Low-Speed Electric Trucks – B.C. Pilot Program

August 6, 2008 – CBCnews.ca reports…

Low-speed trucks that run on only electric power can now be marketed across Canada for uses such as landscaping and groundskeeping.
Marketing of the trucks, which produce no emissions directly and have a maximum speed of 40 km/h, is now allowed because the trucks were recently incorporated into federal legislation concerning low-speed electric vehicles, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon announced Wednesday in Ottawa.
However, the federal government is not recommending the use of the low-speed vehicles, or LSVs, on roads, but only in certain institutional and industrial settings.
Not for roads
“While greener vehicles are the future, LSVs should be used in controlled low-speed environments like campuses and retirement communities, where the risk of entering into a collision with a faster motor vehicle would be lower than on public roads,” Cannon said in a statement.
Kash Ram, head of road safety and motor vehicle regulation at Transport Canada, emphasized that LSVs, which need to meet only three standards, are in a different category from electric vehicles, which need to meet 40 standards.
“The level of safety is simply not equivalent,” he said. “Low-speed vehicles under the regulation are not designed, not meant for mainstream road use.”
Juergen Weichert of the Electric Vehicle Council of Ottawa said he finds comments like that frustrating.
“We need these on the roads today. This vehicle is perfectly capable,” he said. “We could get in it right now and drive off — except we can’t leave the parking lot.”
He argued that the speed limit built into LSVs mean roads would be safer with LSVs on them.
It is up to provinces to decide whether low-speed electric vehicles should be allowed on public roads.
Quebec and British Columbia have launched pilot programs to test the vehicles on city streets. Ontario has launched another study into the matter.