- FSA · Forward Sortation Area
- The first three characters of a Canadian postal code, for example M5V or K1A. The smallest geographic unit at which the Ontario Ministry of Transportation publishes EV data. An FSA usually covers a single neighbourhood in a city, or a wider rural area outside the urban centres.
- CSD · Census Subdivision
- Statistics Canada's term for a municipality. Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, etc. are each a CSD. The direct source of city-level household, income and population numbers on this site.
- BEV · Battery Electric Vehicle
- A vehicle that runs only on a battery and plugs in to recharge. No gas engine, no tailpipe. Examples include Tesla Model 3, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Chevrolet Bolt, Nissan Leaf.
- PHEV · Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle
- A hybrid that can plug in for a battery-only range of roughly 30 to 80 km, then runs on gasoline once the battery is depleted. Examples include Toyota Prius Prime, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, BMW XM.
- EV
- On this site, EV refers to plug-in vehicles, both BEV and PHEV. Regular non-plug-in hybrids (HEVs) are not counted.
- ICE · Internal Combustion Engine
- A conventional gasoline or diesel vehicle. The “Gas Vehicle” field on the calculator covers the ICE side of the comparison.
- L/100 km
- Litres of fuel a gasoline car burns to travel 100 kilometres. The standard fuel-economy unit in Canada. Lower is better; a typical mid-size sedan sits around 7 to 8 L/100 km combined.
- kWh/100 km
- Kilowatt-hours of electricity an EV uses to travel 100 kilometres. The EV equivalent of L/100 km. A typical sedan EV sits around 15 to 18 kWh/100 km.
- EV adoption %
- EVs registered in an area divided by the number of households in that area. A neighbourhood-level measure of how many homes own at least one plug-in vehicle.
- BEV share
- The percentage of EVs in an area that are battery-only, not plug-in hybrids. A higher BEV share signals drivers are skipping the hybrid stepping stone and going fully electric.
- EVs per station
- Active EVs in an area divided by the number of active public charging stations there. A capacity metric. Lower means more breathing room per driver.
- Level 1 charger
- A standard 120-volt household outlet. Adds roughly 5 to 8 km of range per hour. Fine for short daily commutes, insufficient for most drivers as a primary charger.
- Level 2 charger
- A 240-volt connection, the same kind of circuit as an electric dryer. Adds roughly 30 to 50 km of range per hour. The standard at-home charger and the most common public station.
- Level 3 · DC fast charger
- High-voltage direct-current charging that can add 200 to 400 km of range in 20 to 40 minutes. Used on highway routes and for quick top-ups. Brand names include Tesla Supercharger, Electrify Canada, FLO Ultra, ChargePoint Express.
- MTO · Ontario Ministry of Transportation
- The provincial ministry that registers every vehicle in Ontario. Their open data feeds the EV counts shown on this site.
- NRCan · Natural Resources Canada
- The federal department that maintains the public registry of active EV charging stations across Canada. The source of the charger counts, install dates, and locations on this site.
- Statistics Canada · Census Profile
- The five-year detailed demographic dataset, last published for 2021. The source of household, income, dwelling-type and population numbers used throughout the site.
- CMA · Census Metropolitan Area
- Statistics Canada’s term for a large urban area and its surrounding commuter belt. Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo are all CMAs. The geography StatCan uses to publish monthly retail gas prices, which feeds the calculator’s default fuel cost.
- OEB · Ontario Energy Board
- The provincial regulator that sets electricity rates for residential customers on the Regulated Price Plan. Publishes the time-of-use, Ultra-Low Overnight, and Tiered rate schedules.
- IESO · Independent Electricity System Operator
- The agency that runs Ontario’s electricity grid and publishes the supply-mix and emissions data behind the grid-carbon-intensity figure used in the calculator’s CO2 estimate.
- TOU · Time-of-Use
- The default Ontario residential rate plan. Charges different rates for on-peak, mid-peak, and off-peak hours. Overnight charging hits the off-peak rate, which is the rate the calculator uses for TOU customers.
- ULO · Ultra-Low Overnight
- An optional OEB rate plan with a deeply discounted rate between 11 pm and 7 am, paired with a higher on-peak rate during the day. Generally the best plan for EV owners who can shift most charging overnight.
- Tiered rate
- An optional flat-rate OEB plan. The first block of monthly kWh is cheaper; usage above the threshold (1,000 kWh in winter, 600 kWh in summer) hits the higher Tier-2 rate. EV charging typically pushes households past the threshold, so the calculator uses Tier-2 as the marginal rate.
- AFLEET
- Argonne National Laboratory’s Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation tool. The source of the year-1 and multi-year maintenance cost figures shown in the calculator.
- gCO2eq/kWh · grid carbon intensity
- Grams of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emitted per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated. A lower number means a cleaner grid. Ontario’s 2024 figure is 73.8 gCO2eq/kWh.