Low-speed electric cars hit too many speed bumps in Canada
Monday, October 10th, 2005
My Clean Break column in today’s Toronto Star is another example of how government can get in the way of a good thing. Two years ago a Vancouver company called Dynasty Electric Cars sells four of its low-speed electric vehicles to Ontario Parks, which is part of the Ministry of Natural Resources. They’re a perfect fit for parks staff, but then suddenly an e-mail from the Ministry of Transportation arrives early this year saying the Dynasty cars are against the law: Get them off the road!
You can read the column to get the rest of the story. Bottom line is there’s no real reason to keep these cars off low-speed roads in Ontario, yet the province refuses to move forward with new rules that permit them. As if the move toward cleaner vehicles doesn’t face enough challenges already…
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.