It’s not enough to track the number of chargers. We’ve identified three indicators that give additional insight into whether Canada’s charging network is expanding in the right ways.
Key Insights
Clean transition indicators track the physical and economic changes that occur before emissions fall.
Reporting on a small set of timely, relevant indicators can signal decarbonization trends before emissions data is available.
Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure data illustrates how these indicators can signal progress.
There is more than one way to track Canada’s climate progress. Emissions data provide the clearest signal, but accurate data are slow to emerge and do not directly capture the trends—in energy use, technology deployment, or investment—that shape future outcomes.
Another kind of data, which we call clean transition indicators, can help fill that gap. They track the physical and economic changes that occur as clean systems are built, revealing whether the technologies, infrastructure, and markets needed for a clean economy are expanding.
The federal government has started tracking similar indicators. Its 2025 report on Canada’s climate progress contained 24 of them. They used five inclusion criteria—relevance, credibility, accessibility, timeliness, and transparency—to guide their indicator choice.
In 440 Megatonnes’ research into potential clean transition indicators, we are also developing inclusion criteria. Our focus is to develop clean transition indicators that are timely and demonstrate system performance as well as speed of change.
To explain what we mean, this Insight contrasts the federal indicator about electric vehicle chargers with three indicators that we’re examining: fast-charging ports per 1,000 EVs, total additions of fast-charging ports, and the share of ultra-fast charging ports (ports that exceed 150kW in charging speed, about five times faster than DC chargers).
Fast chargers are multiplying, but EVs are multiplying faster
Electrification will be the main means to decarbonize personal transport, and the infrastructure to charge electric vehicles is a key enabling factor in this transition. The federal government’s chosen indicator for this part of the transition is the total number of public EV charging stations. This indicator has some promise, but also many limitations.
The indicator does help to measure some aspects of progress. And the good news is that Canada’s public EV charging network is growing.
But charger counts alone don’t tell the full story. As EV adoption accelerates and technology evolves, indicators need to shift from counting chargers to assessing how the system is performing to meet user needs. Simply put, people want to know they can access a fast charger, fill up quickly, and get on their way.
Three additional indicators can help do this (Figure 1).
The ratio of chargers per vehicle—measured as the number of fast-charging ports per 1,000 EVs—shows whether the scale of infrastructure is keeping up with demand.
Additions of fast-charging DC ports track how quickly the system is responding to growing EV adoption.
Finally, the share of ultra-fast charging ports reflects build quality, indicating whether the network is becoming faster and easier to use.
Figure 1
Taken together, these indicators track if charging infrastructure is working to support EV adoption. Of course, these are not the only data that are useful for understanding vehicle charging. For example, it would be useful to track exactly where public chargers are being built, how often they are out of service, and the availability of private charging options.
The data from our three indicators indicate that the pace and quality of EV charging is accelerating—but it still may not be keeping up with broader EV adoption.
While fast-charging additions are now being added at triple the rate of in 2020, fast chargers per 1,000 EVs dropped from 12.6 in early 2019 to 7.8 by end of 2025, a 38 per cent decline. Nearly twice as many EVs now compete for each fast charger. On the other hand, the share of ultra-fast charging ports is slowly increasing, which can reduce the amount of time an EV owner takes to charge if their vehicle has the capacity to absorb that rate of power flow. Already, a significant number of EV models have peak charge ratings compatible with these rates of charge.
The federal government’s 2025 progress report is a useful beginning for tracking indicators of progress, but its chosen indicators are not always the most effective way to track progress. As 440 Megatonnes develops its own clean transition indicators, we’ll keep looking for indicators that can answer deeper questions about the nature of Canada’s progress.
Alison Bailie and Arthur Zhang are Senior Research Associates at the Canadian Climate Institute. Dave Sawyer is Principal Economist and Head of 440 Megatonnes at the Canadian Climate Institute.
