Feds, Toronto spending $10M to install 526 new EV chargers for city's fleet

A joint investment of $5 million each from the federal government and Toronto will see 526 new electric vehicle chargers installed for use by the city's municipal fleet.

"City vehicles are essential to the delivery of our public services. They also represent 40 per cent of the city of Toronto's corporate emissions," Coun. Jennifer McKelvie said at a Wednesday morning news conference downtown. 

The chargers are set to be installed by December 2025 at some 100 on-street locations throughout Toronto.

McKelvie said the city's fleet of more than 10,000 vehicles, including those used by Toronto police, firefighters and paramedics, is the largest in Canada and among the largest in North America.

As part of its plan to reach net zero emissions by 2040, the city aims to transition 20 per cent of its municipal fleet to electric vehicles by next year, and 50 per cent by 2030. 

At the end of last year, roughly seven per cent of city vehicles were fully electric, according to a recent staff report, including 60 electric TTC buses. Toronto Fire also expects delivery of a fully electric fire engine this year, McKelvie said.

The federal money is part of Ottawa's effort to install 80,000 publicly funded electric vehicle chargers nationwide by 2029, said Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, who joined McKelvie at the announcement.

"We are doing this so that Canadians can rest assured that, no matter where they are, they can access electric charging as easily as we can access gasoline pumps today," Wilkinson said. 

"By making infrastructure more available and more reliable, electric vehicle drivers can be confident that they will have access to charging wherever they go."