We all knew and expected government EV rebate and incentive programs would end, but is now a good time to expect electric vehicles to stand on their own against less-expensive ICE vehicles? To get some perspective on this, and on other issues facing Canada’s automotive industry — and as you know there are many — Global Automakers of Canada CEO and president David Adams provides some great insights into where the EV segment is going in Canada, what needs to be done to keep the adoption momentum g...
May 04, 2025•34 min•Season 9Ep. 11
Ford of Canada sells three all-electric vehicles, the F-150 Lightning pickup truck, the E-Transit cargo van and the Mustang March-E, the latter of which outsold it’s gasoline powered stablemates three-to- one in 2024. That all contributed to a fantastic sales year last year for Ford’s EV segment, posting an amazing 66.1 per cent increase. On this episode of our special View from the C-Suite series, Andrew McCredie talks with Paul Roy, the man who oversees Ford of Canada’s Model e program. Among ...
Feb 12, 2025•31 min•Season 9Ep. 7
If you haven’t been paying attention, here’s a newsflash: Kia is making some of the most stylish and most technologically advanced all-electric vehicles available in Canada. And the great news is, as you’ll hear from Kia Canada vice-president and COO Elias El-Achhab on this episode of our special View from the C-Suite podcast series, there are two more all-new Kia EVs coming to Canada very soon. He’ll also explain why Kia Canada is investing in public charging, and recount his first-ever experie...
Feb 12, 2025•30 min•Season 9Ep. 10
Steve Flamand of Hyundai Canada sits down with Andrew McCredie to talk about his company’s strong presence in the EV sector in Canada and what the future looks like in that segment. His company is firing on all kilowatts with 2024 being a very strong sales year for Hyundai in Canada. Hyundai sales improved 13.9 per cent over 2023. And on the electrified front — that being a mix of hybrids, plug-hybrids and all- electrics — Hyundai delivered 45,159 vehicles to Canadian customers, representing a w...
Feb 12, 2025•32 min•Season 9Ep. 6
One couldn’t fault Toyota for feeling a little smug these days, as they are reaping the benefits — or at least not suffering as other automakers — of not pushing all their chips into the all-electric vehicle pot. They certainly took a lot of heat these past few years for not pivoting quicker to build and sell EVs, but now that wait-and-see attitude seems to be paying off. On this episode of our special View from the C-Suite podcast series, Toyota Canada President and CEO Cyril Dimitris sits down...
Feb 12, 2025•29 min•Season 9Ep. 9
Way back in 2019, Volvo committed to building nothing but ‘electrified’ vehicles by 2022, and hit that mark with a mix of mild-hybrids, hybrids, plug-in hybrids and full electric vehicles. The global brand also laid out plans to build nothing but vehicles with a plug by 2023, but last year adjusted that to 90 per cent with the remaining 10 per cent to consist of mild hybrid models. On this episode of our special View from the C-Suite podcast series, Volvo Canada managing director Matt Girgis joi...
Feb 12, 2025•29 min•Season 9Ep. 5
On this episode of our special View from the C-Suite podcast series, Audi Canada President and VW Groups Canada and CEO Vito Paladino joins the podcast to talk about why headwinds will not slow these automaker’s all-electric vehicle plans. He also explains why he welcomes the challenge of Chinese-built EVs, and how he’s not too concerned about the disappearance of government incentives and rebates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 12, 2025•33 min•Season 9Ep. 8
You’ve heard about the electric vehicle revolution, but what about the electric landscaping revolution? Since 2000 a New Westminster, BC company called The Silent Gardener has committed to reducing its carbon footprint in a business that traditionally has relied heavily on fossil fuels to get the job done. Today, its entire fleet of work vehicles is all-electric, as is all the landscaping equipment. Company owner Sheldon Ridout joins the podcast today to tell us about the philosophy behind his e...
Dec 05, 2024•31 min•Season 9Ep. 4
Facing the very real prospect of tumbling into outright irrelevance, storied marque Jaguar is rolling the dice on a complete transformation. The plan, with the first new model expected in late 2026, involves becoming a low-volume, high price, all-electric automaker going toe to toe with high-end automakers Bentley, Aston Martin and even Rolls-Royce. On today’s episode of the Plugged In Podcast, David Booth, a lifelong Jaguar fan incidentally, questions not only the plan itself but more important...
