Toronto, Ontario – In this week’s electric and autonomous vehicle report, Chevrolet announced the future home of the new electric Silverado pickup, Communauto is expanding their electric fleet in Canadian cities and drivers in Saskatchewan are upset over what they are calling an unfair EV tax.
EV Truck Race Amping Up
Quickly becoming one of the hottest new markets to watch, Chevrolet has announced that their newly introduced Silverado electric pickup truck that will be built at the company’s Factory ZERO assembly plant in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan.
According to the company, “the Chevrolet Silverado electric full-size pickup is designed from the ground up to be an EV, harnessing the best of the Ultium Platform and Silverado’s proven capability. The electric Silverado will offer customers a GM-estimated range of more than 400 miles on a full charge.”
The GMC HUMMER is also set to make its highly anticipated return to the lineup come 2024, as well.
“The vehicles coming from Factory ZERO will change the world, and how the world views electric vehicles,” said GM president Mark Reuss.
“The GMC HUMMER EV SUV joins its stablemate in the realm of true supertrucks, and Chevrolet will take everything Chevy’s loyal truck buyers love about Silverado—and more—and put it into an electric pickup that will delight retail and commercial customers alike.”
Communauto Accelerando
The largest car sharing organization in Canada, Communauto, is showing that they zig when others zag by continuing on aggressively into the pandemic, adding nearly 500 vehicles to its fleet in 2021.
Montreal and Toronto will see the biggest impacts from this deal, as the cities are set to gain an additional 260 and 120 vehicles, respectively.
Fifty of the vehicles headed to Montreal are to be fully-electric Kia Niros, as well, showing a further commitment from Communauto to electrify their rapidly-expanding fleet.
“Communauto is making available to its users the largest fleet of shared electric vehicles in Canada. With this addition, more than one hundred 100 percent electric vehicles will be available to our users. In total, 50 percent of our fleet is made up of 100 percent electric or hybrid vehicles. We would have a lot more if it weren’t for the difficulty manufacturers have in providing them to us,” said Benoît Robert, president and CEO of Communauto.
Surge-charge Blowback
Drivers in Saskatchewan are already voicing their concerns over what many are referring to as an “EV tax” in the province, a move which many see as gratuitous.
EV owners will be on the hook for a $150 annual fee starting on Oct. 1 of this year, following the release of this year’s provincial budget.
According to reports from the CBC, driver Will Yip, who bought a Nissan Leaf last week, is paying more than he initially budgeted for.
“I bought an electric vehicle because I thought it would be cost-efficient, not because I’m trying to save a bunch of trees,” said Yip.
“And the fact they’re kind of changing the rules without letting us know ahead of time, that’s the part that frustrates me.”
