BC Hydro along with the provincial and federal governments are trying to make switching to electric vehicles more enticing, by offering a variety of rebates.
According to BC Hydro, gas vehicle users have misconceptions about electric vehicles, with about 70% of them worried about finding public charging stations. In comparison, BC Hydro said that 60% of people with electric vehicles charge theirs at home or at work.
“If you had an electric vehicle, it would kind of work like a cell phone. You get home, and before you go to bed you plug it in. If you plugged your car in, it would be fully charged by the time you were ready to go in the morning,” said Sally MacDonald, BC Hydro Community Relations Officer.
To further entice people into switching to electric, there are rebate programs from the provincial and federal governments for purchasing or leasing a vehicle, and rebates from BC Hydro for installing charging stations into houses. Rebates from the federal government can range between $2,000 and $5,000 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, while the provincial government’s rebate can be up to $3,000.
If you install a level two electric charging station at your home, BC Hydro and the federal government will each offer a rebate of $350. The cost of installing a level two charging station can range, depending on the building, from $700 to $2,000.
“We want to encourage people to adopt electric vehicles,” MacDonald told MyEastKootenayNow.com. “We’re doing that by helping people with the up-front costs of having one. We’re doing that because, here in B.C., 98% of our electricity is generated from a clean and renewable resource.”
MacDonald added that charging an electric vehicle, a Nissan Leaf for example, could cost 20 dollars a month while a comparable gas vehicle could cost upwards of 170 dollars a month to fill up.
In British Columbia, BC Hydro estimates that 26,000 electric vehicles are currently on the road and that 400,000 will be hitting the streets and highways by 2030.
(Article by Ryley McCormack, MyEastKootenayNow.com staff)