Nov 22, 2024•42 min•Season 9Ep. 3
Battery degradation. Like range anxiety, charging infrastructure and cold-weather running, how long a new electric vehicle’s battery will last is one of the very real concerns would-be, first-time EV buyers have when considering to go all-electric. Battery degradation is a big deal. No one wants to see their range go from say, 400 kilometres to 300 kilometres during the life of their vehicle. On this week’s episode we’re diving into some real-world battery degradation data with Charlotte Argue, ...
Oct 16, 2024•32 min•Season 9Ep. 2
One of the more contentious issues surrounding electric vehicles in Canada are so-called ZEV mandates, which sets target dates for EV sales. Several provinces have such mandates, including British Columbia and Quebec, but it is the federal government mandate that has really puts stakes in the ground. As a reminder, Canada’s zero emission vehicle mandate requires automakers ensure that 20 per cent in 2026, 60 per cent in 2030 and 100 per cent in 2035 of their vehicles sold in Canada are ZEVs. The...
Oct 02, 2024•37 min•Season 9Ep. 1
Misinformation. Add that to hunger, thirst and war as existential threats to our survival. In this age of dubious news sources, weaponized artificial intelligence and bad state actors, society has never been so polarized. That’s certainly true of the electric vehicle segment, where bogus studies from both sides of the issue muddy the waters and further confuse consumers. Our guest Dan Caesar, and the team he leads at Fully Charged and Everything Electric, has made it a career to provide honest r...
Jul 10, 2024•35 min•Season 8Ep. 6
Just as electric vehicles are seen as a sustainable solution to the world’s transportation needs, solar energy is considered essential to achieving our planet’s clean energy needs. Which makes the combination of the two seem only natural. That’s certainly what GoSun founder and CEO Patrick Sherwin thought, and the result is a clever, roof-mounted and expandable solar power panel that plugs directly into the vehicle that is carrying it. It’s an obvious solution for off-grid camping, van lifers an...
Jun 26, 2024•32 min•Season 8Ep. 5
User-case is a term often associated with electric vehicles, as while some people’s needs and requirements of a vehicle can be perfectly suited to an EV, others will find major shortfalls in going all-electric. The same is true for heavy trucks and buses, and one of the clear winning user cases for an EV bus is the variety that picks up and drops off school children. To prove that point, Ontario-based Pollution Probe teamed with several partners on the Calgary Electric School Bus Pilot Program. ...
Jun 12, 2024•28 min•Season 8Ep. 4
It all started in the depths of Covid, when Sloane Paul wanted to make her classic Bronco more ‘driver-friendly,’ and not so loud. But when she searched for a company that could convert her beautiful truck into an electric vehicle near her Toronto home, she came up empty handed. The entrepreneur in her sensed an opportunity, and after convincing her clever brother Tom Chep to join forces with her and figure out how to turn the Bronco into an EV, the duo created a company to do just that for othe...
May 29, 2024•32 min•Season 8Ep. 3
Ken Bokor is the host of the EV Revolution Show on YouTube, and for years has done some of the most in-depth sales tracking of electric vehicles in Canada. He’s also a loud and proud Tesla, owner and while he does see some logic to the recent upheavals to the automaker’s workforce and operating environment, he can’t help but admit he is a little concerned about the direction Elon Musk is taking the company. Ken remains bullish about EV adoption in Canada, and to prove the point lists off a numbe...
May 15, 2024•41 min•Season 8Ep. 2
We’re kicking off Season 8 of the Plugged In podcast with guest Nathan Yang, the Vice-President and Chief Product Officer for Flo, a Quebec-based company that has installed over 100,000 public, private and residential EV chargers since its founding in 2009. We begin with a birds-eye view of Canada’s public charging network — the successes, failures and possible solutions — then dive into on how Flo is playing a part, along with a number of other charging solution companies, in expanding and impr...
May 01, 2024•39 min•Season 8Ep. 1
Increasingly we’re seeing fully electric cargo vans and trucks zipping around our neighbourhoods as an increasing number of businesses are discovering the benefits of going electric. On this episode of the Plugged In podcast, host Andrew McCredie is joined by Charlotte Argue Senior Manager, Sustainable Mobility at Canada-based Geotab, the world’s largest telematics company. Charlotte has been active in the electric vehicle space since way back in 2009, and her current job is to focus on enabling...
