5 things: What to know if you're considering a switch to an electric vehicle
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2019 01:07:08 +0000
According to the B.C. and Canadian governments, all cars sold by 2040 must be electric — either battery powered, fuel cell, or a hybrid gas/electric that has a plug in.
Governments change and so can long-term policies, but there’s no doubting the age of the electric vehicle, or EV, has dawned.
Here’s a list of things to know if or when you decide to make the move from a gasoline-powered car to an EV.
If you’re going electric, an important thing is to take advantage of the various incentives that governments are offering EV buyers. However, only some types of electric vehicle qualify. All battery powered vehicles are eligible, as are hybrid gasoline/battery vehicles as long as there is a way to plug in to the power grid. Hydrogen fuel cells vehicles are also considered EVs and are eligible, but their sales numbers are very low due in part to a lack of hydrogen fuelling options.
A hybrid gas/electric vehicle that relies on braking power to recharge the battery does not count, in the government’s eyes, as an electric vehicle and so they are not eligible for incentives. The best example of these vehicles are the hundreds of Toyota Prius non plug ins in Metro Vancouver’s taxi fleet.
Early EVs and most EVs sold now are sedans. However, more EV SUVs are coming on the market, with the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid already established and new releases this year from Jaguar and Audi. There are now also very high-end EV sports cars, like the just released $175,000 Porsche Taycan EV.
While not available in B.C. yet, Tesla, GM and Ford are all working on an EV pickups, with Ford even promising an EV version of its famed F-150.
So there are all sort of types of EV out there. Figure out what model you want, and the balance of price for range, and make sure you’re eligible for incentives.
A Porsche Taycan Turbo EV car is pictured at the company’s booth at the International Auto Show (IAA), in Frankfurt am Main, on September 11, 2019.
According to Plug In B.C., there are 44 models of battery-electric, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell cars on the market in the province. In the battery-only category, the prices range from the Tesla Model X at $125,000 with a range of 500 km to the Ford Focus Electric at $34,000 with a range of 185 km and the $32,000 smart fortwo coupe with a 155 km range.
In the plug-in hybrid category, the most expensive is the $150,000 BMW i8 with a full range of 517 km and the cheapest is the $33,000 Toyota Prius Prime with a range of 1035 km.
Another cost to consider is the between $700 and $2,000 to install a high-voltage charger in your home. A saving to consider, apart from not spending money on gasoline, is that EVs have fewer working parts and therefore require less maintenance than a gasoline-powered car.
B.C. Hydro produced a simple calculation that showed the electric cost of an average EV (Nissan Leaf) was one eighth the cost of gasoline for an average gas-powered car (Honda Civic). However, that doesn’t take into account that an EV is more expensive than a comparable gas-powered car, although if the EV depreciates at the same rate as a gas car then it will be worth more when being resold. The calculation also doesn’t factor in that B.C. Hydro has a two tiered system for single family homes, so once you’ve used all your step 1 power, than it becomes more expensive step 2 power for the remainder of the billing period.
The badge for a General Motors Co. (GM) Chevrolet brand Bolt EV electric vehicle is displayed at the Stewart Chevrolet dealership in Colma, California, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 6, 2017.
The federal and provincial government recognize that while pushing hard for the adoption of EVs, consumers are faced with the fact that these vehicles are still more expensive than a similar sized and styled gasoline vehicle.
So they have offered incentives to help consumers make up their mind. In B.C., through the Clean Energy Vehicle Program, anyone buying a new EV with a sales price of less than $55,000 get a $3,000 rebate. There is no incentive for non plug-in hybrids.
In May, 2019, the Canadian government began offering up to $5,000 of incentives for eligible EVs under $45,000.
You can also get $6,000 to scrap your gas car as long as you buy a new electric vehicle from an approved seller. However, the B.C. Scrap-it Program budget for this year’s program has already run out after it handed out $8.4 million for scrap cars. The program is expecting to be re-funded in 2020.
Plug In B.C. offers incentives of up to $350 to the owner of a single family home who installs a level-two charger, and up to $2,000 for a condo strata that installs a charger. There is also a privately-funded group called ZapBC that offers a full rebate for the purchase of select charging stations, though this funding has run out for 2019.
