The Town of Huntsville will test drive three light-duty electric vehicles before officially committing to transitioning its fleet.
The move was approved at the September 24 General Committee meeting, as part of the Town’s commitment to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and attempt to arrive at net-zero emissions by 2050.
The General Committee approved the pilot project, which includes a loan and some grant money from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
“The Town’s fleet accounted for 37% of the Town’s annual GHG emissions in 2018 – roughly 538 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Approximately 10% of the fleet’s emissions come from its light-duty vehicles including cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks,” states a report to council by David Zilkey, Climate Action Strategist with the Town.
He stated that the municipality will “prioritize end-of-life petroleum-powered vehicle replacement with electric alternatives, whereby the increased upfront cost of an electric vehicle is offset by fuel and maintenance cost savings. Necessary charging infrastructure costs may be offset through funding opportunities via the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund.”
The transition of three end-of-life petroleum-powered vehicles to light-duty electric vehicles will begin in 2027 and serve three different departments. Level 2 charging stations will also be installed on Town property, allowing the vehicles to be charged overnight.
The cost to fill up is anticipated at about 20 cents per kilowatt, and staff noted that even a fast charger would be significantly cheaper than gas costs.
Staff will run the test pilot to see how operations are impacted, address any issues that may arise, and monitor the financial and environmental impact.
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock welcomed the initiative and said the District had already begun replacing some of its gas-powered vehicles with electric vehicles. She said so far, the results have been positive, with no concerns reported in winter.
Councillor Cory Clarke expressed concerns, even though it is a pilot and there is some grant money, he said EVs are affected by the cold, heavy loads and towing. “So I think, you know, the problem with EVs is that you’re looking at potentially a limited use for these vehicle.”
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I wonder if this little “pilot” is too late to make a difference. We are now at the Adaptation stage – we should be investing more in community emergency supports, infrastructure and firesmart and heat and cold development rules and strengthen public engagement, community, neighbourhood connections to respond to severe unpredictable drought, wildfire, floods etc. This is the only affordable “insurance” to meet the climate change challenges. Every person and business in Muskoka will struggle to “take care of themselves” to live in this place as they want. Let’s start working together.
I don’t want electric vehicles, the company who I work for said they will take money off our paycheck if at some point we use their hydro to charge the vehicles.. it’s bad enough to live paycheck to paycheck..
We don’t have money for another costly experiment…. Stop wasting our tax dollars and asking for more…. How about we spend some money on the streets and maintain the side walks that are falling apart… My driveway is a mess because of these side walkes that need to be fix … And how about we cut all the top wages we pay to town employees in half the sunshine list is out of hand…
It seems that Councillor Cory Clarke doesn’t understand the purpose of a pilot project. The concerns the councillor raises, which indeed are questions to be answered, is exactly the purpose of the pilot. Being “concerned” by the pilot means he doesn’t really want answers to his questions.
I was at a funeral last week. I walked out of Mitchell’s at approximately 10:30 am and noticed 8 town vehicles in the parking lot beside their facility. The next day I drove by and noticed a number of town vehicles in the lot and also parked on the street.Why were they parked during working hours. The town should not be provide vehicles for people to get to work at town hall.
Rather than buying electric vehicles it may be better to eliminate a number of vehicles in the fleet and that would very effectively reduce cost and pollution.
Cory Clarke needs to get a little more informed before he comments on new technology. It is true that EV vehicles are affected by the cold, heavy loads, and towing – but so are petroleum powered vehicles. To state “you’re looking at potentially a limited use for these vehicle” is ridiculous. There are certainly still situations where an EV is less convenient (long haul heavy towing in cold weather, for example) but I don’t think the town vehicles will see much, if any, of those situations. Cheap charging overnight when energy costs are low and it is not impacting the grid should allow the staff to keep the vehicles fully charged every morning. There are way more advantages (other than the large cost savings) then disadvantages. For example, you can happily leave your climate control running when parked and not have to worry about creating air or noise pollution. I have been driving EVs for over 5 years now, and I have owned one for 3 years. The town fleet is a perfect fit for EVs. Certainly there is a small learning curve, but once you get over that, it is pretty difficult to go back to petroleum.
A good move IMO.
Forget the “greenhouse gas” nonsense and “climate change” fear mongering, but electric vehicles are the future, if, primarily for local driving.
Down the road with further improvements in the technology and better infrastructure (charging stations) this can be expanded. Warranties can be key with replacement batteries being so expensive, often worth more than the vehicle itself.
There seems to be a wide divergence in quality between the various vehicle manufacturers, with some cutting back production due to a lack of demand. I would suggest production cutbacks are likely due to inferior products being manufactured. Toyota & Tesla seem to be heading the pack currently, maintenance support is key.
Challenging times but it is good to be educated early by testing and monitoring electric vehicles.
I have yet to see a “full” assessment of electric vehicles, one that includes the costs of the raw materials to make the batteries and the cost to replace batteries when they wear out and the vehicle is still in good condition.
The recycling procedure for vehicle batteries has yet to be explained in detail, with the appropriate costs included.
At least in Ontario, I am assuming that most of the electricity used by EV’s comes from the nuclear part (about 60%) of OPG’s generation and maybe some from water so that at least a major part of the energy used is, or could be called “green” energy, but again there is no study that I have seen that shows this.
Bottom line is that EV use must be better planned to match their battery capacity than an oil powered vehicle and if the recycling of the critical materials from used batteries is not accomplished efficiently then EV’s fail right from the start.
It would be nice to see some more data on these aspects of an EV as they matter more than the relative cost of fuel and day to day maintenance in the long run yet they seldom seem to show up in public information.