In this series of articles, Propulsion Québec looks back on the 2nd edition of the International Forum on Fleet Management, which took place as 5 virtual events from October 27, 2020 to April 27, 2021. This unique event in Quebec brings together professionals and suppliers around a common goal: modernize vehicle fleets through new technologies and solutions available on the market in order to meet environmental, social, operational and regulatory requirements.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Propulsion Québec chose to completely rethink the presentation format of this event into a virtual one, offering 5 events each focused on a single theme. A look back at the December 8, 2020 event, centered on the electrification of vehicle fleets in land transport, from the 2nd edition of the IMPULSION MTL Forum.
This 2nd event, one in a series of 5, was an opportunity for Propulsion Québec to announce its merger with the Quebec Centre of Excellence in Land Transport, which took place on November 23, 2020, in order to become a global leader in electric and smart transportation.
In addition, Louis J. Duhamel, strategic advisor at Deloitte, took the opportunity to briefly present their brand new study "Rethinking our industrial chains for a strong and resilient economy", which positions the electric and smart transport industry among Quebec’s 10 promising sectors. Thestudy also reveals the many impacts of the current pandemic on the different markets and exports.
François Bonnardel, Quebec’s Minister of Transport and minister responsible for the Estrie region, welcomed participants and recalled the main points of the Quebec government’s Green Plan, which align with Propulsion Québec’s objectives.
Goal: zero emissions in Quebec
As part of the panel discussion "Goal: zero emissions in Quebec", bringing together five panelists and moderated by Christian Brosseau, Vice-President of Structuring Capital Investments, Energy and Environment at the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Ben Mandel of CALSTART presented an overview of the "Drive to Zero" program, an international initiative that aims to accelerate the growth of zero-emission commercial vehicles and is reshaping the urban delivery landscape.
The panelists then discussed the different types of levers to put in place to position Quebec as a North American leader in zero-emission commercial vehicles. All agreed that Quebec can draw inspiration from promising initiatives like those in California. Olivier Quenneville, Senior Director, Public Affairs, Canada, at CN, emphasized that investors are increasingly strict about ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria of companies.
According to Marc Bédard, President and founder of Lion Electric Company, "it is important for companies to be able to rely on adequate financing to deploy their innovations. The Quebec government, in this regard, can certainly deserve an orange award for the $350M investments for the deployment of electric school buses and $225M for electric trucks."
Daniel Mailly, Senior Advisor in sustainable mobility, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction at the Quebec Ministry of Transport, believes that the Quebec government is currently doing everything possible to deploy a network of charging stations to meet future needs. "Quebec is already a leader in charging station networks and our current and future announcements also go in that direction."
Philippe Huneault, Quebec Delegate to Los Angeles and Silicon Valley at the Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie of Quebec, for his part, highlighted the major clean energy investments deployed since the arrival of the new U.S. president. "All of this stems, I remind you, from California’s vision and strategy. Everything that will happen in Quebec, Canada and the Americas can also draw inspiration from this and it will also have impacts here in Quebec, mainly for exporting companies," he said.
Major announcement from Lion Electric Company
Marc Bédard, President and founder of Lion Electric Company, took advantage of his appearance as a panelist at IMPULSION MTL to further explain the company’s recent decision to list on the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Bédard explained that the company’s vision of becoming a global leader in such a competitive environment requires substantial investments, so going public had become essential.
Lion Electric Company’s team will retain 70% of the shares after the transaction next March, its headquarters will remain in Saint-Jérôme and the company will remain a proud Quebec business. The upcoming opening of a battery manufacturing plant in the United States will allow supplying more than 20,000 vehicles per year. $520M of investments were announced, and 8 new vehicle models will be unveiled soon.
Launch of the study on fleet electrification in Quebec by Propulsion Québec
This virtual activity was an opportunity for Propulsion Québec to exclusively unveil its most recent study entitled "Fleet electrification in Quebec: the adoption of medium and heavy electric vehicles in commercial and institutional fleets". To identify and prioritize strategies to accelerate the electrification of commercial and institutional vehicle fleets in Quebec, Propulsion Québec commissioned the consulting firm Dunsky Energy + Climate to conduct an analysis on the adoption of medium and heavy electric vehicles.
