There don’t have to be heavy truck electric charging stations everywhere to advance the adoption of zero-emission trucks, but those that do exist must be strategically located.
That’s the finding of a new report from the Pembina Institute, titled Locating Charging Stations. The analysis identifies 17 priority zones for electric truck charging in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, where the Institute says a third of trucks could electrify today.
The report says that rather than spreading chargers randomly through the region, a data-driven phased approach should be used to install chargers where they’ll get the most use. This would address high impact areas first, followed by a broader rollout across the country.
The Pembina Institute analyzed traffic volumes, stop duration and frequency, and pinpointed 17 key zones for early charger deployment. They include:
- Toronto (M9W, M9V, M9L, M3J, M4M)
- Brampton (L6S, L6T, L6W)
- Hamilton (L0R, L8H, N0B, L8E)
- Mississauga (L4T, L5W, L4W)
- Markham (L3T, L6G)
“Anonymized real-world data from thousands of Canadian trucks shows that freight activity isn’t spread out evenly — it’s concentrated in a few key zones,” said Chandan Bhardwaj, senior analyst. “Just 10% of postal code areas account for half of all truck traffic. That means we don’t need chargers everywhere, particularly in the near term; we need them in the right places.”
“Canada can’t electrify freight without charging stations. And charging stations won’t scale unless governments, utilities, regulators and the private sector work together,” added Adam Thorn, director, transportation, Pembina Institute. “With a strategic, data-driven plan, governments can create the market certainty needed to enable private investment and streamline infrastructure buildout to electrify freight at scale.”
NRCan has indicated Ontario must increase public fast chargers for medium- and heavy-duty trucks five-fold by 2030 and 25-fold by 2035 to meet rising electric truck demand. Today, only 20 such chargers exist.
