Quebec is an obvious place to introduce electric cars on a large scale. Its power mostly comes from hydroelectric facilities and, culturally, it’s more European than North American in many ways. It’s little surprise then that Mitsubishi has chosen to team up with Hydro-Quebec on a large electric-vehicle trial that will see 50 of its i-MiEVs tested in a variety of conditions, particularly cold and snowy winter conditions. The estimated cost of the project is $4.5 million, and the vehicles will be integrated into existing commercial fleets operating in the City of Boucherville. The project, to launch this fall, is “the first of its kind to include the participation of a car manufacturer, a public utility, a municipality and local businesses that will integrate the vehicles into their existing fleets,” Hydro-Quebec said in a statement, adding that the trial will help the utility plan for the charging infrastructure required in homes, offices and public spaces.

Would love to see a trial of this size announced in Ontario, though I’m guessing something is in the works. BTW: Just to get it on the record, Tesla Motors said today it has built its 1,000th vehicle, an impressive milestone. The company, meanwhile, has its new Model S on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Tesla will start producing the lower cost Model S (roughly $50,000 after government rebates) in 2012.

My Clean Break column today is a bit of an update on ZENN Motor, the potential of EEStor’s EESU, and an interesting comment about EEStor from Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, who before becoming an entrepreneur had plans to enroll in engineering graduate studies and focus on ultracapacitors for vehicles. I also mention some interesting work on ultracapacitor materials being done at Queen’s University in Kingston, and talk about a new ultracapacitor bus operating in Shanghai that will be demonstrated Wednesday in Washington, D.C. (for another more detailed article on the ultracap bus check out this Technology Review article).

I had a chance to chat with Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk late last month about Tesla’s plans in Canada and to probe him on his own early days in Canada after arriving as a 17-year-old from South Africa. Musk, before making his way to Silicon Valley and striking it big, spent three years travelling across the Canadian west visiting relatives (his mom was born in Regina, Saskatchewan) and attending undergraduate studies in Kingston, Ontario, at Queen’s University. It was at Queen’s where he hitched up with his wife-to-be before heading off on a scholarship to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. Of course, from there he went to California and founded Zip2, PayPal, Space X and finally Tesla Motors. The electric car maker recently opened a sales office in Toronto and Musk says Canada is an important market for the company, partly because the majority of the electricity comes from emission-free sources, but also because he believes electric cars appeal to Canadian sensibilities. If you’re interested in learning more, read my just published Toronto Star feature on Musk and Tesla Motors.

For those of you with $120,000 to spare and a desire to drive the coolest looking emission-free vehicle on the market, Tesla Motors announced today that it has started taking orders from Canadian consumers interested in coughing up the $60,000 deposit. Personally, I hope somebody I know buys one so I can go for a spin. Open invitation to my rich Toronto readers, assuming there are any out there – if you buy a Roadster you must tell me and offer a ride!

Read the story here in the Toronto Star. I love the symbolism of the Roadster and profile it has given to electric cars, and I love the name Telsa Motors. Nikola Tesla, in my mind, is one of the world’s greatest yet underappreciated inventors. An appropriate name for a 21st-century electric car company.

My Clean Break column today is a mini-profile of Alan Salzman, the CEO of VantagePoint Venture Partners and, I should add, a fellow Torontonian. Salzman, who did his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto (University College) decided in the early 1980s to lay roots in California so he could join the “entrepreneurial wave of innovation” that would evolve into Silicon Valley. In 1996, after a number of successes as a venture capitalist under his belt, Salzman co-founded VantagePoint and has proved a key player in the success of many high-tech, Internet and biotech companies. His big focus today, however, is cleantech. VantagePoint has funded Tesla Motors, Miasole, BrightSource, Better Place and a number of other promising cleantech ventures. Salzman talks about his decision to go big with cleantech, trends that are driving transformation of the energy and transportation sectors, and how the current global economic crisis could — but won’t necessarily — delay this transformation.

Despite having lived in Silicon Valley for more than 25 years, Salzman’s family still lives in Toronto. He has also retained his Canadian citizenship (I forgot to ask him if he still loves hockey).