The Canadian government is to introduce an electric car subsidy of up to $5,000 for electric car purchases, across Canada, to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles.
After many years of deliberations, the Canadian government has made the decision to launch the subsidy, with Quebec and British Columbia already having had an electric car subsidy program in place for some time.
However, this will be the first federally-run subsidy for electric vehicles and the Canadian government will run the electric car subsidy over the next 3 years at a cost of approximately $300m.
In order to qualify for the subsidy, the electric vehicle must cost less than $45,000, so cars such as the Tesla Model 3 ($47,000) are out of the price bracket.
However, purchases of cars such as the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt EV are all permissible under the scheme.
The government will be investing $130m into installing electric charging stations across the country and will be offering subsidies to businesses that want to step into the electric vehicle market.
The Canadian government said in its budget, entitled Investing in the Middle Class, “The Government also wants to encourage investment in Canada’s domestic auto industry so that it can become a global leader in zero-emission transportation manufacturing”.
