EV charging station manufacturer Autochargers.ca has opened a new factory in the Greater Toronto Area that promises 100 new jobs over the next three years and the eventual production of 40,000 charging stations annually.
In a public release, Autochargers.ca said the new facility will build charging stations for sale in Canada on behalf of a U.S.-based charging network provider called eMotorWerks, which works with electric utilities to "leverage accelerating EV adoption."
Autocharger.ca says its Markham, Ontario factory is the province's first charging station manufacturing plant.
The decision to locate the plant in Ontario was likely driven by Canada's relatively weak dollar, which will make it cheaper to export charging stations to the US. Many recent EV infrastructure expansion projects are being funded in part by a US$4.7 billion settlement between Volkswagen and the US Environmental Protection Agency in the wake of that automaker's TDI diesel emissions scandal.
It's unclear how many of the chargers made at the factory will end up in Canada; according to the Canadian Automobile Association, there are just over 7,100 public EV charging stations in Canada currently. A University of Michigan report from summer 2017 counted about 16,000 public plugs in the United States.
According to FleetCarma.com, Canadians bought 18,650 plug-in vehicles in 2017, a 68 percent increase over the previous year. And as of the end of 2017, the company reported, there were 47,800 plug-in vehicles on the road in Canada.
Autochargers.ca also manufactures and distributes charging stations for home use, including an eMotorWerks product called JuiceBox, which the company claims is the "number one selling charger on Amazon USA."
