‘Electric vehicles work really well’

STEINBACH — The temperature hovered around -18 C on Sunday, but that was all right with organizers of an electric vehicle protest outside Provencher MP Ted Falk’s office.

Political rivals in the last election campaign, Liberal Trevor Kirczenow and Green Blair Mahaffy waited for a cold day to respond to a pamphlet sent out by Falk’s office six months ago.

There was one sentence in it that they said got the EV community concerned.

“Colder regions like Manitoba and long distances make an EV option impractical,” the mailer stated.

The event drew about a dozen people in eight EVs, who chatted and drank hot chocolate — thanks to a kettle on a hot plate operated by one of the EVs.

Kirczenow and Mahaffy met at election events last year and noticed they both drove EVs. After the summer flyer came out, Kirczenow said they agreed something should be done.

“We should try to dispel some of those myths and show people that our electric vehicles work really well in the wintertime,” he said.

While the event itself, held at noon on Sunday, didn’t attract a crowd of people, there were many questions and comments on social media leading up to the event.

“I think there’s a lot of interest about it and there are a lot of myths that people keep repeating,” he said. “Some things I didn’t even know until I tried it.”

For Kirczenow, that myth was that an EV was dangerous to be stuck in during a winter storm, because of the energy required to heat it.

Waiting for his children to finish hockey one day, he put the theory to the test, sitting in cold weather with his heat on. One hour equaled a loss of one per cent of battery, he said.

Kirczenow drives a 2021 Hyundai Kona, which he says has proven to be a great fit, despite the distance and the cold. Mahaffy has been driving his first EV since fall of 2023, a Hyundai Ioniq 6.

Living in West Hawk Lake, he said a member of his household commutes weekly to Winnipeg. His round trip to Steinbach and back home would total about 300 km.

Mahaffy said Falk wasn’t the only one to say EVs are impractical.

“We know that a whole bunch of local MPs sent out the same thing,” he said of the Conservatives. “We wanted to confront that and say cold’s not a problem and long distances aren’t a problem and I think it’s important to speak to those messages because these are the things that speak to people’s fears.”

Others were prompted to attend by what they called misinformation.

Todd and Keri Heiland came out from Niverville with the 2023 Kona they’ve owned for two years.

“It’s been problem-free and the stigma about EVs is false,” Todd said.

He admits he experiences a 40 per cent reduction in battery life at -35 C but said in typical conditions it’s more like 25 to 30 per cent.

He also uses it to commute from Niverville to Winnipeg and Steinbach.

Keri said she was disappointed to see “misinformation” in correspondence from an MP.

“I felt that was inappropriate for someone who’s a public figure,” she said.

Raymond and Nicole Lavergne came to the event from St. Pierre. He estimated the round trip would cost him 80 cents for 70 km.

He’s spent $418 driving 20,000 kilometres in the last year, he said.

Standing outside her car, Nicole said infrastructure and attitudes need to change.

“We need more chargers and we need people to know that it’s safe and you can drive it in the wintertime,” she said. “My face is cold, but not my car.”

— Steinbach Carillon