Return of federal electric vehicle rebate welcome: Alberta advocates

The federal electric vehicle rebate program kicked in Monday but long-term sales may stay stalled in Alberta. CTV News Edmonton's Gates Guarin reports.

Canadians will see the return of electric vehicle rebates after Ottawa paused the program just last year, and some Albertans say it’s a welcome restart.

“With the cost of living crisis that we’re in, anything that the government can do to help move this along we see as a good thing,” said Andrew Bell, director of Electric Vehicle Association of Alberta.

The Electric Vehicle Affordability Plan (EVAP) encourages Canadians to buy or lease affordable EVs by offering incentives for transactions of up to $5,000 for battery-electric and fuel cell EVs and up to $2,000 for plug-in hybrid vehicles.

“China, their new EV sales are over 40 per cent already. For Norway, 90 per cent,” said Bell. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

A business analytics professor at the University of Alberta says EVAP should cause a short-term spike in sales.

The market saw a decline in EVs soon after the rebate program was paused.

“The contraction is basically on EV because the overall market still stayed at a stable level, so we can tell that this is specifically because of the rebate,” said Ruijiu Mao.

But even with the rebate, there are still barriers to getting more EVs out on the roads, especially in Alberta.

“Canada-wide, 14 per cent of all new vehicles are EVs, but what we’re seeing in Alberta is around four per cent,” said Colin Fritz, vice-president of operations at the Alberta Motor Association.”

Fritz said other provinces like Ontario and B.C. have rebates in tandem with the federal EVAP. No such incentive currently exists in Alberta.

Infrastructure also remains an issue with only about 1,500 charging stations throughout Alberta.

“If I compare that to B.C., they’re sitting well over 8,000, and in Quebec, well over 10,000,” said Fritz. “Fear around range anxiety and ability to charge is problematic here because frankly, there aren’t enough charging points.”

With a change in policy at the federal level, electric vehicles becoming a sustainable option may be a long way down the road.

“This makes the auto makers and also the customers feel uncertain about the environment,” said Mao. “This will definitely delay their decision-making because they have no idea whether these kinds of incentives will stay for a long time.”

The federal program is effective starting Monday.