POLL: Growing market for electric cars in PA, says Evergreen Nissan

He said the demand for such a vehicle is there in Prince Albert and he’s ready to take advantage and provide the demand, already bringing in two of the Leafs.

“That’s all I could get to start and I could get more as I sell them. I hope to do a good volume in a couple of months,” he said.

According to Jones, the dealership is following the lead of the sales of the Leaf in the United States of America. He explained it took a little time for customers to get over the fear that the car could not travel long distances, but realized the distances are long enough to get to charging stations.

“Everybody is so scared of range and that’s the whole thing with range-anxiety with electric vehicles, and it has taken three years for the Leaf and the customers in the U.S. to get over it, and actually the Leaf sales in the U.S. are going up quite substantially,” he said, continuing on to say the public quickly realizes drivers do not usually travel 200 kilometres (kms) or more a day.

To charge an electric vehicle, owners can plug in at home in their 110 volt (V) outlet or buy a 220V charger, which can power up the car in around seven hours. Jones said they will have two charging outlets located at their store as well.

“I haven’t contacted the City of Prince Albert, but I have contacted the province of Saskatchewan and SaskPower and they’re looking at setting up a network [of charging stations], but because they’re so new it’s taking some time,” he said.

Just on Monday, a new charging station was revealed at the Bessborough Hotel thanks to Sun Country Highway, a company that sells electric car chargers and is known for building “the world's longest green highway.”

Kent Rathwell, founder and president said their goal is to electrify 90 per cent of all Canadian highways by the end of this year.

“What we decided to do a year ago was decided to allow people to travel and even if they’ve never been across Canada that argument is no longer applicable for them to be able to say ‘well yes we can buy one and drive it locally, but what if we do want to drive across Canada,’” Rathwell said.

Currently Saskatchewan has about 30 charging stations and Rathwell said the reason the electric car movement has been stalled is because of the lack of long-distance travelling, but that hurdle is being taken down.

“We’re moving forward fairly quickly throughout Saskatchewan actually as well as the other provinces in Canada. We don’t have any provincial support here in the province, but we’re still going to have 90 per cent of Saskatchewan’s highways done this year, so people will be able to travel from PA to virtually any corner in Canada that has highways leading up to it,” he said.

At the Sun Country Highway charging stations an hour of free charging gives a driver 100 to 150 km of driving and a quick “coffee break” allows for 30 to 50 km.

Cold takes on electric vehicle

With Prince Albert and Saskatchewan as a whole experiencing such a long and chilly winter, some drivers wonder what tolls that weather takes on an electric vehicle.
According to both Jones and Rathwell, electric vehicles can hold up to the conditions.

Rathwell said last winter he drove the Tulsa electric vehicle through Saskatchewan during a cold day to prove the battery could last.

“In the cold weather you usually plug in your electric vehicle anyway when it’s -30 C or -40 C, so really there’s no difference other than you actually charge up your battery pack instead of just warming up your block,” Rathwell explained.

Jones admitted heating the car takes some of its driving life away, but agrees once you get where you need to go just plug it in like a driver would to keep the block warm.

“The batteries actually like the cold but it’s the heating of the car that will actually take probably an extra 20 per cent of the battery life or range,” he said. “But you know if you’re only going to travel 100 kilometres a day in the winter it’s still a very viable situation and if you do go to wherever you’re working plug it in while you’re there.”

Despite the emerging electric vehicles and charging stations, not all dealerships will be bringing in their electric models.

Evan Nimalovitch, general sales manager at Lakeland Ford in Prince Albert, said Ford does have the “Focus Electric” model that is fully electric, but they have no immediate plans to bring it on their lot.

“We don’t have any plans for that just yet, it’s not a huge market for us up in Prince Albert, but if there’s someone that wanted one—absolutely,” he said.

Instead, they are relying on their hybrid, Ford C-MAX, which is electric in the city and runs on a gas motor on the highways.

“It uses heat from the brakes to actually recharge the batter, so you never actually have to plug the car in.”

The Nissan Leaf starts around $28,000 while the Ford C-MAX starts around $31,000.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84

by Sarah Stone

POLL: Growing market for electric cars in PA, says Evergreen Nissan

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