# Toronto Star Wheels Section article states "electricty for (EVs) in Canada is free"



## Mike (Apr 4, 2016)

Reference: Review of the 2020 Porsche Taycan, titled "Shot into orbit" by Norris McDonald appearing on pages W1 and W8 of the Toronto Star "Wheels" section dated Saturday, 28 Sep 2019.

Extracted from a paragraph in the second last column of the review on page W8:

"Passenberg (project manager for the Taycan's high voltage system) seemed surprised when told that most electricity for cars in Canada is free at the moment, even though governments depend on taxes from motorists who use oil and gas to fund their operations".

https://www.thestar.com/autos/opinion/2019/09/27/shot-into-orbit-in-the-2020-porsche-taycan.html

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I have sent the following rebuttal to their editor:

*Mr McDonald claimed that "most electricity for cars is free at the moment……."

I have driven an EV for the past 16 months and recharge at home, at night, using energy bought at full retail price.

When I am on long distance trips, I use the Tesla supercharger network, paying up to 47 cents a minute for use of their chargers.

If I use energy from someone else's home or private business concern, proper etiquette dictates that I offer and pay them 20 cents for every kWh I use.

The above practice has yielded a cost of 3 cents per kilometer to operate the car.

To address one other observation made by Mr. McDonald, it is true that governments will have to shift the funding model for roads away from the current fuel tax to a fee for annual license plate renewals, calculated solely by vehicle weight and total kilometers driven in the past 12 months.*

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If someone reading this thread also reads the Toronto Star, I certainly would appreciate you forwarding some sort of lucid rebuttal.

If someone reading this thread also reads or follows Norris McDonald on Twitter (I do not subscribe to social media), perhaps you can enlighten him on the facts........even a drive in a Tesla for a few hours may get him (and his large audience) educated on the facts of EV ownership.

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Opinion: I am hearing from many quarters, "You are getting free use of the roads, you don't pay for upkeep because you don't pay gas taxes......".

In Ontario, it is simply a question of time before the current government is going to implement a punitive fee against EV owners, calculated only on a politically motivated whim.

It is my belief that as an EV proponent, as individuals and as a community, we should be lobbying for an end to any tax on fuels that go to road maintenance and, in its place, have said funds raised via the annual license plate fee, using a fee matrix based only on gross vehicle weight rating and total distance driven in the past 12 months.

Saturday morning rant over. Thanks for listening.


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## DanSz (Feb 1, 2019)

No DCFC is free, anywhere, except at dealerships, and they ICEtheir own chargers. 
Sure, much L2 public charging is free, but so slow as to be utterly useless and unneeded by the General EV owner about town.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

What a moron. 

I really need to get a gig writing in the "Wheels" section of my local paper, just to go on the press launches. Hell, I'd do it for nothing more than a per-diem.


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## Mike (Apr 4, 2016)

Another EV related story in today's Toronto Star "Wheels" section.

The discussion is about the need for reliable, fast and available charging…including for road trips.

After watching last nights "Tesla Time News" where the discussion was "how much better the Supercharger network is versus EA (et al) but nobody knows about it", this one paragraph really struck me (from page w1, Toronto Star, Saturday 19 June 2021):


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