32 cents per KWH is the highest electric rate I've ever heard of. In most places it varies from 10 to 20 cents per KWH, in which case your electric vehicle is still the cheapest way to get around.

While I wholeheartedly want electric vehicles to sell well because it would be good for developing Manitoba's hydroelectric potential, electric cars simply aren't practical in a Canadian winter.

That's because interior car heaters warm the interior of the car in winter by using waste heat from the gasoline engine. The car warmer uses the same coolant the engine does to warm the interior of the car and keep the front windshield warm so the frost on it melts. In an electric car, you don't have any waste heat available to use for warming the inside of the car.

AND, with every breath you exhale, you're raising the humidity level inside the car, and that humidity forms frost on the inside of the cold windshield, making it hard to see through.

Yes, we could put electric heaters in electric cars to warm the interior, but that would be a major drain on the batteries. Electric motors are really quite efficient, but electric heaters are electricity pigs.

So, ironic as it sounds, one place in North America that has plenty of hydro electric generating potential (Manitoba) is also one place where electric cars are impractical. I suppose a practical solution would be for Manitobans to buy hybrid cars, and use the gasoline engine during the winter and the electric drive motors during the summer. That would work cut our carbon footprint substantially because we only really need interior car warmers in the cold months from mid-November to mid-March.