The “new chapter” of electric delivery

A young Montreal startup has just got its hands on Ford’s all-new electric van, which opens a “new chapter” in the decarbonization of medium and heavy transport. But she accuses Quebec of not doing enough to support the energy transition of SMEs.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

They only have a few hundred kilometers on the clock, but the two new E-Transit vans that arrived ten days ago at Courant Plus have already won over those who drive them.

“It’s really good, it’s like driving a car,” says Noémie Hautcœur, one of the many women who work for this small Montreal delivery company, whose fleet of vehicles is entirely electric.

Arriving on the Canadian market in March, Ford’s E-Transit minivan is the first production electric truck offered on the North American market, which will significantly change the game, said Clément Sabourin, co-founder and chief development officer of Courant Plus.

“We are coming out of prehistory,” he says, explaining that the only way to have an electric truck before was to convert a conventional vehicle, with a variable success rate depending on the companies that offer this service. “It’s a new chapter,” he says.

Quebec can do more

But the journey of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is still strewn with too many pitfalls, regrets Clément Sabourin, who criticizes the Quebec government for not doing enough to stimulate the energy transition.

“It’s very complicated,” he himself observed; the company he founded in 2019, for example, has often come up against lenders and insurers who are skeptical of the price of its trucks, which are considerably higher than that of their combustion equivalents.

To these difficulties are added the lack of knowledge, the absence of obligation or the complexity and lack of accessibility of assistance programs, so that many companies are throwing in the towel, says Mr. Sabourin. .

“We really fought,” he recalls, pointing out that the adventure would have been impossible without the Fondaction investment fund.

This is one of the reasons why Courant Plus is now doing business with Seven Generation Capital to expand its fleet of vehicles.

This other start-up specializes in the electrification of commercial vehicle fleets; it advises companies on the most suitable choice for them, acquires vehicles and leases them, thus avoiding obstacles for companies such as the cost of acquisition and the lack of internal knowledge on the subject.

“It is urgent, the IPCC has said it again, our emissions must [de GES] peak in 2025, it won’t happen if we don’t move, and we want to show that it’s possible, “explains Frédéric Bel, vice-president responsible for marketing and business development for the company.

Minister “defeatist”

The statement by Quebec’s Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Benoit Charette, who said last weekend that it was impossible to further reduce the province’s GHG emissions, has Clément jumping Sabourine.

“It makes me sick, it’s defeatism,” he says.

The solutions exist, but eco-fiscal measures are needed to accelerate their adoption, believes the entrepreneur.

He regrets, for example, that public calls for tenders do not offer “no more points for being electric”, so that “it is still the rule of the lowest bidder that applies”.

Access to options is also an issue that the E-Transit van illustrates very well, says Mr. Sabourin: Ford would only have about twenty of them available for the Quebec market, the dealership told him. Asked by The Pressthe manufacturer has indicated that it does not want to disclose this information.

“It’s war to have the vehicles, we are fighting,” said Mr. Sabouin, stressing that the States which have adopted more restrictive legislation have better access to electric vehicles.

“It’s not magic,” he said. It is not the invisible hand of the market that will make us respond to the climate and social challenges we are facing. »