Chevrolet VoltAge has revealed that participating dealerships in Canada are now officially taking orders for the 2012 Chevrolet Volt. The MSRP for Chevy’s plug-in up north? It starts at C$41,545 ($43,610 U.S. at the current exchange rate). However, in Ontario, the Volt is expected to qualify for a $8,230 incentive. Likewise, in Quebec, the plug-in should be eligible for up to a $7,769 incentive. Only one trim level will be available to Canadian customers, but two optional packs add some extra items to the mix – a premium package and a rear camera/park assist package

Here’s the Volt’s tentative Canadian rollout schedule:

• The Volt will initially be available to retail customers in the marketing areas for Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Oshawa, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal, and Quebec City in the third quarter of this year.
• Within twelve months of the retail launch, the Volt will be available at dealerships nationwide.
• If you’re interested in ordering a Volt, you can locate a participating dealer on Chevy.com and contact them to place your order.

U.S. customers, General Motors hasn’t forgotten about you and reassures everyone that Volts will be delivered to all 50 states by the the end of 2011.

Photos copyright (C)2011 Zach Bowman / AOL

[Source: Chevrolet VoltAge, General Motors]

Continue reading 2012 Chevy Volt priced at C$41,545 in Canada; dealers taking orders now

2012 Chevy Volt priced at C$41,545 in Canada; dealers taking orders now originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 03 May 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canada Post operates the largest fleet of delivery vehicles in all of Canada and, until recently, its fleet lacked a single plug-in vehicle. Now, with the addition of a Navistar eStar electric van, Canada Post has at least one battery-powered package-hauling machine.

The $150,000 Navistar eStar boasts an operating range of 160 kilometers (100 miles) and can be recharged in less than eight hours. Its lithium-ion battery pack, which is supplied by A123 Systems, is quick-change capable and can be swapped out in less than 20 minutes. Each eStar truck, according to Navistar, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a claimed 10 tons annually.

The Canada Post operates of more than 7,300 vehicles. Combined, those vehicles rack up in excess of 79 million kilometers (49 million miles) per year. The postal company is researching and testing several types of alternative technology vehicles, including ethanol, biodiesel, natural gas, propane, hydrogen, hybrids and battery-powered vehicles in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of its massive fleet.

[Source: Navistar]

Continue reading Canada Post adds Navistar eStar electric delivery van to fleet

Canada Post adds Navistar eStar electric delivery van to fleet originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s been an interesting discussion going on in the Canadian media this month about the value of electric cars there.

It all started with a column called “Shocking truth of electric cars” that was very critical of plug-in vehicles written by Gwyn Morgan, who questioned whether the vehicles are right for Canada and if they are even green in the first place. Morgan also asks “Will there be enough electricity?” and answers:

Even the staggering electricity rate increases announced by Ontario would not generate nearly enough power to handle a large auto-recharge load, nor could already stretched power grids handle it, either. Hydro-Québec recently said its distribution grid could accommodate a meagre 1,000 car plug-ins.

In other provinces, costly retooling of power generation, mainline transmission and local distribution grids would be required.

Basically, Morgan is skeptical of cars powered by electrons. And we have a hint why that might be, given that Morgan is the retired, founding CEO of Encana Corp., a natural gas company.

In response, Al Cormier – the president and CEO of Electric Mobility Canada – wrote a post titled “Electric Cars Do Make Sense for Canada” that sees “the road ahead for electric cars is indeed relatively easy in Canada compared to other nations” and goes one to say that low electricity costs, plentiful electric supply and that:

On a national scale, 500,000 electric vehicles would only add a demand increase of two per cent on the grid. And, if these vehicles are charged in off-peak periods, which technology will encourage, the extra supply needed is zero. Market penetrations will be considerably below 500,000 for the first years. It is agreed that a concentration of electric vehicle owners on a street may require upgrades to local transformers, but this is a small, affordable and manageable task.

The question isn’t whether or not Canada can handle plug-in vehicles (it can) but why it’s taken so long. The picture above shows, according to Toronto History a crowd looking at electric automobile in accident on Glen Road Bridge in 1912.

[Source: | Image: Toronto History - C.C. License 2.0]

Debate over electric car viability revived in Canada originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret the revived 2010 Honda Insight has been a huge sales disappointment in North America. The once-robust sales of the Civic hybrid have also evaporated in the last two years. Apparently, things are far worse for Honda’s hybrids north of the border, where higher fuel prices typically cause people to buy more efficient vehicles, than they are in the U.S.

An unconfirmed report from a Canadian web site indicates that both the Civic hybrid and the Insight are being discontinued there. Checking the Canadian sales charts, the Civic as a whole is one of the top-selling cars with 31,604 units sold in 2010 through July. While hybrid sales are not broken out by Honda Canada, we can do a little educated guessing. Since only 643 of those Civic sales were imports and the hybrids come from Japan, we can figure that those 643 were the hybrid models. Similarly, Canadians only bought 748 Insights in the same period. When it launched, Honda projected 10,000 annual sales in Canada. Evidently Canadians just aren’t taken with hybrids – even the mighty Prius has only found 2,272 Canadian buyers this year.

Honda hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment on the cancellation of these two models. Apparently, Honda Canada will proceed with the launch of sales of the CR-Z, maybe leaving it as the company’s only hybrid. A tip of the hat to Mario!

[Source: Monvolant]

Report: Honda Canada discontinuing Insight and Civic hybrid originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The past few days have seen a new rash of stories about Toyotas run amok. First, a 2009 Venza struck a house in Hamilton, Ontario. According to The Hamilton Spectator, the driver said he lost control of the vehicle after experiencing uncontrolled acceleration. While 2009-2010 Venzas were recalled for the infamous floor-mat issue, police have yet to determine whether the Hamilton incident was a result of faulty hardware or driver error. No one was injured.

The Seboygan Press is also reporting that a 2009 Camry accelerated and climbed a small embankment while the driver had her foot on the brake in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. The 76 year-old driver, Myrna Marseille, suffered a broken sternum from the impact. In Marseille’s case, her Camry had already been serviced to correct the floor mat interference issue.

The reports join those of a San Diego man who had to call on the police to help him slow down his Prius after high-speed stint on the interstate and another Prius crash in New York. In the California case, both the NHTSA and Toyota found nothing wrong with the car (though the California Highway Patrol’s view may differ). Likewise, the New York incident was found to be driver error.

[Sources: Sheboygan Press, The Hamilton Spectator]

More Toyota accidents allegedly caused by sudden acceleration occur in Wisconsin, Canada originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Olympics aren’t the only interesting and noteworthy event currently taking place in Canada. General Motors says it has shipped its fleet of 2011 Chevrolet Volt test vehicles to the cold and snowy climes of Kapuskasing, about 500 miles northwest of Toronto. Current temperature? A frigid 23-degrees Fahrenheit, or -5 Celsius.

This latest test session comes just months after The General ran its fleet of Volts through Death Valley (about 100 degrees F) and the mountains of Tennessee. Not surprising, really. After all, every new vehicle goes through a rigorous set of test cycles, and, as the first mass-production, mass-market extended-range electric vehicle ever attempted, it’s of the utmost importance that GM gets this vehicle right the first time.

In addition to “hours opening and closing all hinges, including doors, trunk, glove box and interior consoles,” GM’s testers will surely be monitoring the performance of the Volt’s engine/generator and lithium ion battery pack to be sure that all is well with the system before putting the car into the hands of paying customers.

[Source: GM FastLane]

GM subjects 2011 Chevrolet Volt to cold-weather testing in Canada, eh? originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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