Ontario charging station manufacturing plant to jolt Canada’s electric car industry
by Cleantech Canada Staff
The new facility will produce about 40,000 charging stations each year and create 100 jobs
More electric vehicles mean more electric chargers. Without implementing smart grids, more chargers could mean grid problems. PHOTO: Mariordo/Wikimedia
MARKHAM, Ont.—Ontario’s first production plant dedicated to building electric vehicle charging stations has opened its doors just north of Toronto.
The site will produce as many as 40,000 charging stations a year and create 100 new manufacturing jobs over the next three years. It’s a joint venture between EV equipment firm Autochargers.ca and eMotoWerks, a subsidiary of Italy’s Enel Group focussed on smart grid and charging technology,
Company officials and several prominent provincial government figures were at the new site in Markham, Ont. late last week for the grand opening. The companies did not disclose how much they spent on the new manufacturing operation.
“Ontario’s centralized location makes it a perfect location for scaling Canada’s green economy, and that requires scalable EV solutions such as those from eMotorWerks,” Gleb Nikiforov, CEO of Autochargers.ca, said in a statement.
The plant will create both new clean economy jobs and help jolt the electric vehicle industry across the country, Nikiforov added.
As more battery electric cars begin taking to Canadian streets, charging infrastructure will need to be expanded to keep up with demand. More vehicles charging also means more power being pulled from the grid.
The new Markham plan will focus on building eMotorWerks JuiceBox charging stations, which are enabled with smart grid technology. Among other features, the chargers are designed to shift EV charging load to off-peak times of day, which helps the grid remain stable. Different models of the JuiceBox offer different electrical outputs and are designed both for residential and commercial use.
