REPORT: Ontario to announce incentives for plug-in vehicles, up to $10K
by Sam Abuelsamid on Jul 15th 2009 at 11:08AM 
Ford Focus EV "mule" - Click above for high-res image gallery
The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, reportedly plans to announce a major incentive program for plug-in vehicles today in Toronto. Ontario has already given several billion dollars to General Motors and Chrysler and wants to help boost the industry further to try and recoup some of its "investment." To that end, McGuinty plans to offer tax incentives of up to $10,000 toward the purchase of plug-in vehicles.
No details are available yet, but the plan would likely be similar to a U.S. program, with graduated incentives of up to $7,500 depending on the capacity of the battery. A wide array of plug-ins are expected to arrive over the next several years, including the Chevrolet Volt, Ford's Transit Connect and Focus based EVs, Toyota's PHEV Prius and Nissan's EV, among others. McGuinty will reportedly also pledge to have at least 20 percent of the province's vehicle fleet be plug-ins by 2020. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Gallery: ABG Quick Drive: Ford Focus EV mule
Photos Copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: CTV]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brant 12:05PM (7/15/2009)
Great News But where are these plug-ins. What's an incentive without a product to buy... i would love to buy a new car but can't understand why these companys are beting around the bush... Like common my 17 yr old jetta got 42mpg over a 400km trip and yet my 12 yr old golf gets 25 being very and i mean very nice to the engine... So heres an idea why not give me 10 gs and i'll transform my golf to electric and drive it to work everyday then use the jetta to go on trips.... Well heres to hopping the future will pick up cuz we have the tech to do it evdl.org is the perfect example...
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Ernie 3:04PM (7/15/2009)
20% is a pretty bold pledge, considering that manufacturers like Mitsubishi are hoping (heck, would die for) for a 1% global penetration of the car market for *all* EVs by that same year.
The Ontario government would have to practically give electrics away to reach that lofty goal, IMHO. I honestly doubt that they really intend to reach it.
But the $10K rebate sure is nice.
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Brian H 6:01PM (7/15/2009)
TeslaMotors is shopping for a store location in Toronto, and that should be settle this fall. The Roadster is now available with a 5-6 mo. waiting period, and the Model S is to be delivered at the end of 2011. US$ 57,400, ~$65,300 Cdn., or $55,300 after rebate. That would lease and run for about the same as a $30,000 ICE car!
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Brian H 6:32PM (7/15/2009)
Brant;
Sell your Golf to the conversion company, and then buy it back when it's converted, and claim the $10K!
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TC 10:58AM (7/16/2009)
I bought a brand new (2007) EV but the government said it did not have enough battery power too qualify, I got it for $5000 and the incentive was $7000. Kinda funny that if the batt was more powerful I would have gotten it for free plus 2K!!!
www.downriver-ev.com
TC
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TC 11:04AM (7/16/2009)
They are putting the carriage before the horse on these incentives but hey, maybe it'll breed some new EV manufactures. Hopefully they don't put a bunch of strings attached too the money. I would have bought mine regardless but still, I knew it was too good to be true. Forget about converting your own and qualifing, it has to be straight from the manufacturer (the U.S. rule) as a full electric vehicle. Don't even bother doing it yourself and try to get and kickback. the insurance company could not find any info on my vehicle but the governent did and shot down the request. (shandong motorcycle corp model XDV 4030) see if any website has info on that (like ins website or carfax) no one has it listed.
TC
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Snoopy 8:02PM (7/16/2009)
The government of Ontario is actually getting a lot of flack for this announcement, not so much because of what it is, but because of how they went about it. Toyota's pissed off at them for announcing it at a Chevy dealership and people like Dennis DesRosiers are calling it some pretty bad names (http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/667057).
Overall, most people saying bad things about the announcement are up in arms about it because of the whole Chevy thing, because it makes it look like a big program to hype up sales of the Volt, in which the government of Ontario now has a stake.
McGuinty seems pretty happy to throw around money these days, whether it's for electric car incentives or for video game studios opening offices in Ontario (http://www.comicbookbin.com/ubisofttoronto001.html).
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