Province provides $52K for electric car charging stations

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is funding a company that's looking to get more electric vehicles on the province's roads.

Green Rock EVS will be getting $52,000 through the Newfoundland and Labrador Green Fund to help pay for the installation of electric vehicle chargers across the province.

The fund was set up as a way tosupport the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

• Driv.r | Going electric in a gas-guzzling province

"The province is definitely lacking in charging station infrastructure," said Green Rock president John Gordon.

"That limits where and how far the vehicles can go,and with the funding from the green fund it will allow us to catch up somewhat."

Environment and Conservation Minister Dan Crummell hopes the chargers will result in more drivers switching to electric vehicles.

"We do emit more greenhouse gasses per person than half the people in Canada," he said.

"So we're looking at different initiatives and this is just one of them."

Going green

Electric vehicles run on lithium ion batteries, similar to what is used in laptop computers and cell phones.

The batteries are emission-free and are five times cheaper to operate than traditional gas-powered vehicles.

Crummell said 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Newfoundland and Labrador come from transportation.

"By 2020, we want to be 10% below the 1990 greenhouse gas emissions for the province," he said.

"We're going have challenges going forward with that, with Holyrood shutting down later on this decade we'll get closer to that targetbut we need to do more."

He said the provincial government is also looking at adding electric vehicles to it's fleet, to lead by example.