Up to $5,000 business or lease incentives coming for EVs
The government is unveiling its new national automotive strategy aimed at protecting Canada’s auto sector and jobs in the face the U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to move vehicle production to the U.S. Ottawa is also trying to jump-start the country’s battery-powered vehicle industry.
Carney expects his new emissions system will lead to 75 per cent of new cars sold in Canada being electric by 2035 — an ambitious goal, but still less than the previous mandate that Carney is ditching.
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Carney announced the Liberal government is also launching a new $2.3-billion program to offer consumers and businesses purchase or lease incentives of up to $5,000 for EVs and up to $2,500 for plug-in hybrids.
Plug-in vehicles must be under $50,000 to qualify and be made by countries Canada has free trade agreements with, which would exclude any vehicles made in China. The price cap will not apply to Canadian-made vehicles.
I like the way you think, but let’s not kid ourselves that the pool of people who “would drive a car as their main transportation” is anything close to the pool of people who would do so with an electric bike.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of a generous rebate on bikes. I just think if the goal is emissions reductions, an EV rebate is bound to be more effective, even factoring in the differences.
I think the pool can be quite large. The main issue is that it is almost always more convenient to drive than bike right now.
That isn’t because cars are inherently more convenient, its because we’ve been making them more convenient for a decade. Some examples of this.
Parking: look at the massive land use that we dedicate to storing vehicles, and then give away for free. Obviously it’s not free to whoever builds and maintains them, so that cost is just passed on to everyone to increase the convince of cars.
Traffic lights: cars and trains are the only vehicles that require lighted signals. Everyone else at an intersection gets slowed down so that cars can drive faster in between them. In my city of Kingston, pretty much every major road is 60kph+, but my average driving travel speed is always <35kph. Lights even inconvenience drivers, they’re just trained to accept it as normal, and are rewarded with faster travel between lights.
Lanes: cars get a travel lane everywhere. Pedestrians usually get one. Bikes get fucked.
You can see this in action where cities that increase bicycle infrastructure and make it more convenient, get an increase in mode share.