meeting report
EV Action This Day
Vancouver, BC Canada
June 24, 2010
- Azure Dynamics
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
When other North American cities ran freeways into their downtown cores, Vancouver prohibited their construction. With its mild climate and roads the scenic city replicates the driving conditions in European cities, and the bulk of BC Hydro power is renewable, helping Vancouver with a new goal to be the greenest city in the world by 2020. Already electric vehicle codes are in place, developers are providing charging points, and plug-in vehicles are arriving.
Novex CEO Robert Safrata wants to reduce the 28 pounds of CO2 emitted with each delivery of his company’s electric trucks.
Robert Safrata, the CEO of Novex Courier, believes in sustainability. Novex is today halfway towards a goal of having all clean vehicles in his 102-strong Vancouver-based fleet by 2015, and he planned an "Electric Lunch" for his fleet’s latest clean vehicles.
It was a pleasure to walk into the former 2010 Winter Games Olympic Village to find the event was in a community plaza with splendid artwork. We were there to see the first 100% electric trucks in Canada to go into revenue service with a private same-day delivery company.
As Robert was speaking to the audience a conventional truck arrived and from it stepped Mr. Novex, part superhero and part Greek messenger, who warned that clean vehicles were arriving! Two electric trucks drove quietly up as the old diesel departed. To make his point Robert lifted a bag representing the weight of carbon dioxide associated with a conventionally delivered package. Later, Bryan Hansel CEO of Smith Electric Vehicles talked of the need for vision as well as technology. Bryan said the new trucks had 80kWh in its "hybrid" batteries and a range of 160km between charges. City staff, environmental organizations, other fleet managers, BC Hydro, government officials and carbon off-setters were energized. One person present had organized the participation of the BC Government in a major 1996 GM EV1 trial. Another had just helped the 2010 Olympics meet its environmental goals. A third was linking potential customers to a wind farm. History was unfolding and "next steps" identified. And the vehicles rolled quietly around the plaza with their seats filled.
A recent market study by Frost & Sullivan suggested that the bottom line of commercial fleets will benefit from electric vehicles. Novex Courier, Smith Electric, the City of Vancouver and BC Hydro are taking early steps that may help turn the tide economically on oil dependence and climate change economically.