Electric cars: the big advantage that is not talked about enough

Frédéric Mercier

Wednesday, march 21, 2018 10:29

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Wednesday, march 21, 2018 10:29

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When it comes to electric vehicles, no need to look too far to find arguments in their favor.

One that often comes to mind first is the environmental concern. The joy of going past a service station, thinking that we no longer have to stop there. A strange sense of satisfaction.

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There is also the financial issue. Certainly, an electric car is more expensive to purchase, but the grant from the government of Quebec, which can reach up to 8000$, helps to absorb it all. And$ 1.20 for a litre of gasoline, the electric charging is significantly advantageous in the long term.

Except that on board of an electric car, there is another advantage that is not talked about enough: the access to the hov lanes.

Last week, I was driving on highway 20 East, in the direction of downtown Montreal from the airport. It was about 17: 30. In full rush hour.

Aboard the Honda Clarity that I had to run the test, I suddenly realized that I was eligible to use the hov lane, which extends over a little more than 7 kilometers on the territories of Dorval and Lachine.

Lane

Exclusive to taxis, buses and people practising car-pooling, this path is also accessible to electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid featuring the famous license plate the lettering green, issued by the SAAQ.

For long kilometers, plainly, so I spun at full speed on this exclusive channel, while the others kept the bumper-to-bumper, right side. Thanks to that, I had to come home with a good 15 minutes ahead, if not more.

If I had a course of the kind to do it every day, which is the case of thousands of motorists, and the easy access to these famous lanes I would want to turn me into an electric car.

Imagine. In a road network ridiculously overloaded, your car gives you a vip pass that saves you precious minutes every day. At the end of a year, it is hours less on the road that you have accumulated.

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In addition to the stretch of highway 20 that is mentioned above, you can find other lanes to electric vehicles, on the 15 and the 25 in addition to access to the Victoria bridge, in Montreal. In the region of Québec, it can also be found on the 740, the 440, 116 and 132.

If the Quebec government wants to reach its goal of gathering 100 000 electric vehicles on our roads by 2020, adding hov lanes on other stretches could be an interesting way to get there.

The new Champlain bridge, for example, could be a strategic location to aim at. The number of people who will spend every morning, the hov lanes to green vehicles could encourage many people to give up their gasoline car.