The president and CEO of a Toronto-based non-profit that promotes electric vehicle adoption through consumer education, test drives and policy advocacy, says Ontarian drivers are overestimating the cost of going green.
“The sticker price is more, but the total cost of ownership is much, much less,” said Cara Clairman, president and CEO of Plug’n Drive on The Rundown, a daily current affairs television program hosted by Jeyan Jeganathan on TVO. “Over time you’re going to save.”
Speaking on The Rundown, a daily current affairs television program hosted by Jeyan Jeganathan on TVO — Ontario’s publicly funded educational broadcaster, known for long-form journalism and policy-focused interviews — Clairman pushed back on the idea that EVs remain financially out of reach.
She said the remaining purchase-price gap -- about $5,000 after incentives -- is short-lived. “You’ll make that back in about two years of driving.” Maintenance, she added, is structurally lower because EVs are mechanically simpler. “A gas car has somewhere in the order of 1,800 to 2,000 moving parts,” she said, compared with “like 20 to 30” in an electric vehicle.
Her appearance comes as Canada’s EV market stabilizes after a volatile stretch. Sales reached nearly 20% of new vehicles in parts of 2024 before falling as rebates were withdrawn and economic conditions softened, then settling at about 12.5% by the end of 2025. Globally, adoption continues to accelerate, with Europe registering more than half a million new EVs in the first quarter of 2026.
Clairman also addressed consumer hesitation around Chinese-built vehicles, which are expected to enter the Canadian market at lower price points. “There’s still some fear around the Chinese EVs,” she said, adding that buyers will likely favour familiar Western brands in the near term before broader acceptance follows.
She appeared alongside Lindsay Wiginton, co-lead of clean mobility at Dunsky Energy and Climate Advisors, a consulting firm that advises governments and utilities on energy and transportation policy. Wiginton said provincial policy continues to shape which vehicles are available to consumers. Provinces such as Quebec and British Columbia, which have zero-emission vehicle mandates and provincial rebates, attract more supply from automakers. “That’s where the supply goes,” she said, describing Ontario as “middle of the pack” without comparable measures.
On infrastructure, Clairman argued that urban charging access is stronger than public perception suggests. “If you live in urban suburban Canada, the infrastructure is actually quite good,” she said, citing tens of thousands of chargers nationwide. The bigger constraint, she and Wiginton agreed, is multi-unit housing, where retrofitting charging capacity is costly and many new developments still lack basic EV-ready wiring.
The segment also turned to security concerns following comments from Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has warned about risks tied to Chinese EVs. David Shipley, CEO and co-founder of Beauceron Security, a cybersecurity firm based in Fredericton, argued that the focus on country of origin misses the broader issue of connectivity. “It’s about all of these internet connected vehicles,” he said, noting that nearly half of cars on Canadian roads are connected to the internet at all times.
Shipley said consumers have little ability to disable those systems. “There is no easy way for people to turn off” connectivity, he said, warning that cybersecurity and data use are emerging risks as vehicles become increasingly software-driven.
Clairman’s focus, however, remained on adoption. “The business case is there,” she said, positioning EV uptake as less a technological hurdle than a question of awareness and policy alignment in a province still catching up to its peers.
