Federal rebates for electric vehicles part of 'good progress' on getting people to switch: Sask. EV Club

New rebates that come into effect today to offset the purchase of electric vehicles are part of the "good progress" on getting people to switch their fuel-powered vehicles for an alternative, according to a Saskatchewan-based electric vehicle advocacy group.

The rebates, announced in the last Liberal budget, will take up to $5,000 off the cost of electric vehicles and $2,500 off plug-in hybrids.

"I think that will really open up for people to be able to take advantage of the incentive and for us to be able to see a lot more vehicles coming into the province over the next few months here," said Jason Cruickshank, lead organizer of SaskEV, 

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The rebates initially applied only to cars that cost less than $45,000.

Ottawa is raising that to $55,000 to increase the options a buyer can choose and still receive the rebate. This will allow some of the most popular electric and hybrid cars, including the Tesla Model 3, to qualify.

Tesla recently launched a cheaper Model 3 in Canada with a 150-kilometre range that just qualified for the previous limit at $44,999.

A 2019 standard Model 3 with a range of about 386 kilometres now also qualifies for the rebate at a cost of $53,700.

Cruickshank said he would like to see Saskatchewan follow the lead of British Columbia and Quebec in providing rebates.

"It'd be great certainly to see the provincial government follow up with their own incentive program that can be stacked with the federal program and the other piece is the infrastructure to support the vehicles, especially on the highway side," he said.

He expects that more charging stations coming online later this year will also help encourage electric vehicle sales.

Road transportation accounts for as much as one-fifth of Canada's emissions and the incentives are part of the federal government's strategy to meet its international targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to halt climate change.