New Rebate For EVs in Canada

[Vlad Kovalenko + 115]

Great news for all EV buyers in Canada. As part of its new budget, the Canadian federal government has announced a new $5,000 incentive for electric cars. It includes $300 million over three years to introduce a subsidy of up to $5,000 for electric-battery or hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles that cost less than $45,000.  That means no money for Tesla since the base Model 3 starts at $47,000 CAD.

[Adam Varga + 123]

Bad news - only two long range EV actually qualify, Bolt and Leaf+ base models. They actually exclude each and every EV... there are none that cost less than 45k except for the short range leaf. It's actually an incentive for electric cars that don't exists. 

[Brian W + 78]

So, they want more people to buy EVs, but they exclude the best-selling EV on the market. Interesting. 

[BlackTortoise + 103]

This limits choice. Might as well make it 50,000 to allow Model 3 standard range. Better for Canadians than being stuck with a Leaf or Volt.

[Vlad Kovalenko + 115]

I can already see Tesla making a $44,999 Canadian version. And selling the upgrade after the purchase. 

[shadowkin + 584]

2 hours ago, Vlad Kovalenko said:

I can already see Tesla making a $44,999 Canadian version. And selling the upgrade after the purchase. 

The brilliant part of it all is that this version only needs to be SW limited in its features. Then after the upgrade they can push it OTA. No HW changes needed. It costs Tesla nothing.

This rebate seemed designed to exclude Tesla which is strange since Canada has no domestic competitor and it is contrary to their goal of more BEV vehicles on the road. Their usual counter to this is that they didn't want it to be for 'rich people'. Or maybe enough money changed hands from Tesla's competitors to Canadian pols.

Edited March 20, 2019 by shadowkin

[butasha + 123]

So this is good news? The government takes a portion of your taxes and gives it to someone else to help buy a specific car. Just amazes me that this is an accepted use for taxes. 

[shadowkin + 584]

6 hours ago, butasha said:

The government takes a portion of your taxes and gives it to someone else

Governments always do this, it's called the tax code

[Rodent + 1,424]

6 hours ago, butasha said:

So this is good news? The government takes a portion of your taxes and gives it to someone else to help buy a specific car. Just amazes me that this is an accepted use for taxes. 

Right.  "Hey, I can't afford an EV, but why don't you take a portion of the income that I do make and give it to someone else so they can afford an EV? Then as I am driving to work in my less efficient car, I can sleep easy knowing I have done my part." 

 

[butasha + 123]

1 hour ago, Rodent said:

Right.  "Hey, I can't afford an EV, but why don't you take a portion of the income that I do make and give it to someone else so they can afford an EV? Then as I am driving to work in my less efficient car, I can sleep easy knowing I have done my part."

Rodent what makes it even more unbearable is the fact that most of these types of subsidies are for wealthy people to purchase an expensive EV that most can’t afford or aren’t willing to pay soooo much for.

But that’s ok because it is all for the benefit of the new religion of “renewable” 

Edited March 20, 2019 by butasha
Newby error

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

15 hours ago, Rodent said:

Right.  "Hey, I can't afford an EV, but why don't you take a portion of the income that I do make and give it to someone else so they can afford an EV? Then as I am driving to work in my less efficient car, I can sleep easy knowing I have done my part." 

 

I starting to get more and more convinced of the confusion with seperating mitigation measures with accepting climate change. These are not the same. 

[Rodent + 1,424]

54 minutes ago, Rasmus Jorgensen said:

I starting to get more and more convinced of the confusion with seperating mitigation measures with accepting climate change. These are not the same. 

Indeed

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

There is a perfectly logical solution to the obstacle of a high-cost electric auto.  

Remember that the large majority of trips are less than 20 miles.  So you design the battery pack to run for that 20 miles;  OK, so you design it to run for 40 miles.  That makes for a light, and cheap, battery pack.  Now you add on a little "trailer" with a small diesel motor-generator on it, something of 2 cylinders and 25 hp., which slides into a pair of receiving slots to become effectively a rigid extension of the auto frame.  The trailer has two wheels underneath to avoid putting a lot of overhang weight on the auto rear and affecting its balance.  Now if you want to go on a longer trip, you slide that trailer package in, install the lock pins and safety clips, run a connector wire between the trailer and a plug on the auto, start up that generator, and off you go. 

For both Tesla and Volt autos, and possibly others, it requires a software upgrade to allow the auto to be driven while being plugged in and charging.  Now, when you are driving, the generator is constantly feeding juice into the battery pack to re-charge that battery.  You can effectively drive indefinitely, stopping only for diesel fuel, same as a diesel car.  When you are home and the power goes out, your little diesel generator is set up to plug into your house and be an independent power source (park it down the end of the driveway to keep the fumes away from your house!). Two problems solved in one swipe. 

Interesting that nobody seems to want to do this.  Oh, well. 

[sagelike + 1]

The government has absolutely no moral right to take my money and give it to someone else so that that can buy a new car. If Trudeau wants to subsidize car buyers, he should round up a bunch of his friends and other like minded individuals and put their own money into a fund. 

The worst part is that we're actually subsidizing foreign manufacturing with this subsidy and, borrowing money to do it. How dumb is that?

A fool with other peoples' money are soon parted and Trudeau is a fool.