3 of these will soon be on the streets of Vancouver.

Just left this event.  The cars look pretty snazzy, and the launch seemed like more than your typical corporate/government type of photo opportunity.

Media Advisory: Province of British Columbia, City of Vancouver, BC Hydro and Mitsubishi Motors

Electric cars delivered to Vancouver

November 18, 2009
The City of Vancouver and BC Hydro will receive three of North America’s first production-ready, highway-capable electric cars, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, at a handover event:
When: Friday, November 20, 2009
11 am
Where: Sunset Community Centre
6810 Main Street
Blair Lekstrom, B.C. Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources will be joined by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and representatives from BC Hydro for the car delivery. Mr. Tomoki Yanagawa, Vice-President of Sales/Marketing and Corporate Planning of Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada Inc. will represent the manufacturer.
Photographers will be able to capture images of the dignitaries, the new vehicles and a new public electric plug-in station at the Sunset Community Centre.
The Province of B.C., City of Vancouver and BC Hydro signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Canada and Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada Incorporated earlier this year to allow the cars to be demonstrated in B.C. Two cars will be added to BC Hydro’s fleet and the City of Vancouver will receive one.

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Here are some random thoughts from this pilot program:

1. I wonder how fast an adequate infrastructure can be installed to support the sale of these to the general public.  In addition to the Mitsubishi i-MIEV, the Nissan LEAF is also coming to Vancouver for another pilot project in 2011.  In consideration of the fact that the i-MIEV’s specialized battery can be charged with a standard 110v wall socket or 220v dryer type socket, however, it should happen very quickly, both for already existing buildings and also new developments.  The retrofitting will require an investment – possibly as a partnership between the city and the province?
2. This is going to have significant impact across North America.  With Vancouver doing everything it can to support the new technology, the city is poised to be a focal point for the reemergence of the electric car in North America.  This is the kind of anchor the city needs to firmly establish it as a centre for cutting edge sustainable technologies.
3. Obama just weeks ago unveiled $2.4-billion (U.S.) in stimulus grants to jump start an electric vehicle industry in the United States – and the U.S. government also plans to give buyers a $7,500 electric vehicle subsidy. Ontario plans to offer rebates of up to $10,000 on the purchase of electric cars after July 1, 2010. Also, Ontario plans to make driving electric cars and the like easier by giving such cars access to high-occupancy lanes on expressways and special parking spaces at GO Transit and government lots.  Vancouver and the province should figure out a way to create the infrastructure and then stimulate purchasing across the city by way of a subsidy program.  This would dramatically help out local businesses while at the same time moving forward on Vancouver’s emission reduction targets.
4. I am aware that manufacturing of vehicles would NEVER work out here.  However, creating an economic cluster for electric car related industries and manufacturer North American offices devoted to these product lines is a very intriguing possibility.
5. The city and the province have the ability to do something very innovative in collaboration.  Whether or not such a partnership gets bogged down in the kind of territorial pissing matches that the homelessness and affordable housing colllaborations have been dominated by is most definitely up in the air, however.

“Creating an infrastructure for the electric car idea was panned by the development community and seen by many as a Council vote where intention would dwarf action.  On the contrary, the policy directive has created waves across North America.  One of my closest friends who has just left our fair country to move to Chicago is a sustainability-centred financial analyst who just happens to be working with one of the companies on the continent that is looking to broadly build that electric infrastructure.”

Expect to see these plugged in around Vancouver as of 2011.

Well, the simple vote that launched Vancouver down this path has already begun to attract business, as the Renault-Nissan Alliance has just signed a zero-emission partnership to make Vancouver the first major testing site for the Nissan LEAF, the company’s first all-electric, as of 2011.

Quite frankly, the greenest city aspirations of Mayor Gregor Robertson will only be as good as their ability to become a source of economic activity, making consistency in these kinds of successes extremely important over the coming years.

It will be interesting to see what kind of specific targets and benchmarks the upcoming economic development strategy from the VEDC lays out.

Regardless, this Nissan pilot program is a fantastic start towards greening our local economy.