Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has just announced that anyone in Ontario who purchases a plug-in hybrid car or battery electric car after July 1st, 2010 will be eligible for a rebate of between $4,000 to $10,000. There is no official list of details that I could find, but gathered the following information from the Government of Ontario’s website and some various articles published earlier today.
The Details:
- Size of rebate will be related to the capacity of the batteries
- Vehicles must be capable of highway travel (this therefore excludes the ZENN for now)
- Drivers will be able to use HOV lanes even with only one person in the car until 2015
- Drivers may have access to priority parking spots at certain venues (i.e. grocery stores)
- Drivers may have access to charging facilities at Government parking lots and GO stations
What Cars Might Be Available For The Rebate Next Year?
- Chevy Volt – est MSRP $40,000
- Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid – est MSRP $47,000
- Mini Electric – est MSRP $50,000
- Mitsubishi i-MiEV – est MSRP $30,000 – $40,000 (?)
- Tesla Roadster – est MSRP $101,500
- Tesla Model S – est MSRP $57,400
- cityZENN – Highway Capable version of ZENN – est MSRP $25,000 – $30,000
So, what do you think? Is this incentive going to work? Or will it just eventually destroy future pent up demand (by getting some people to buy a new car a few years earlier than they had planned)? Will that necessitate future incentives, thereby propagating auto manufacturer inefficiency? Or does it put more expensive hybrids and electrics on a more equal footing with conventional cars until their prices achieve more parity? Comments welcome as always…
I think there is a misprint on the Mitsubishi MiEV. I have read articles stating that the car will reach North American showrooms at around $50,000, not $17,000.
@Roberto – I did some more looking and the price estimates are all over the map. I think most are quoting $30,000 for the hybrid, and $40,000 for the full electric. Post has been amended and thanks for your note! Cheers
I like the basic idea of electric cars or basically any other type of environmentally nice car. The major issue currently has been that even with a 7 or 10 year plan to keep the car you often will not break even on the purchase price. This means that your cost savings due to purchasing a more efficent car cannot pay for itself.
The other thing I have been seeing is hybrid cars that don’t even get as good of mileage as a standard gas engine (I’m not talking about an SUV hybrid). Bringing some type of price parity should help the manufacturing occur at a more respectable rate and the economy of scale will help to correct excessive prices.
I do not believe that a 10k discount on pure electric cars will encourage many people to purchase a new car before time. What I expect is the price will be affected sufficently that people who wouldn’t even look at an electric car (because of high prices) will purchase them. This will cause more electric cars on the roads and help to push our economy from a high oil dependance.
Small monitary incentives by the government and companies will help to slowly push consumers in a more sustainable direction. Hopefully the government is also pushing in other useful directions rather than just in the direction of electric cars.
Until the lifetime-cost of hybrid/alternative fuel vehicles are at par or cheaper then existing vehicles, no one, except for people who can afford to be “environmentally conscious” will ever buy these cars.
In order to achieve mass acceptances, the government has to implement tax/rebate incentives that makes newer/more efficient cars cheaper than there already existing alternatives.
Now that the government is involved, your prices are off:
1. Chevy Volt – est MSRP $40,000 + $10000
2. Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid – est MSRP $47,000 + $10000
3. Mini Electric – est MSRP $50,000 + $10000
4. Mitsubishi i-MiEV – est MSRP $30,000 – $40,000 + $10000
5. Tesla Roadster – est MSRP $101,500 + $10000
6. Tesla Model S – est MSRP $49,900 + $10000
7. cityZENN – Highway Capable version of ZENN – est MSRP $25,000 – $30,000 + $10000
. . . there, better now.
I’m more concerned how this will affect the resale prices, as I never plan on purchasing a new car.
It’s good to promote the adoption of green technology, but I still have the sense that money is better spent spurring R&D of green tech than giving purchase incentives.
The government would do better to make street legal some of the many smaller electric cars, including the Canadian Company ZENN.
For the Tesla Model S, the actual MSRP is $57,400. The $49,900 figure includes the US federal rebate of $7,500 (you should read the fine print :D).
*All prices in USD.
The high prices of these electric cars just can’t be justified for me personally. I mean for less than $40,000 (+ tax), I can get a brand new MINI Cooper S that is probably far more practical and fun to drive than a MINI E – and it still gets great gas mileage relative to most cars on the road. Or of course just go for the cheaper non-S Cooper which is almost as fun which I already have :)
@Xenko – fixed, thanks for the eagle eyes!
@walk – good point. As people jump to electric vehicles I imagine demand for oil will have less pressure and we may find that conventional cars will be competitive for a long time.
If GM had not killed the EV-1 a few years ago, this little beauty would be now carrying 4 or 5 passenger with a range of over 100 miles and beating all conventional “stinkers” also in price, performance, economy, comfort and fun to drive.
Just click here and see for yourself
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLknNrrL6QU
You could buy if for $14,999 – Govt. incentives = $4,999 (Good ol’lead acid batteries included) and send all OPEC thugs to file for chapter 11.
What are we waiting for?
Roberto DePaschoal
info@ev-motion.com
From a reader (emailed his comment):
* Drivers will be able to use HOV lanes even with only one person in the car until 2015
* Drivers may have access to priority parking spots at certain venues (i.e. grocery stores)
* Drivers may have access to charging facilities at Government parking lots and GO stations
Although I am sure rebates will work to increase sales of electric cars, I believe preferential treatment to drivers of electric cars will provide better incentive. As an example if people get choicer parking spots or able to use HOV lanes. Think about how many electric cars they would sell in Toronto, if people going to work downtown could park their cars downtown only if they were electric.
As an example a bank president would unlikely trade his Mercedes for an electric car for a $10,000 rebate. How many would own an electric car if that was the only one they park at their office.
Ken
@Cam Birch: If you plan to drive the car 200,000 km, then every L/100km equates to $2000 (at $1/L). For me, comparing say the Honda Fit (6.5L/100km) against something that uses practically no gas, that amounts to a $13k value. If Preet’s numbers are to be believed, the highway-capable Zenn has less than a $13k premium over a new Fit, so it would save money over its lifetime.
Of course, you can get a used Fit, and you can’t get a used Zenn. Also, the Zenn won’t actually use zero gas if you drive it far enough.
What about the Triac electric car from Green Motors in California? It is capable of X0 mph and WE0 mile range! The best part is that they are avaliable now for 20,000
cay from Greem