Toronto, Ontario – In this week’s electric and autonomous vehicle report, a Vancouver-based carshare company’s all-EV fleet is giving them an edge against the competition, Apple patents a design for automatic charging stations and Subury is less than a month out from its first electric vehicles conference.
Clean Fleet
A Vancouver-based carshare company has made clean, emissions-free commuting a standard by offering customers daily, and even hourly rentals of its fleet, made up entirely of Teslas.
Zerocar co-founders Raymond Reid and Jason Gagné feel that putting a focus on offering electric vehicles will plant a seed in the minds of customers who may come away from their rental with potentially their first ever hands-on experience with an EV.
“A lot of people want to test out how an electric car works, how to charge, how a road trip goes,” he said. “We definitely help sell a lot of vehicles just by renting.”
As the only fully electric carshare company in Canada, Zerocar has positioned themselves well against competition, like Hertz and Enterprise, who have both placed large purchases of EV fleets, but have largely been unable to fully integrate due to supply chain issues.
Charge and Go
Apple has been approved for a patent design that allows for an automated electric vehicle charging experience.
Functioning as a sort of drive-through type station, Apple’s design suggests that a vehicle could pull up to the charger and have it automatically lock onto and connect with a vehicle’s charging outlet, allowing a charge to start without a driver manually connecting the vehicle.
When the vehicle is finished charging, the driver simply has to pull forward and the charger will automatically disconnect from the outlet.
This new patent from Apple marks the 125th EV-related patent filed by the global tech developer.
What’s Yours is Mines
As the hub of Ontario’s precious metals mining industry, Sudbury is gearing up to host the city’s first ever electric vehicle conference, BEV In-Depth: Mines to Mobility.
Set for May 25 and 26 at Science North, the conference will bring together executives from across the automotive and mining industries to discuss the ways the two could work together in solidifying Canada’s EV supply chain.
“This conference will bring leaders from several industries together for critical conversation, collaboration and action focused on a common purpose – bringing supply chain opportunities in the EV battery space to Greater Sudbury,” said Lisa Demmer, chair of the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation.
“The GSDC is proud to help support this event, which will foster relationships among the best and brightest in these industries, and ultimately contribute to economic growth in our community.”
