Even today, you can save money with an EV.

With a global initiative to reduce carbon emissions, many countries are placing a high carbon tax on anything that produces carbon emissions during use. At the same time, gasoline and diesel prices are going up and Canada has a limited ability to impact these prices. By comparison, electricity production is more stable, domestically produced, and not tied to the global oil markets.

Currently, upfront costs are still slightly higher for electric vehicles, but fuel costs and maintenance are substantially less. As the market increases and production ramps up, it will be a lot more cost-effective to produce EVs and prices are expected to fall. The expectation is that what is now a $40,000 car will be a roughly $25,000 car in the coming years, achieving parity with gas cars.

In order to encourage early adoption, the Canadian Federal and Provincial governments are providing incentives and rebates to reduce purchase prices. Unsubsidized costs for some common EVs are on the right, and a summary of rebates is presented on the next page.