Road Trip | Electric Avenues

Road Trip host Marco Chown Oved is back for a surprise bonus episode where he visits the new factory announcement in Port Colborne, Ont. that's filling in the missing link in Ontario's EV supply chain. Plus, he goes for a drive in a Tesla with Canada's Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell and climate change reporter Marco Chown Oved went on a roa...

When we started this podcast, we really wanted to visit each step of the EV production process to show a complete picture of the supply chain, but in the end, we couldn't seal the deal. First off, the cam and cathode production isn't coming to Ontario. Right now, it's all being built in Bécancour, Quebec. And while there are plans to retool auto assembly plants to make EVs, there's currently only...

While China dominates the EV supply chain today, the ranking — put out by Bloomberg — really looks at the future and singles out Canada for having better environmental and labour standards, as well as a robust automotive sector and vast mineral deposits. But battery manufacturing itself is still in its infancy. There are plans to build three battery plants in Canada — Volkswagen in St. Thomas, Nor...

Steel is one of the biggest emitters of carbon in the world. Currently, steelmaking is responsible for seven to nine percent of total global emissions. That's about 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon — or four times more than all the emissions produced in Canada. And because most steel is made by melting down iron using coal, it's very hard to decarbonize. In Sault Ste. Marie, Algoma Steel is transition...

Ontario is virtually unique in the world. Thanks to plentiful natural resources, clean energy and a large automotive sector, it has every stage in the EV supply chain right here at home. In theory, the province could mine the metals, make the batteries, produce the steel and assemble the electric car entirely in the province. But to plot a way to a more prosperous and environmentally responsible f...

In this episode, we visit a cobalt refinery in Cobalt, Ont. that's running on renewable power and doubling as a battery recycling plant. Electra Battery Materials bought the plant in 2018 and five years on, they've got the first cobalt refinery in North America, the only alternative for EV manufacturers who currently get their cobalt refined in China. Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell and cl...

Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell and climate change reporter Marco Chown Oved went on a road trip through northern Ontario in the dead of winter. It was cold, blizzarding and icy. They travelled 2,300 km during the coldest week of the year. And they did it in an electric vehicle (EV). Sudbury, Ont., has some of the richest nickel deposits in the world and is already supplying some battery m...

In a cross-over episode of Toronto Star podcasts, This Matters' Ed Keenan interviews Road Trip: Electric Avenues' Marco Chown Oved, the Star's climate change reporter . They have a wide-ranging conversation about the week-long road trip, from how their electric vehicle performed in the dead of winter, to the future of Ontario's EV supply chain opportunities. 

From mine to battery to electric vehicle – Ontario's clean economic future is being built around electric vehicles (EVs). The Star's climate change reporter Marco Chown and photographer (and EV owner) Steve Russell embarked upon a week-long road trip  – in an EV, of course – to visit sites around the province that will figure in this cleantech future.