Another small incentive is that if you get an EV decal on your car you can travel anytime in high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
Given the $6,000 scrap it credit and ZapBC charging station rebate have dried up for the year, it may be a good idea to wait until 2020 to buy.
An electric vehicle charging station is seen at the Volkswagen display during media day at the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto February 14, 2019.
A recent study released by B.C. Hydro (Old habits drive hard: How British Columbians’ fuelling habits are driving misconceptions about EV charging) found 70 per cent of those surveyed thought there were not enough charging stations in B.C. To counter those fears, B.C. Hydro then released statistics showing EV vehicle owners do most of their charging at home or at work and are not reliant on public charging stations. Interestingly, there are 1,700 public electric charging stations, compared to 1,368 gas stations in B.C./Yukon.
There are three levels of charging available to EV owners. The most basic (level 1) is simply the standard 120-volt plug-in in all homes and this takes the longest to charge. B.C. Hydro, using the Nissan Leaf as the average EV, says it can take up to 12 hours to fully charge a car that way. The next, level 2, is also a home based system that costs between $700 and $2,000 to install a 240-volt outlet in a single family home and takes eight hours for the full charge. It’s important to note there is wide variance in charging times based on the size of battery and how old the battery is.
The most powerful (level 3) are the public charging stations that can give a full charge in about half an hour. According to CEVforB.C., this province has the largest charging network in Canada, with more installed all the time.
The federal government is also committed to increasing the number of charging stations, with Transport Canada funding charging stations in condos, workplaces and on the street through its $100 million Electric Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Deployment Initiative.
As an example, if you wanted to drive your 350 km range Nissan Leaf from Vancouver to Nelson, taking Highway 3, you can go to a website like plugshare.com and plot out where you would stop along the way. Assuming you’re charged up in Vancouver, there are six level 3 50kW chargers along the way — in Hope, Princeton, Keremeos, Greenwood, Christina Lake and Castlegar. The first three are provided by B.C. Hydro at no charge. The other three cost $18 an hour.
However, Vancouver-based EV industry analyst Matthew Klippenstein said a barrier to long-distance travel for EVs at the moment is that often there is only one or two outlets at a public charging station and it’s first come, first served.
He does expect more pay-to-use stations to appear over the next decade, especially in locations like Hope where drivers would get a charge before heading off on one of the three highways out of town. Petro-Canada announced earlier this year that it would install 50 EV stations on Highway 1 across Canada at existing gas stations.
In this Wednesday May 23, 2018, photo, Gregory Burnett holds the charger to his 2018 Nissan Leaf plug-in electric car in his garage in Omaha, Neb.
There were 44,000 zero-emission vehicles sold in Canada in 2018, which is more than double the number in 2017, but the overall percentage of EVs on the road is less than one per cent in Canada and less than two per cent in B.C., which is the EV leader of Canada.
Klippenstein said there were about 8,400 zero-emission vehicles sold in B.C. in 2018. These include pure electric, fuel cell and electric/gas hybrids that have a plug-in to charge the battery. In B.C. in 2018, Tesla made up the largest block of zero-emission vehicles sold at 2,500, followed by the Nissan Leaf at 1,019 and the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid at just under 1,000.
B.C.’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, which funds the Clean Energy Vehicle Program, says that in 2018 the government paid out $18.38 million for 3,678 electric vehicles and $8.18 million for 2,585 plug-in hybrids. So that’s about 6,200 vehicle that qualified for the incentive because they were worth less than $55,000. Most EVs sold over that price are Tesla models.
For the first nine months of 2019, the ministry paid out incentives for 9,748 EVs so it looks like EV sales in B.C. in 2019 could double sales in 2018.
Both the provincial and federal government have also set very aggressive incremental sales targets. The federal government wants 10 per cent of light-duty vehicles to be EV by 2025 and 100 per cent by 2040. That would be 14 million a year by 2040.
The question is when do you make the switch. The head of Porsche recently told reporters that he foresaw EVs with a 1,000 km range within the next decade and there’s no doubt battery technology is improving and with more competition among carmakers, prices should come down.
Nissan Motor Co. Leaf electric vehicles are displayed at the company’s headquarters on January 24, 2019 in Yokohama, Japan.