Ontario Updates Incentives for Green Vehicles

Ontario is updating the way it calculates rebates for electrified cars and expanding the program to include fuel cell vehicles.

The new program maintains the top incentive rate of C$14,000 ($11,000) but will now be based on a vehicle’s seating capacity and all-electric driving range. Vehicles can earn as much as C$10,000 for their electric range and as much as C$7,000 for seating or C$14,000 overall. The lowest combined rate for eligible vehicles is C$5,000.

Incentives will no longer be provided for models that have a starting price of C$75,000 ($58,500) or more. This reverses Ontario’s decision last year to remove the C$3,000 incentive cap for electrified vehicles priced between C$75,000 and C$150,000, which helped fuel record sales of Tesla’s Model X and Model S EVs last year in Canada.

To qualify for the new incentives, buyers must own a vehicle for at least a year or lease it for three years. Among the vehicles that qualify for the full C$14,000 are the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivan and all-electric models such as the Chevrolet Bolt, Ford Focus, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Soul, Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf.

A full list of eligible vehicles and their incentives is available here. Ontario also is expanding its C$1,000 incentive program for fast-charging systems to cover all EV owners in the province.

Ontario says it has provided more than C$150 million ($116 million) in incentives to some 15,000 buyers of electrified vehicles since mid-2010. Another C$2.5 million has gone for the installation of more than 3,000 home charging stations. The province aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels by 15% in 2020, 37% in 2030 and 80% in 2050.