Canada

Ontario and Better Place Drive toward the Car 2.0 Model in Canada

Wednesday, 14 Jan 2009

Cars have been important in the Province of Ontario for a long time. Auto manufacturing here began in 1903, when Henry Ford established a presence in Windsor, just across the Canadian border from Detroit.

One hundred years later, having grown to become one of North America’s largest car-making regions, Ontario is aiming to transition its auto sector for future growth from electric vehicle production, while reducing harmful tailpipe emissions to protect the environment.

Working with Better Place, the Province of Ontario has become the first in Canada to take a step toward sustainable transportation with electric cars powered by renewable energy, or Car 2.0. It’s a forward-looking move that reflects the provincial government’s commitment to create jobs, strengthen an economy where the car industry represents a quarter of all manufacturing output, and end the use of coal-fired electricity by 2014.

The partnership with Better Place looks beyond the past 100 years of the Car 1.0 model, based on the internal combustion engine, toward a new era in personal transportation. The collaboration will not only fuel economic growth in Ontario, which is home to about one in three Canadians, but it also will serve as a model for the rest of Canada.

Momentum behind electric vehicles continues to accelerate worldwide, as Ontario conducts a comprehensive study of financial incentives for consumers who buy electric cars and other ways to speed their introduction and adoption in Canada.

Though it’s part of a major oil-producing nation, Ontario joins Israel, Denmark, Australia, and California and Hawaii in the United States, as examples of the kind of bold leadership needed to help create the next 100 years of success in the auto industry.

Read the Better Place Press Release in English.

Consultez Le Communiqué de Presse de Better Place en Francais.

Read the Government of Ontario Press Release.