Wednesday Keynote: Kent Rathwell, President Of Sun Country Highway
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Kent Rathwell is an ambitious entrepreneur who's spending money bringing
electric vehicle infrastructure to Canada, a country with around 3500
EVs. Rathwell made his money in bird seed as President of Sun Country
Farms. Now he's branched out into electric vehicle chargers. The sister
company is called Sun County Highway. As a publicity stunt he even drove
coast-to-coast in an electric vehicle in the dead of winter, using only
his company's chargers.
"We set out to eliminate the excuses of people from blaming government,
oil companies, automakers and, ultimately, their ancestors for the lack
of sustainable transportation," Rathwell says of the cross-country
charging network, adding that "...if our ancestors had put charging
stations into their houses and businesses 100 years ago, we would have
had sustainable transportation for a century now."
"The original concept was to finally create sustainable transportation," Rathwell said of Sun Country Highway. "Up until a couple of years ago, that’s never been able to take root."
Judging by the numbers, he’s succeeded. There are now thousands of chargers installed across Canada, including along the entire length of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Peavey Mart, a retailer with 32 stores across Western Canada, installed charging stations at its outlets so that EV-owning consumers can buy Sun Country's bird feed and take it home with no emissions.
"(Peavey) bought into the concept, and in addition they have made their charging stations available 24/7 to anyone travelling by. So they’re not only empowering their customers, they’re empowering strangers.
"And that is really what this is about. Empowering people to focus their energy on the positive instead of buying into why we can’t do things. That’s why we electrified the entire Trans-Canada Highway. If the longest highway in the world can be electrified, what can’t be?"
Kent Rathwell will be a keynote speaker at NAFA's 2016 Institute & Expo, April 19-22 in Austin, Texas. For more information about the conference, visit: www.nafainstitute.org
"We set out to eliminate the excuses of people from blaming government,
oil companies, automakers and, ultimately, their ancestors for the lack
of sustainable transportation," Rathwell says of the cross-country
charging network, adding that "...if our ancestors had put charging
stations into their houses and businesses 100 years ago, we would have
had sustainable transportation for a century now.""The original concept was to finally create sustainable transportation," Rathwell said of Sun Country Highway. "Up until a couple of years ago, that’s never been able to take root."
Judging by the numbers, he’s succeeded. There are now thousands of chargers installed across Canada, including along the entire length of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Peavey Mart, a retailer with 32 stores across Western Canada, installed charging stations at its outlets so that EV-owning consumers can buy Sun Country's bird feed and take it home with no emissions.
"(Peavey) bought into the concept, and in addition they have made their charging stations available 24/7 to anyone travelling by. So they’re not only empowering their customers, they’re empowering strangers.
"And that is really what this is about. Empowering people to focus their energy on the positive instead of buying into why we can’t do things. That’s why we electrified the entire Trans-Canada Highway. If the longest highway in the world can be electrified, what can’t be?"
Kent Rathwell will be a keynote speaker at NAFA's 2016 Institute & Expo, April 19-22 in Austin, Texas. For more information about the conference, visit: www.nafainstitute.org
