Thursday 4 January 2018




FORD MOTOR CO. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally kisses the hood of the new Ford Focus Electric upon its introduction at the International Consumer Electronics Show Friday.

Julie Jacobson/The Associated Press

Electric cars are coming to Canada and the country isn’t ready for them, an industry group warns.

Electric Mobility Canada warns in a position paper Canada needs a relatively modest $79 million over the next two years to start setting the technical standards and building the infrastructure needed for that revolution.

Electric car advocates say without that kind of action, Canada will lose its chance to cash in on an environmental revolution.

“This is a huge opportunity for us,” said Stoney Creek-based consultant Stephen Bieda. “This kind of clean technology is huge in its potential for jobs.”

Bieda, a former board member of Electric Mobility, met Friday with Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MP Wayne Marston in an effort to line up support from Opposition MPs to nudge the Harper government into making the right decisions....

EV Future Gets a Jump Start

Toronto Star Wheels May 11, 2012

By Henry Stancu

The electric car is no longer just a fleeting concept. It is the future and it is now.

Just as the telephone, computers and the Internet made the world a global village, electric vehicles on land, sea and in the air will alter the way we travel and power our communities.

“We’re at a paradigm shift in the history of transportation and energy,” said Stephen Bieda, director of communications and marketing at Hamilton’s McMaster University, speaking about the McMaster Institute for Automotive Research and Technology (MacAUTO)..

“Rarely do you see such massive infrastructural pieces of society intersecting like this,” he told Toronto Star Wheels this week. “This is extremely exciting. I’ve been involved in electric vehicles for more than 20 years and I’m certain we’re not going to see this go away. It is the future, the next Industrial Revolution, to borrow a page from Jeremy Rifkin.”

RECAP: AJAC Eco-Run Fuel Economy Test

(Rifkin is the principal architect of the Third Industrial Revolution, an economic sustainability plan addressing the challenges of the global economic crisis, energy security, and climate change.)

On Thursday the university held a news conference to announce the $26 million McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC), which when completed this time next year will have brought together the largest team of automotive tech researchers in North America backed by about $150 million in funding.

The occasion was the second last stop of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada’s Brighton-to-London Eco-Run, a public experiment to demonstrate and highlight the range of fuel-economy options that are already available to consumers.

The 23 fuel-efficient, hybrid and electric cars driven by automotive journalists, including three representing Toronto Star Wheels, rallied around the rose garden in front of McMaster’s stately University Hall before heading to Fanshawe College in London.

By the time MacAUTOs new 80,000 square-foot facility is completed next spring, about 150 graduate students, professors and technicians will be engaged in research backed by about $150 million in funding from the university, federal government programs, automotive and electric technology industry partners and sponsors.

The program got its greatest boost a year ago when the leading U.S. developer of electric powertrain technology, Dr. Ali Emadi, joined McMaster’s mechanical engineering department.

Emadi, who holds the title of Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Hybrid Technology and is MacAUTO’s director, has helped to raise the learning institution’s auto tech program to a higher level.

“He’s a real visionary, someone who transcends academia and brings a lot of industry and practical experience. Dr. Emadi has that gleam in his eye of someone who knows something and inspires others because he’s able to excite teamwork and passion,” Bieda said.

The program’s goal is much more than just researching electric vehicles, batteries, power generation, and other electric vehicle components.

“We are really quite bullish on the future of electrification beyond just affecting transportation,” Bieda said.

“It’s interconnected with the energy system. The energy internet is what is emerging, so we’re talking about the vehicle to grid technology’s transformation — doing what the internet has done to communication to empower and democratize people in a way nobody ever anticipated,” he added.

Driven by the ever-increasing price of gasoline and the need for cleaner and greener fuel, research and development of electric-powered mobility and greater battery storage capacity will revolutionize the transfer and storage of energy and connect everyone to the power grid.

“At certain times of the day we produce far more energy than is needed and at other times not enough. When you add electric cars to the mix it allows everyone to store energy and deliver to the grid when necessary. It allows people to sell back energy,” said Bieda.

Just as increased memory storage keeps advancing the power of modern computers; energy storage is the key to expanding battery capacity and vehicle range.

With the aid of a $3.5 million grant provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), General Motors, Heka Electronics and Bruker Ltd., Dr. Gillian Goward, an associate professor of chemistry, heads McMaster’s advanced research project into higher battery capacity.

“She’s using magnetic technology and the Titan microscope — the most powerful — to measure battery life and degradation at the molecular level. It’s pretty advanced research,” Bieda said.

Researchers believe the next Industrial Revolution will do more than just create more efficient and clean ways to travel, store and use energy, but it will also mean more jobs.

“Not only is it exciting from a job creation standpoint, but because the technology is pretty sophisticated it requires training that will produce higher paying jobs,” Bieda said.

“The nature of this vehicle to grid and battery vehicle technology is that things can be localized and not made by an offshore workforce. The whole renovation process that’s going to be required for buildings to accommodate electric vehicles, charging stations and the renovation of the infrastructure means jobs.



Corvette hits the big 6-0

The car heralded as "America's Sports Car" is turning 60 and we’re looking at its past, present and future.

Toronto Star Wheels June 1, 2012

Henry Stancu

“In my opinion an electric Corvette would be pretty cool because it’s a lighter weight vehicle that lends itself to the battery technology and limitations as far as range goes,” said Stephen Bieda, director of communications and marketing at Hamilton’s McMaster Institute for Automotive Research and Technology.

“We were at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last month competing with our McMaster SAE hybrid team, where we unfortunately finished ninth due of electrical problems, but the high-performance side of the spectrum is where the innovations come from, so it’s a perfect fit for cars like Corvettes, Mustangs and Porches,” he said.

Hybrid, all electric and more fuel efficient cars are here to stay but it may be hard to picture…or at least hear and feel the noiseless throb of an Electra Vette engine at a race track.

“There are ways of making electric motors sound tough, but it does run contrary to ecological sustainability for traffic and congestion,” Bieda added.

Hamilton Environmental Summit - Stephen Bieda incite presentation



June 2013


Hamilton Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsF_0xLatW0

June 24, 2013

The York Boulevard Parkade is home to Hamilton's newest Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. "Top Up" charging for electric vehicles will be free during the pilot project to help the city gage the uptake and usage of this environmentally friendly way of commuting.

Radio interview with Stephen Bieda. Slideshow highlights from the E-Mazing Race.


The E-Mazing Race - Electric Vehicle Rally - radio interview and video slideshow


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9aDisbc1FU


Radio interview with Stephen Bieda. Slideshow highlights from the E-Mazing Race.

September 4, 2013

Scott Thompson

Radio Interview with Stephen Bieda on Ontario Electric Vehicle Charging



Radio Interview with Stephen Bieda on Ontario Electric Vehicle Charging

July 15, 2016

An informational interview covering the $20 million investment by the Ontario government into 500 electric vehicle charging stations to be deployed across the province in an effort to mitigate climate change.