Many Canadians are still not interested in purchasing an electric vehicle (EV), a new survey by J.D. Power has found, with only 28 per cent saying the are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to consider purchasing one as their next vehicle.
It showed that many people still have “range anxiety” – concerns about how far EVs can travel – as well as concerns about the reliability and the number of chargers that make up the EV charging network.
If you live in the city, you have many options when it comes to charging your EV, but if you’re in a remote area or plan to travel across Canada charging stations are harder to find.
A Manitoba man contacted CTV News after he was concerned how much it cost him to charge his EV at a Manitoba dealership.
“It was like close to $700 and I just thought wow” said John Kolisnyk, of Dauphin, Manitoba.
Kolisnyk said he bought his first electric vehicle earlier this year, a 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV.
He had to make a trip for a medical appointment to Swan River, Manitoba, and phoned ahead and found a dealership where he could charge his EV.
“I got there, and I charged my vehicle for 1 hour and 53 minutes. I plugged it in using the Flow app” Kolisnyk said.
Two weeks later, he said he was shocked to find out he had been billed $5.99 a minute to charge his car plus taxes for a total cost of $681 dollars.
Upset, Kolisnyk said he called the dealership to complain.
“They told me when we put in this charger, we can charge whatever we want and apparently they can” said Kolisnyk.
“I said, that’s crazy, that’s way too much and he said maybe you should have bought a gas vehicle.”
We contacted the dealership in Swan River, which is about five and a half hours northwest of Winnipeg.
Dealer Principal Greg Ashauer, of Redline Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Ltd. said Kolisnyk had called ahead and was warned what the charging fees would be.
“We made it blatantly clear what the price of charging was, it is also on the app and on the charger itself. It’s just like a gas pump essentially” Ashauer said, adding that no one in his remote community is interested in EVs and he said his dealership has never sold one.
He said his dealership only installed a charging station because it was forced to.
“That machine cost me $86,000. It was something I never wanted and I never have a hope in returning any return on the investment on the machine” said Ashauer.
The Electric Vehicle Society, a group which promotes EV use, said it had never heard of such a large bill.
Tim Burrows with the Society said EV users typically only get high bills if they leave their EV plugged in after it’s been charged, and it remains blocking a changing spot for someone else.
That’s when users could be charged idle fees, he noted.
“When your car is fully charged, there is usually a five-minute grace period and then you are going to be charged a fee per minute. That’s an idle fee and there is no cap on that,” Burrows said.
Kolisnyk said after he complained his charging app agreed to refund him $300, but he still wanted to share his story to warn other EV owners.
“I just want people to understand that price is outrageous,” he said.
Ashauer said his dealership has since reduced the charging rate to $1.99 per minute, but he said he is not interested in losing money on the charging station.
“If you want to buy an EV, then buy an EV, but I’m not subsiding your electric car more than I already have.” He said.
If you’re on the road with an electric car there can be big differences in how much it will cost to charge it. It could be $20 to $70 or more. Make sure you know what the fees will be in advance, so you’ll know how much you’ll have to pay.
