Three Canadian provinces offer incentives for the purchase of an electric vehicle (EV). Ontario was the first province to offer EV incentives followed by British Columbia and Quebec.
A battery electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that is powered by electricity and contains a battery to store energy. There are two main types of EVs: conventional hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and grid-connected vehicles that include plug-in hybrid battery electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs)Unlike HEVs, PHEVs and BEVs have larger capacity batteries that can be recharged by plugging in to the electricity grid. Only new PHEVs and BEVs are eligible for the incentive program.
Although the incentives for EVs differ from province to province, the maximum goes as high as $8,500.
Ontario’s program commenced in July 2010, B.C.’s program went into effect in December 2011 and Quebec’s program will start offering rebates in January 2012.
Canada is a large country with vast expanses of uninhabited land. For EVs to make significant inroads they will have to be more practical (ie: get better mileage on a single charge).
It is no coincidence that the three provinces offering EV incentives are also the wealthiest non-oil producing provinces with the greatest population densities.
© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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