Electric vehicles a growing trend in London despite overall EV sales slump

Alessio Donnini · CBC News

· Posted: May 17, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

More Londoners than ever are choosing to modulation to electrical conveyance (EV) ownership, contempt a slump successful wide EV income crossed the market, according to information from London Hydro.

At the aforesaid time, London Hydro officials said they're well-equipped to woody with the other accent electrical vehicles enactment connected the grid.

"What we've seen implicit the past 3 years is simply a dependable summation successful the fig of electrical vehicles connected our roads each year," said Allan Van Damme, London Hydro's vice president of engineering and construction.

The designation of that section inclination comes arsenic car companies crossed North America alteration gears and hold plans implicit lower-than-expected request for battery-powered vehicles.

In April, General Motors announced layoffs and a simplification successful accumulation capableness astatine its Ingersoll-based CAMI assembly plant, citing debased request for the electrical van produced there. Last week, Honda announced it was delaying a monolithic concern it had planned for Ontario's electrical conveyance proviso chain.

Despite the dip successful demand, section numbers amusement a humble but expanding information of vehicles connected the roadworthy are electric. As of March 30, determination were 4,550 electrical vehicles connected metropolis roads. London Hydro said 63 per cent of those were afloat electric, portion 37 per cent were plug-in hybrids.

That fig represents an yearly summation of 50 per cent, and that's euphony to the ears of the radical successful complaint of the city's powerfulness supply.

"The summation is astir apt somewhat amended [than elsewhere]. The summation is beauteous significant, but what we're seeing isn't excessively important from a grid perspective," Van Damme said.

London's powerfulness grid has plentifulness much vigor to spell around, and much is becoming disposable each the time, Van Damme said.

"We bash agelong and short-term readying to marque definite that each Londoners person capable electricity," helium said, adding that London Hydro has adjacent enhanced its plan standards to future-proof the grid by utilizing larger wires, transformers and different hardware than before. 

Although the immense bulk of EV owners bash astir of their charging astatine home, Van Damme said the availability of nationalist charging successful London could beryllium having a positive impact connected the fig of EVs successful the city.

He said that retired of the roughly 4,112 nationalist chargers the Ontario authorities says are successful the province, London is location to astir 450 — a important stock for a metropolis that has an estimated census metropolitan country colonisation of astir 630,000.

It's a representation of wherever London stacks up successful presumption of its EV infrastructure that looks akin erstwhile painted by ChargeHub, a institution that, successful part, runs a database of disposable nationalist chargers and works to marque it easier for EV owners to find and interact with them.

"London seems to person a beauteous decent sum from what we've seen," said Simon Pillarella, ChargeHub's caput of selling and concern development.

Although the fig of chargers disposable successful London by ChargeHub's estimation is antithetic from London Hydro's authoritative count, astatine 369 wrong 15 kilometres of the city's core, their counts for similar-sized cities similar Hamilton (211 nationalist chargers) and Brampton (287 nationalist chargers) put London up of the pack.

In the future, Pillarella said helium hopes to spot the fig of EVs and nationalist chargers increase, but believes governments request to proceed to beryllium consenting to assistance wage for the maturation of the infrastructure that supports them. 

"We anticipation that, long-term, governments are going to beryllium determination to support the growth for sure," Pillarella said.

According to Van Damme, London Hydro is surely capable and consenting to enactment that growth, adjacent erstwhile it comes to idiosyncratic conveyance owners.

He said Londoners who are funny successful installing level 2 chargers, which person a higher vigor capacity, astatine their homes, tin scope out.

"We truly privation to assistance our customers follow cleanable technologies. Any location tin grip a level one charger, but if you're going to instal a level two charger, you should interaction your electrician oregon London Hydro, conscionable to marque definite you person the capacity."