The heads of major Canadian automobile industry associations slammed the B.C. government Tuesday over what they claim was a unilateral decision to cut about 75 per cent electric and hybrid models from its rebate program.
“With electric vehicle sales increasing faster than anticipated and currently at record levels, we needed to make adjustments to our CleanBC electric vehicle rebate program given available funding,” said the minister. “Today’s announcement to further weaken the ZEV purchase incentive all but guarantees the government’s mandated targets will not be met…” added Kingston.
The minister said that the government is backing a transition to electric vehicles through other means as well — including $30 million in its 2024 budget earmarked for 500 new public charging stations to fill gaps across the B.C.-wide network.