Electric vehicle sales set for surge at a reduced charge

by Keith Morgan on Thursday, February 9th, 2017

New cash incentives for purchase now make it possible to buy all-electric vehicles for a discount of up to $11,000.

This means the popular Nissan Leaf and Ford Focus Electric can be bought for a sticker price well under $30,000 for those prepared to scrap their old bangers.

For the 2016 model year, LEAF adds a number of significant enhancements – beginning with a new 30 kWh battery for LEAF SV and LEAF SL models that delivers an EPA-estimated driving range of 107 miles* on a fully charged battery. The range of a LEAF S model is 84 miles, giving buyers a choice in affordability and range.

The game changer came when the BC SCRAP-IT Program announced it will offer an incentive of $6,000 for anybody who turns in their beater for scrap and purchases a qualifying new electric vehicle. That’s double the current incentive of $3,000, which now will be made available to buyers of used EVs.

This combines with the BC Government’s CEVfoBC program, which discounts EV purchases by $5,000.

“The goal of this incentive is to remove older high polluting vehicles from our roads in order to

lower exhaust pollutants across the province,” says Dennis Rogoza, BC SCRAP-IT Program CEO. “Ultimately, through programs like these, greenhouse gas emissions in our province will be dramatically reduced.”

SCRAP-IT’s voluntary early retirement vehicle program is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce smog exhaust emissions across the province. All scrapped vehicles and their components are permanently and properly recycled. To date, the BC SCRAP-IT Program has removed more than 40,000 polluting vehicles across the province.

The technologically advanced new EVs offer huge fuel saving costs but few could be bought for less than $30,000 so it was hard for them to compete against miserly motors costing sometimes $10,000 or more less.

All three trim levels of the LEAF, which starts at $33,998 (before incentives), have an average range of 172 kilometres on a full charge. The Ford Focus Electric has the best price point at $31,998 and a range of around !20 km/h.

Last week, Chevrolet Canada began deliveries of the first Bolt EVs to Canadian customers. It has the heftier price tag of $42,795 but it’s EPA-estimated 383 kilometres of range on a full charge will tempt some to quit their expensive gas habit.

SCRAP-IT will also have a booth at the Vancouver International Auto Show,

March 28 – April 2 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. For more details about the BC SCRAP-IT program’s incentives and information, visit scrapit.ca.

keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca