Montreal outlines ambitious plans for electric vehicle charging station network

The city of Montreal unveiled on Sunday a plan to install 106 street-side electric vehicle charging stations around the city’s downtown core by the spring of 2016, with additional plans to enhance the network to 1,000 by 2020.

Responsibility for installing the charging stations will be split 53 each between the city and the Quebec government.

The announcement was made by Montreal mayor Denis Coderre and Quebec Transport Minister Robert Poëti.

After Hydro Quebec issued a request for proposals two years ago, the contract was finally awarded to AddÉnergie Technologies Inc. of Shawinigan.

Two types of stations will be installed at a total cost of $415,000: 50 240-volt charging stations with two plugs each, costing the user $1 per hour plus parking costs; and six 400-volt fast charging stations, costing $10 per hour.

The fast charging stations can take 10 minutes to charge a car to drive 50 kilometres.

The first four stations will be installed in November on St. Antoine West, near the Palais des congrès convention centre.

“It’s a matter of thinking globally and acting locally,” said Coderre at a press conference.

Quebec director of electrification of transport France Lampron told reporters that the stations were both weather-proofed for Quebec’s climate and future-proofed to adapt to new technologies as they develop.

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As a pilot project, the city had already installed two charging stations downtown for the past year, one on St. Urbain Street and the other near Place Victoria, which Coderre said were used an average of 60 to 75 times per month.

In addition, 80 charging stations will be installed around the island of Montreal, not street-side like the urban models but in parking lots.

The Quebec government unveiled earlier in October ago a program called “Propulser le Québec par l’électricité”, which will see $420 million spent over the next five years to promote the integration of electric vehicles into existing infrastructure, $500,000 of which is earmarked for urban charging stations.

“In concrete terms, with this action plan, by 2020 we would like to see 100,000 rechargeable electric and hybrid vehicles registered in Quebec, and a reduction of 150,000 tonnes of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions and 66 million liters of fuel consumed annually in Quebec,” said Poëti.

There are more than 7,000 electric vehicles now registered in Quebec, half of which are on the island of Montreal.

By the government’s reckoning, 43% of greenhouse gases in Quebec are emitted by vehicle traffic. The city aims to cut 30% of total emissions by 2020.