A new report has found wide discrepancies that affect transparency, user experience and equitable access when it comes to public electric vehicle pricing across Canada.
The analysis from Pollution Probe, in partnership with the Mobility Futures Lab, examined the current state of public charging pricing, identified key challenges and offered recommendations to improve user experience, support equitable access and enhance operator sustainability.
As Canada accelerates toward transportation decarbonization, the organizations say accessible, affordable and easy-to-use public charging is critical to enable mass adoption of zero-emission vehicles.
The report found significant variability in pricing across the country’s charging stations. Canada’s public charging ecosystem includes a wide range of networks with diverse ownership models, business strategies and geographic coverage. Some networks are centrally managed with standardized policies, while others follow a non-centralized model in which site hosts own the stations and set prices.
Non-centralized networks are dominant for base-level charging, particularly at Level 2 stations. In those cases, pricing authority rests with individual site hosts, leading to inconsistencies in session fees, idle charges and access policies. For consumers, public charging costs can shift markedly based on billing methods, session and idle fees, local electricity tariffs and site-specific cost structures.
Alongside the research report, the project includes ChargeCompare, an interactive tool that lets users explore pricing models, operator types and charging infrastructure by province. The organizations say the combined resources will help consumers and policymakers understand how the sector is evolving and promote greater transparency in pricing practices.
“Governments and industry have made substantial progress in building out a national charging network to serve the growing number of electric vehicles,” said Steve McCauley, senior director at Pollution Probe. “Nevertheless, extensive Pollution Probe research such as this new report highlights there is still considerable work to be done, both in the coverage of the network across Canada, and in the level of service provided to drivers.”
To support a seamless national charging network, the report recommended ensuring pricing consistency, transparency and accessibility across networks; reviewing electricity tariffs and cost allocation policies to back sustainable infrastructure deployment; addressing interprovincial regulatory fragmentation; differentiating support strategies for charging; and implementing a monitoring framework that links station usage, pricing and investment needs.
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