Canada's new nationwide EV tax credit bumped sales by 30%, report says
The Canadian government is hoping to spark the EV revolution in the Great White North with a new EV tax credit.
Here at Roadshow, we talk a lot about EV sales in the US and how various state and federal tax incentives have affected them. Well, guess what, champ -- Canada has EV tax incentives too, and we'll be damned if theirs aren't working like a dream.
What kind of dream? How about the kind where they spur a 30% increase in sales across the whole of the country? Nice, right? Well, it didn't happen overnight, and there's a bit of a story behind how it came about, according to a report published Monday by Green Car Reports.
See, Ontario had an EV tax credit for a while, but when a new conservative provincial government was elected, it chose to kill the extremely generous $14,000 (that's Canadian dollars) credit for new EV purchases. That could have been a massive hit to alternative fuel vehicles because the bulk of Canada's electric vehicle sales happened in Ontario.
Well, the folks over in Ottawa -- that's the capital of Canada, ya hoser -- decided that it didn't like that move and opted to instate a $5,000 electric vehicle credit across the whole of the Great White North. That credit and its subsequent 30% bump in sales will go a ways towards helping Canada achieve its goal of 100% electric vehicle sales by 2040.
"Through these efforts, the Government of Canada is encouraging the use of zero-emission vehicles and making this clean technology more affordable to Canadians, while promoting a cleaner environment and better quality of life," said the Transport Ministry, in a statement.
The level of EV adoption in Canada currently sits at around 3% of the total number of vehicles, but as the cars get better, cheaper and more suited for Canada's climate; we'd expect to see that number start to climb pretty quickly.