Item - 2022.IE27.7

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council approve the extension of the Downtown and Residential Electric Vehicle Charging Station pilots by eight (8) months until May 31, 2022.

2. City Council authorize the General Manager, Transportation Services to amend, enter into and execute existing participation agreements between Transportation Services and Toronto Hydro for the Downtown and Residential On-Street Pilot Projects, per Recommendation 1 above, and on such other terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Transportation Services, and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

3. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services to report back to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee with the final results of the Downtown and Residential On-street Electric Vehicle Charge Station pilot at the end of the extended evaluation period in the Second Quarter of 2022, should Recommendation 1 above be approved, and next steps on an expanded program for on-street electric vehicle charging with implementation on-street as early as 2022.

4. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services in consultation with Toronto Hydro and the Toronto Parking Authority to commence expansion of the City's On-Street Electric Vehicle Charging Station program, including siting criteria, costs, and any other requirements to ensure expeditious roll-out of further locations as funding becomes available in 2022, with existing charge stations and future new charge stations to be transferred to the responsibility of the Toronto Parking Authority in 2023.  

5. City Council authorize and direct the appropriate City officials to take the action to give effect thereto.

This report provides an update on the one-year Residential and Downtown On-Street Electric Vehicle Charging Station pilots that were launched in October of 2020, including information on charging station utilization, greenhouse gas impacts, costs, revenues and measures taken to improve compliance by non-Electric Vehicle operators with the existing Electric Vehicle parking regulations.  

At the request of Toronto Hydro, the report seeks City Council approval to continue collecting data on the sites that were part of the Downtown and Residential Electric Vehicle Charging Station pilots by eight (8) months. While uptake of the pilots’ charging stations has increased over the past 12 months, the pandemic has had an impact on some of the findings. This ongoing review will allow time to collect additional data for a more accurate reflection of Electric Vehicle charging adoption as more of the workforce returns to work centres and Electric Vehicle owners require steady-state charging of their Electric Vehicles. If approved staff will be seeking City Council authority to amend the existing participation agreements between Transportation Services and Toronto Hydro to reflect an extension to the pilots for eight more months.

The report also speaks to the plan for extending the first stage of the Electric Vehicle roll-out into a more comprehensive city-wide program. It is further anticipated that this program be transferred to the responsibility of the Toronto Parking Authority beginning in 2023 and that Toronto Parking Authority integrate this program with its network of public Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure that it is developing as part of its Electric Vehicle charging program.