Ontario has taken the lead in Canadian electric vehicle sales after the province decided to invest more heavily in infrastructure, according to Michael Hatch, CADA's Chief Economist. "For the first time last year, Ontario overtook Quebec, who has long been the national leader in EV sales. Ontario sold approx. 7,477 battery and plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2017, compared to 7,194 units in Quebec," said Hatch.
The Ontario government has taken a different approach than Quebec by focusing more on infrastructure, and by not including an electric/zero-emissions vehicle mandate. Hatch says these results underscores the fact that the Quebec-style ZEV mandate may not be the best way to increase electric vehicle sales.
"Ontario has gone a different route; they have invested in infrastructure, and to their credit I think this is one of the biggest things the government can do motivate and increase EV sales," said Hatch.
Hatch says changes could be on the horizon for the way provinces handle paying financial incentives for the purchase of electric/zero-emission vehicles. When dealers in the Ontario decided to finance the incentives themselves to provide consumers with an immediate benefit, they didn't expect to have to wait several months to be reimbursed.
This represented a significant risk and financial allocation for the dealer, "many of whom had massive receivables from financing these rebates - and sometimes it was many hundreds or thousands of dollars," said Hatch, adding that "I think the government got the message."
The situation serves as an important reminder to governments elsewhere to ensure they get the details right when they offer these types of programs aimed at boosting consumer demand for EV products.
BY: CADA.CA
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