Dec 13, 2023•40 min•Season 7Ep. 7
On today’s episode of the Plugged In podcast we welcome back long-time friend of the show Ken Bokor, one of the country’s pre-eminent EV experts. Not only does the Toronto-based host of the EV Revolution Show on YouTube know the technical aspects of electric vehicles, but his detailed research into sales data also provides an up-to-date snapshot of where things stand in terms of EV adoption in Canada. We’ll hear his thoughts on the headwinds that electric vehicles sales and production are curren...
Nov 15, 2023•36 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Road tripping and garage orphans represent two of the more pressing EV charging infrastructure issues that are holding back some from purchasing an electric vehicle. On this week’s episode of Plugged In, we talk with a B.C.-based entrepreneur Kevin Brett who has just launched a new start-up company that provides a solution to that problem. Blossom EV is an innovative web platform that uses a shared economy business model to help EV drivers locate, access and reserve charging sessions at Level 2 ...
Nov 01, 2023•24 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Ever ride in an all-electric taxi cab? Didn’t think so. While it’s true more and more Uber drivers are understanding the benefits of picking people up in an EV, traditional taxi fleets across the country have yet to see the electric light. On this week’s episode of Plugged In we try and answer that question with two guests. Matt Grace is a Calgary based sustainability consultant and researcher who is currently working on a study with Green Calgary and funded by Alberta Ecotrust to look into why ...
Oct 18, 2023•40 min•Season 7Ep. 4
One of the most important piece of equipment on a vehicle is the tire. It’s why tire strategy plays such a critical role in Formula 1. Safety and performance are hallmarks of high-quality tires, but so too is efficiency. And in the world of electric vehicles, efficiency is key. In the early days of EVs there was no such thing as tires engineered and designed with the unique qualities, and demands, of an electric vehicle in mind. But that’s changed, as many of the world’s leading tire manufacture...
Oct 04, 2023•30 min•Season 7Ep. 3
An integral part of Canada’s ongoing role in the electric vehicle revolution is education, and this week we hear from a university student who played a key role in the development of Project Arrow, Canada’s first EV prototype. Andrew Genovese is a fourth-year student at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ontario, and is a shining example of our next generation of bright minds who will continue the evolution of the EV segment in the country. His story, and the story of OUT’s involvement in the am...
Sep 06, 2023•23 min•Season 7Ep. 2
We’re back after the summer break with a bang. Host Andrew McCredie is joined by Robert Lewellyn, whose resume includes stand-up comic, playwright, actor (he starred in the iconic 'Red Dwarf' series for 22 years) and is the author of 15 published books. He is also an electric vehicle advocate whose YouTube channel 'Fully Charged' boasts more than a million subscribers, and whose Fully Charged Live event touches down in Canada for the first time Sept. 8-10 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. ...
Aug 30, 2023•40 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Host Andrew McCredie is joined by Tony Calabro, the chief product officer of InductEV. The Pennsylvania-based company is at the forefront of electric vehicle wireless charging, and has teamed with Volvo on a real-world proof of product test program in Sweden. For the past year, 20 Volvo XC40 Recharge taxicabs have been using four wireless charge pads embedded in the ground at taxi stands in the Gothenburg green city zone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 21, 2023•24 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Host Andrew McCredie is joined by auto shop expert Kevin Fitzpatrick to find out how the hundred of thousands of independent repair shops across North America are preparing for the EV Revolution. Adapting to new technologies is nothing new for your corner mechanic, but the transition to servicing and repairing electric vehicles truly does represent an adapt-or-die scenario. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 12, 2023•28 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Host Andrew McCredie is joined by automotive journalist Ken Bokor to take a step back from the steady drum beat of new EV reveals and refocus the conversation on the pros, and the cons, of making your next vehicle purchase that comes with a plug. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 12, 2023•34 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Host Andrew McCredie talks Extreme E racing, carbon credits, and how realistic electric vehicle adoption rates are with Jamie Keech, co-founder of Vancouver-based carbon offset investment firm Vida Carbon, a company that focuses on financing high quality sustainable carbon credit projects globally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 08, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Host Andrew McCredie is joined by architect James Silvester, who has designed a competition-winning EV charging station designed for people as much as vehicles. Watch a video on the EV charging station of the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 09, 2022•29 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Host Andrew McCredie is joined by Postmedia Driving’s senior writer David Booth, whose in-depth investigating of the President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act reveals a funding model that could derail Canada’s EV battery building segment before it even starts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 26, 2022•32 min•Season 5Ep. 4
