Members of the Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Association are discussing changes they want to see, as currently in Saskatchewan there are no rebates for electric vehicle owners.
"I think the government should definitely review that decision made half a decade ago and look at reinstating rebates for cleaner burning vehicles including electric bicycles even,” Nissan Leaf owner John Klein.
Currently Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia are the only provinces offering rebates for electric vehicle purchases.
More of the vehicles are on Canadian roads. According to Fleetcarma.com electric vehicles make up 8.3 percent of new passenger cars being purchased in Canada.
In the prairies, distance is an issue. The Tesla Model 3 Long Range version can reach 499 kilometres. Klein's Nissan Leaf can only go about 80km in the winter, instead of the 120km it can do in the summer.
"People in the city would like to see more chargers downtown, maybe closer to parks and things where people would congregate, movie theatres, shopping malls places like that, Tesla Model 3 owner Matthew Pointer said.
But there are only a few public specialty charging locations in Regina. Natural Resources Canada says the province of Saskatchewan has no plans to increase the amount of charging stations, but will reassess if more electric vehicles are purchased in the province.
"E.V. owners are very open to paying for their charging needs just like people pay for gasoline. It's more of a convenience factor,” Pointer said.
Charging takes a lot of time as well. When plugged into a regular wall outlet, the Leaf takes 20 hours to fully charge, 4-8 hours in a 240 volt plug, and 30 minutes in a specialty high speed charging station. The Tesla Model 3 has similar charging times to the Leaf.
"When you get home you plug it in. And it's more than enough for the distance that we go in a typical day,” Klein said,
For highway driving, owners want a full charge and currently there are no high speed chargers in the province making it difficult to go long distances.
The Federal Government says researchers are aiming to develop the capacity to recharge a 150-kwh battery in less than 15 minutes.
