Electric vehicles primed for U-turn
Still faces obstacles, but rebates, incentive programs and private initiatives are enticing Quebec buyers
The pain drivers feel at the gas pump is bitter but necessary medicine to embrace electric cars, which face a steep climb for market acceptance, a Hydro-Québec spokesman says.
During road tests at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve race track on Île Notre-Dame Tuesday, kicking off an electric vehicle industry conference, Mathieu Rouy said that “if there is one place in the world where an electrified infrastructure can see the light of day, it’s Quebec.”
That assertion has been made many times before based on the province’s vast hydroelectric resources, he admitted, but Quebec government cash rebates and incentive programs are turning this longtime buzz into reality, he said.
Dealers receive a rebate of between $5,000 and $8,000 on electric cars, depending on the size of the battery, and consumers get a 50-percent tax-credit rebate on high-voltage charging stations that cost up to $1,500 and fill up a battery in five or six hours rather than 10 to 22 hours with a household cord.
“Gas prices are also a big factor — and I don’t think they will fall anytime soon,” Rouy said.
And unlike in California, where the biggest strides are being made on setting up an electric vehicle infrastructure — almost entirely with government funds, Quebec has managed to attract private enterprise, he said.
Hardware chain Rona, Metro supermarkets and St. Hubert chick-enrotisserie restaurants have agreed to put electric charging stations in their parking lots, in addition to the Montreal Transit Commission’s 20 allotted plug-in parking spots.
On Tuesday, the Electric Circuit, comprising the MTC, the three retailers and Hydro-Québec, said about 120 stations have already opened in the Montreal and Quebec regions and that “the network will expand as more EVs hit the road.”
But will more hit the road?
No doubt about it, carmakers agreed, perhaps not surprisingly.
Shawn Bryan, manager of Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada Inc.’s i-MiEV program, said the subcompact model will start selling in Quebec this fall. The company has sold about 200 i-MiEVs in Canada so far.
The four-seater sells for between $33,000 and $36,300, a high price for a subcompact. But Bryan noted that with the rebate, an electric i-MiEV is competitive with rivals in that vehicle class if the savings in gas, which Rouy pegged at an average of $2,000 a year for Quebecers, are considered
“Drivers on average in Quebec do about 44 kilometres a day, so that’s a lot of money saved (on gas).”
For Frank Peronace, the selling point is guilt — or, more precisely, lack of guilt.
The general manager of Fisker of Montreal — the lone Montreal dealership for the luxury sports model designed by the same man who drew the high-end Aston Martin Vantage V8, Aston Martin DB7 and BMW Z8 — readily conceded the powerful roadster, at $120,000, is not exactly a car for the masses.
“It provides a luxury, exotic vehicle which is electric and ecofriendly, and proves you don’t have to be a gas guzzler taking a toll on the environment. It’s okay to have a car that is powerful and electric,” Peronace said.
At perhaps the other end of the scale, Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. expects to start selling its Commander side-by-side utility vehicle in an electric version this fall, Claude Joncas, sales director for BRP’s specialized products, said.
The open-air two-seaters’ electric iteration will be launched in November in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
Priced at $17,500 and up — most top out at $22,000 — it will also go on sale in six U.S. states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Virginia, chosen for their population basin, climate, or both.
The company will roll out the vehicles to most other provinces and states in the spring of 2013.