The ZENN electric car seats two people and is roughly the size of a Mini Cooper. (Courtesy ZENN Motor Company)

A U.S. company that promotes infrastructure to support electric cars is going to open a site in Toronto to demonstrate the vehicles, Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Better Place, said Thursday.

He called the joint announcement with the provincial government "the all-important first step in an expected electric car charging network rollout for Canada."

Ontario is supporting the plan by studying ways to speed up the introduction of electric cars to the province, said Premier Dalton McGuinty. The study is scheduled for release in May.

It will look at financial incentives to encourage drivers to buy electric vehicles, giving such cars preferred access to the transportation grid, having the government buy electric vehicles and promoting them.

Better Place is also planning a network of stations where consumers could recharge electric cars, the equivalent of gas stations for internal-combustion vehicles.

The company will develop an electric-car charging network plan and timeline, it said in a news release. It is working to build networks in Israel, Denmark, Australia, California and Hawaii, and expects to open its first one in 2010.

Agassi told reporters that once governments signal where the market is going, consumers will follow.

The company website says electric cars need three things:

• Recharging spots.
• Battery switching stations.
• Software that automates the process.

The charging spots enable drivers to top up their power so they can drive 160 kilometres. (Most driving is done within about 65 kilometres of home, the company said.) They should be located in parking lots near where people work, live, shop and dine to ease recharging when software tells drivers they're getting low on juice.

Battery-switching stations are needed for longer trips. In Better Place's plan, "stations are completely automated, and the driver's subscription takes care of everything. The driver pulls in, and the depleted battery is quickly replaced with a fresh one, without anyone having to leave the vehicle. The process takes less time than it does to fill a tank of liquid fuel."

CBC.ca columnist Stephen Strauss likes the idea of reducing emissions but recently expressed some doubts about the potential of electric cars. He cited the need for frequent recharges, estimates that electric cars will cost anywhere from $6,000 US to $11,000 more than gas-powered vehicles, and the fact that as an electric battery loses power, its performance tends to decline.

Better Place said its Ontario plan is backed by Bullfrog Power, a green electricity company, and the Canadian arm of Australian bank Macquarie Group.

Better Place was started in 2007 with $200 million US of venture capital funding. Its backers include Esarbee Investments Ltd. of Montreal, which is headed by Stephen R. Bronfman, whose father, Charles R. Bronfman, founded the Montreal Expos baseball team.