Electric vehicle advocates look for support in federal budget

MONTREAL — Electric car advocates are hoping to get a signal in Tuesday’s federal budget that the government is prepared to support sales across the country even as Ontario overtook Quebec for selling the most electric vehicles last year.

Cara Clairman, CEO of electric vehicle advocacy group Plug’n Drive, says Transport Minister Marc Garneau has received a wide range of recommendations from an advisory committee, including the adoption of national financial incentives.

“If they put some money aside, then we know for sure these things are going to happen,” she said in an interview. “With no money it’s a little bit more challenging.”

Electric Mobility Canada has recommended Ottawa eliminate the GST on electric vehicle sales.

“We are waiting impatiently for the budget and for a strategy that will be announced this year,” Guimont added.

Delphine Denis, a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Marc Garneau, declined to indicate if any such measures will be unveiled in the budget.

With transportation accounting for about 24 per cent of Canada’s emissions, she said the government’s zero emission vehicle strategy to be unveiled this year will help accelerate commercialization and support efforts to bring new technologies to market.

According to data compiled by Fleet Carma, 7,477 battery and plugin hybrid electric vehicles were sold in Ontario. That compared with 7,194 sold in Quebec and 3,270 in B.C.

Guimont said more generous Ontario rebates and the installation of more charging stations at work are helping the province to catch up.

“Quebec is pretty stable, but in Ontario the financial incentives of $14,000 are making a big difference,” she said in an interview.

Ontario is supporting electric cars by offering large incentives and supporting the creation a fast-charging network of 140 units, said Ontario Transportation Minister Kathryn McGarry.

“Given this, it’s no surprise that we’ve taken the lead in EV sales,” she said in an email.

Despite Ontario’s growth, industry analysts predict the number of electric vehicles will remain well short of the government’s target of five per cent of overall new passenger vehicle sales in 2020.

Industry analyst Dennis Des Rosiers has said “the chances of meeting it aren’t low, they’re zero.”

But with a doubling of sales each year, Clairman believes reaching such an ambitious goal of 14,000 new car sales in 2020 isn’t “far-fetched.”

“Whether we get it exactly or not matters less than being in the right direction.”

There were a record 18,564 electric cars sold across Canada last year, up 68 per cent from 2016.

Electric plug-in vehicle sales outpaced plug-in hybrids for the first time across the country. The Chevrolet Volt was again the most popular plug-in electric vehicle.

By December, electric vehicles accounted for 1.4 per cent of all vehicle sales. Quebec still had the highest percentage of electric vehicles sold, at 2.2 per cent of all vehicles for the year, followed by B.C. at 1.9 per cent and Ontario at 1.6 per cent.