While Canada's mining industry continues to work toward sustainability for producing the critical minerals needed for EVs (electric vehicles), there is also a move toward making EVs more acceptable for everyday drivers.
One Ontario grocery executive, Deb Craven, of the award-winning Longo's grocery chain, will be at the EV and Charging Expo being held in Toronto in May to talk about charging up your EV while you do your grocery shopping.
The event is hosted by Electric Autonomy of Canada, an independent business news venture all about electric vehicles.
Craven, who is president of Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc., is one of the key speakers for the charging expo and will discuss plans on how customers filling their grocery carts can also charge their EVs in the grocery parking lot at the same time. The model for the initiative is the creation of more than 100 fast-charge stations that have been set up at IGA stores in Quebec and New Brunswick. That program is called EcoCharge.
Along with providing a competitive edge for the grocer there will be discussions on how battery-buffered chargers can also be a back-up power source if a grocery refrigeration system loses power.
The Toronto-based EV expo will also have discussions of having your EV plug-in as a workplace perk. Part of that discussion will focus on how to entice employees back to the workplace, as well as a key to retaining employees, especially for those who have a long commute to get to work.
The Charging Expo is scheduled to take place in Toronto at the Enercare Centre in the first week of May.
