It’s tough to call CIAS 2015 the greenest auto show ever in Canada when the undisputed star of the show is a gorgeous Ford GT repli-racer that will pump out 600+ hp from a small-ish ecoBOOST turbocharged V6. The fastest Ford was a hometown star to boot, as it will be built just northeast of Toronto at engineering and race outfit Multimatic’s Markham shop.

And yet that’s what it was, perhaps even moreso than this year’s electric-heavy Montreal auto show. Which is saying something, because Montreal not only had plug-ins, hybrids and EVs (plus EV contests) everywhere, it’s where Nissan Canada announced it would invest in 25 Quick Charge fast chargers in the province by 2016, a U-turn on its prior “we’re not in the infrastructure business” stance. Combined with the province’s simultaneous announcement that it would invest in another 25 DC Level 3 fast chargers to bring the new total to 50, it marked the largest fast-charging electric vehicle infrastructure investment in Canada to date.

What Toronto countered with was a major showing of Canadian green car debuts, highlighted by the GM Canada stand, where GM invited at least 50 Chevrolet Volt owners and enthusiasts to the introduction of the vehicle that has long been the best-selling plug-in vehicle in Canada. Those owners will likely be most excited about the new Volt’s longer all-electric range, which GM suggests can now extend to 80 km instead of the current one’s 61, before a more powerful but also more efficient 1.5L four-cylinder kicks in to run a generator that creates the electricity.

More Related Articles

Other common Volt owner requests were also addressed in the new 2016 model that goes on sale this fall: the Volt now has a fifth seatbelt, although with the huge T-shaped battery still in place, rear middle riders have to straddle that huge hump, plus the high seat cushion means headroom is awful. So the new added middle passenger seat will only help shuttle around an extra child in a pinch.

The main question now is price: the ’16 Volt will almost certainly cost less than the current ’15 Volt’s $38,395 MSRP, which already included a $5,000 price reduction about mid-way through the first-gen Volt’s short four-year lifespan in Canada. GM’s executive vice president of global product development Mark Reuss stated in Detroit recently that GM has managed to cut the cost of production on the next Volt by about US$10,000; the question now is how much wiggle room will this provide Chevrolet and future Volt buyers. Remember, with that price cut, and both an advanced battery and engine onboard combined with relatively low overall sales, it’s very possible that it cost GM more than that MSRP price to produce each one.

Then there’s the Chevrolet Bolt-with-a-B, as it became known at its world debut at the Detroit show. Offering up about 300 km worth of range (and perhaps more, since the 200 miles often quoted in the U.S. works out to 320 km), the Bolt Concept EV is a rarity: a reasonably priced EV that neither looks exactly like its gas equivalent, nor looks different enough to be called an oddity (or worse). GM confirmed that morning that a version of the Bolt EV would go into production, but didn’t confirm when it would arrive in Canada, though that’s widely believed to be at some point in 2017.

But by far the most intriguing aspect of the Bolt EV Concept is when GM Canada president Steve Carlisle announced its potential price, and even emphasized it.

“It will go into production, it will be sold across Canada, and it will cost about 30,000 dollars,” he said. “That’s right, about 300 km of range for about 30,000 dollars.”

That’s particularly interesting because when GM’s CEO Mary Barra said at the Bolt EV Concept’s world debut in Detroit that it would be sold for $30,000, it was generally understood that price meant after the $7,500 federal tax deduction, so the actual MSRP would be closer to US$37,500. Given the usual price discrepancies with Canadian MSRPs, that suggested a likely C$40,000 MSRP in Canada, if not slightly more.

But when Carlisle stressed in Toronto that the Bolt EV in production form will come in close to $30,000 with no qualifiers, that sounded like a price in Canadian dollars. Of course, there’s no national tax deduction in Canada, only a provincial $8,500 and $8,000 rebate in Ontario and Quebec, respectively. Yet he didn’t qualify it by saying they were aiming for a $30,000 price in Ontario and Quebec, so for a brief instant, both I and perhaps many of those Volt owners in that audience wondered if GM Canada just announced it planned to match the post-deduction U.S. price here across the country.

When asked for clarification, GM Canada communications staff said that Carlisle’s announced $30,000 figure is GM’s “goal,” but didn’t specify if this would be before or after the Ontario and Quebec plug-in car rebates. “Note that the estimate is purely that, an estimate in U.S. funds.” Take that as you may.

The Bolt Concept is undoubtedly an attractive car, and the prospect of a long-range, relatively affordable BEV that would hit the market right around or even before Tesla’s similarly priced Model 3 means that GM is still aggressively pushing its undisputed Canadian leadership in the plug-in market. But even as an EV fan, I worry that the Bolt crossover will be based on the platform of the subcompact Sonic hatchback, still a very small car for much of the U.S. And that market so far has not shown a huge appetite for subcompact vehicles, all-electric or otherwise, even in EV-friendly California. But small crossovers like the Buick Encore have sold better than expected, so as long as GM learns from the Volt and installs a decent third seat in the Bolt, unlike the two in the rear of the Bolt concept, it could do very well for them.

Other notable green cars making their Canadian debut at the show included hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Hyundai Sonata, the ravishing Acura NSX hybrid supercar, the Volkswagen Cross Coupé GTE plug-in concept (which will arrive as a seven-seater next year, followed by the Golf GTE plug-in hybrid in the next couple years), the large but super sleek Infiniti Q80 hybrid concept, and the gorgeous Mini Superleggera Vision all-electric two-seat convertible concept. And of course, the performance pinnacle of all hybrids, the Ferrari LaFerrari, on loan by former Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec.

More Related Articles

Finally, there was the notable debut of the Hyundai Tuscon Fuel Cell (FCEV), which had been shown before, but the first Surrey, BC-based owners were presented the keys on the show stand during Hyundai’s press conference. The first consumer fuel cell vehicle sold (okay, leased) in Canada is certainly a worthy occasion to mark. But with only one hydrogen fuel station open in the country, and very low numbers of other Tucson FCEVs set to come in, Hyundai is working hard to find other compressed hydrogen suppliers in Ontario and Quebec.

Whereas California has laws that require a certain number of zero emissions vehicles, Canada has none, so all credit to Hyundai. When some manufacturers there build the minimum number of cars available and then reluctantly sell them, they’re called compliance cars. Perhaps the green cars with limited availability in Canada (Focus EV? Kia Soul EV?) or not at all, but available for media test drives (Honda Accord Plug-In? Fleet-only Spark EV?) will soon become known as GPR (Green Public Relations) cars, because they seem strictly available for their green public relations value.

So here’s hoping the Tucson FCEV is just the start of a larger effort to replace an increasing number of greenhouse-gas-emitting and health-hurting vehicles on our roads, and not simply another GPR car.

Connect with Autos.ca