Ontario Plans Big New EV Incentives & Targets

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The Ontario government is now aiming to grow the new-vehicle market share held by electric vehicles to 5% by the year 2020, and 12% by 2025, according to recent reports.

The new targets are part of the Canadian province’s new 4-year, CAD$7 billion climate change plan. The plans will see CAD$285 million invested into electric vehicle incentives; the implementation of new “low-carbon” fuel standards; and the investment of CAD$280 million into the electrification of school buses + the adoption of “lower-carbon” trucks in the trucking industry (liquid natural gas fueling trucks and stations, etc).

Ontario flag

These new plans were revealed in an, apparently leaked, confidential 57-page Climate Change Action Plan obtained and detailed by The Globe and Mail. The 4-year plans discussed relate to the strategy for the years of 2017 through 2021. 80 different policies and 32 different actions are outlined by the document.

Public release of the document is expected sometime in June, reportedly, pending a review of the strategies outlined by cabinet ministers. Further fine-tuning before public release is expected.

The electric vehicle incentives mentioned above would include a rebate of up to CAD$14,000 ($10,800); an exemption from the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax (HST); and an additional subsidy for low- and moderate-income households intended to spur those with old, heavily polluting cars to switch to an electric.

Free overnight electricity for those charging electric vehicles is also discussed. In addition, so is a rebate of up to CAD$1,000 ($770) for the installation of a home charging system; as well as a charging station buildout at government buildings; and a possible mandate for charging plugs on all new buildings.

The Globe and Mail provides a bit more:

The electric vehicle targets represent a sea change for the province’s CAD$16-billion auto sector. The 2025 goal would boost to about 86,000 the number of annual electric vehicle sales, more than 20 times the number of electric vehicles sold in the province so far this century.

…The actions expected to cause the largest emissions cuts by 2020 are moving buildings and the electricity system off natural gas (3 million tonnes); programs to make industry more energy efficient (2.5 million tonnes); the low-carbon fuel standard (2 million tonnes); the renewable content requirement for natural gas (1 million tonnes); and switching trucks and buses to liquefied natural gas and electricity (400,000 tonnes).

The new programs will be funded by Ontario’s approaching cap-and-trade program, reportedly.


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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