The study reports the main issues and barriers that can slow the electrification of medium and heavy vehicle fleets and highlights 15 recommendations and 8 actions to accelerate the electric transition of these vehicles in Quebec. The completion of this study was made possible thanks to financial support from the Government of Quebec, Hydro-Québec and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
Acceleration of electrification of medium and heavy vehicle fleets
As part of the panel "Acceleration of electrification of medium and heavy vehicle fleets", Benjamin Rodriguez Sharpe, Ph.D., Chief Researcher and Canada representative to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), painted a picture of the current state of the North American transport market. According to Mr. Sharpe, there is a rapid development of the zero-emission vehicle market. Battery electric dominates the bus sector.
Jason Mathers, Director, Fleet Strategy at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), stressed that this decade is decisive for the energy transition. Ambitious policy efforts are needed to accelerate the transition to zero-emission trucks and buses.
Jeff Turner, Lead Researcher at Dunsky Energy, provided an overview of various optimization and fleet electrification models. He presented, among other things, a comparative table that clearly demonstrates that operating costs are much lower and advantageous.
How to respond to municipalities’ demands that require green solutions?
During the panel "How to respond to municipalities’ demands that require green solutions?", the speakers discussed concrete solutions to meet sustainable mobility initiatives.
David Arsenault, President and co-founder of Effenco, and Thomas Derichebourg, President of Derichebourg, highlighted the use of Effenco’s technology on Derichebourg’s vehicles, reducing GHGs by 30%. According to them, municipalities have the greatest impact on decisions related to environmental regulations.
Josée Chiasson, Director of Economic Hubs Development at the City of Montreal, for her part, spoke about Montreal’s economic recovery plan which provides an investment of $60M to support about ten measures for a green and inclusive post-COVID recovery.
Mickael Brard, Project Manager at Jalon MTL, presented the Colibri Project, an association of urban warehouse with cargo bikes to replace truck delivery in downtown.
Finally, Jean-Marc Blais, President and CEO and founder of Vélo-Transit, highlighted their downtown bike lockers, a parking module including 6 connected lockers to prevent the theft of electric bikes.
Challenges, pitfalls and projections for fleet electrification
As part of the panel "Challenges, pitfalls, and projections for fleet electrification", Vartan Badalian, head of the EV100 program for North America at The Climate Group, briefly presented the program, mentioning the importance of working together to achieve these ambitious goals. EV100 is a global corporate initiative designed to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and associated infrastructure. 82 companies are currently part of the program.
Frédéric Prégent, General Manager of Taxelco, shared their goal to electrify 100% of the vehicle fleets of Taxi Hochelaga and Taxi Diamond by 2030. Several issues such as access to adapted electric minivans, the costs of charging infrastructure and difficulty accessing the taxi industry's transformation funds contributed, for them, to joining the EV100 movement.
Martin Massé, Vice-President Public Affairs at ADM Aéroports de Montréal, shared the various electrification projects for their vans, buses and shuttles, among others, hence their commitment to the EV100 movement.
This panel was moderated by Michèle Fournier, Senior Advisor, International and Canadian Relations Directorate at the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change.
In closing, Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change and minister responsible for the Laval region, recalled the main lines of the Quebec government’s ambitious plan for a green economy. Propulsion Québec also welcomes this project of electrifying the economy and combating climate change.
Propulsion Québec wishes to thank all partners for their involvement in the success of this major event for the electric and smart transport ecosystem in Quebec: the Government of Quebec, Quebecor, AttriX integrated partner Geotab, Hydro-Québec, Effenco, ABB Canada, FLO, Lion Electric Company, Boivin Evolution, and our partner cities: the City of Montreal, the City of New York – Department of Citywide Administrative Services (NYC DCAS), the City of Chicago and the City of Philadelphia.
Cover image: Raphaël Thibodeau
