasoline vehicles with large savings over their lifetimes. While sticker prices, depreciation rates, and insurance costs are a little higher, these are largely offset by greater cost savings in maintenance, repair and refueling.

In fact, a number of carbon credit programs are available in Canada that pay EV owners per kWh of charge when they charge at home.  In some cases, for example, when charging off peak rate times, this can mean that homeowners get paid back more than what they pay to charge their vehicles.

Most of the energy from a battery goes to moving an electric vehicle and the battery charges with regenerative breaking. Gasoline powered vehicles lose most of their energy to heat.

This is not a risk today even if EV adoption rates increase significantly, and it can prevented as EV adoption / electrification occurs simultaneously with grid expansion and the implementation of distributed energy such as solar, vehicle to grid charging and other technologies.

All provinces are also planning for significant increases in grid capacity.

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It is true that EV manufacturing has a higher emissions footprint due to lithium-ion batteries.

But as soon as the car hits the road, gasoline cars begin a lifetime of carbon pollution emissions while EVs make up for their battery manufacturing emissions with the first 18,000–36,000 kilometres driven.

EVs are also more efficient in their energy use with almost two-thirds of the energy used in a gasoline car being lost to heat. Even an electric car charged from an energy grid powered by fossil fuels is more efficient and less carbon pollution intense than burning gasoline directly.

No matter where you live in Canada, EVs are better for the planet than internal-combustion engines and its not even close.

EV batteries can also be given a second life after they are decommissioned from vehicles as grid energy storage and eventually can be recycled as they are made from recyclable materials.

EVs can be plugged into the same type of outlet as your toaster!

You can also install a fast charger at home.

And there are >38,000 charging stations in Canada with plans for significant expansion announced in 2026.