Kijiji Autos released a new report on green transport cities, listing Vancouver as the top Canadian city with the most sustainable transport. The densely populated city aims to be fully powered by clean energy by 2050.
Currently, it embraces initiatives that include e-scooter and bike sharing programs, eco-friendly buses, and a large network of cycle routes. It also offers incentives at the provincial level for electric vehicles. Ottawa/Gatineau ranked second, followed by Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Quebec City.
“In order to determine which Canadian cities had the greenest transportation, Kijiji Autos looked at a variety of metrics to create a ranking,” said Leanne Kripp, Head of Automotive at Kijiji in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
The overall list of metrics looked at when creating the different rankings/scores in the report include the number of electric cars on the road, kilometres of cycling routes available, bike rental schemes, the number of electric charging points, the number of public transport methods available in the city, average cost of a single fare bus ticket, e-Scooter hire availability, congestion levels, air pollution levels, and internal Kijiji data—the number of electric cars listed, and number of hybrid cars listed.
“So taking the 10 highest populated cities, we found data points associated with sustainability and travel to rank each city against one another,” said Kripp. “When creating the ranking system, we used a formula which scores each metric and the formula gives metrics to score between one and 10, (with) 10 being the best, and one being the worst.”
Credit: Kijiji Autos
Based on the company’s ranking system, the city with the most EVs on the road is Toronto, with 6,300 vehicles and 864 EV charge points. Montreal—the third highest overall-ranking green transport city—which finds itself in a province offering EV incentives at the provincial level, has 3,633 EVs on the road (significantly less than Toronto) and 1,258 charge points (significantly more than Toronto).
Vancouver is in third place with 6,600 EVs on the road and 483 charge points, and Calgary is in fourth with 3,000 EVs on the road and 186 charge points—followed by Kitchener, Ottawa/Gatineau, Edmonton, Hamilton, Quebec City, and Winnipeg.
Kripp explained that, for some data points, such as the higher the number of electric charging points, the higher the score. For other data points, such as the price of a bus ticket—the higher the bus fare, the lower the score.
“This formula is carried out across all data columns. In some cases where a numerical figure was not possible (such as) if the city has an electric bike share program, yes = 1 and 0 = No,” said Kripp. “To produce the final rankings, an average score is calculated across the data columns per location.”
Pulling information from its own data to identify which cities have the highest number of electric and hybrid cars listed on its platform, Kijiji Autos slotted Toronto as number one with 233 electric cars and 1,213 hybrids on its platform. Montreal is in second place (375 EVs, 1,063 hybrids), followed by Ottawa/Gatineau (75 EVs, 254 hybrids). Kitchener, Vancouver, and Hamilton slotted among the last on the list.
Credit: Kijiji Autos
Asked what dealers should take out of this report, Kripp said they should pay attention to the momentum that is building.
“There’s a groundswell of interest and action being taken from a consumer standpoint; we can see it from the demand on our platform, and it’s a segment of the market that dealers need to be working with their OEMs on to make sure that the right plans are in place in terms of the pipeline of product that is coming,” said Kripp.
She also said it will be important for dealers to educate Canadian consumers on the benefits of electric and hybrid vehicles, so that the two can work together.
“We can start to see that ground swell—the demand, the additional options that are available today, but we need to continue pushing so that we can get there as quickly as possible, in terms of helping to reduce our carbon emissions,” said Kripp.
Credit: Kijiji Autos
