New cash incentives for purchase now make it possible to buy all-electric vehicles for a discount of up to $11,000.

This means the popular Nissan Leaf and Ford Focus Electric can be bought for a sticker price well under $30,000 for those prepared to scrap their old bangers.

For the 2016 model year, LEAF adds a number of significant enhancements – beginning with a new 30 kWh battery for LEAF SV and LEAF SL models that delivers an EPA-estimated driving range of 107 miles* on a fully charged battery. The range of a LEAF S model is 84 miles, giving buyers a choice in affordability and range.

For the 2016 model year, LEAF adds a number of significant enhancements – beginning with a new 30 kWh battery for LEAF SV and LEAF SL models that delivers an EPA-estimated driving range of 107 miles* on a fully charged battery. The range of a LEAF S model is 84 miles, giving buyers a choice in affordability and range.

2017 Bolt EV

The game changer came when the BC SCRAP-IT Program announced it will offer an incentive of $6,000 for anybody who turns in their beater for scrap and purchases a qualifying new electric vehicle. That’s double the current incentive of $3,000, which now will be made available to buyers of used EVs.

This combines with the BC Government’s CEVfoBC program, which discounts EV purchases by $5,000.

“The goal of this incentive is to remove older high polluting vehicles from our roads in order to

lower exhaust pollutants across the province,” says Dennis Rogoza, BC SCRAP-IT Program CEO. “Ultimately, through programs like these, greenhouse gas emissions in our province will be dramatically reduced.”

SCRAP-IT’s voluntary early retirement vehicle program is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce smog exhaust emissions across the province. All scrapped vehicles and their components are permanently and properly recycled. To date, the BC SCRAP-IT Program has removed more than 40,000 polluting vehicles across the province.

The technologically advanced new EVs offer huge fuel saving costs but few could be bought for less than $30,000 so it was hard for them to compete against miserly motors costing sometimes $10,000 or more less.

All three trim levels of the LEAF, which starts at $33,998 (before incentives), have an average range of 172 kilometres on a full charge. The Ford Focus Electric has the best price point at $31,998 and a range of around !20 km/h.

Last week, Chevrolet Canada began deliveries of the first Bolt EVs to Canadian customers. It has the heftier price tag of $42,795 but it’s EPA-estimated 383 kilometres of range on a full charge will tempt some to quit their expensive gas habit.

SCRAP-IT will also have a booth at the Vancouver International Auto Show,

March 28 – April 2 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. For more details about the BC SCRAP-IT program’s incentives and information, visit scrapit.ca.

keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

If you would like to plug in an all-electric Nissan LEAF at your home, this weekend is the last chance you will have to get one for nothing!

British Columbia’s SCRAP-IT Program kindly supplied us with one of the eco-friendly sedans as a prize in our Plug-In to Win Contest, which closes at midnight on Sunday (see the link or below for entry details). The winner will be announced online next week and Driveway will feature an interview with the lucky winner in an upcoming edition.

SCRAP-IT announced its new incentive program here last week, which offers a $3,000 rebate for electric car purchasers if they scrap a 2000 or older vehicle. This is in addition to the newly announced provincial government program detailed in our main story today.

The LEAF will be on display at the SCRAP-IT booth throughout this weekend at the Vancouver International Auto Show, in the Vancouver Convention Centre West. Qualifying electric vehicles for the organization’s incentive are listed on the SCRAP-IT.ca website. Take a look because some of them, plus vehicles qualifying under the additional government program, will be at the show to view and some made available there for test drives outside.


For information on electric vehicles and charging systems and infrastructure visit Plug-In BC at: http://pluginbc.ca/

For details of the Clean Energy Vehicle incentive program visit: www.cevforbc.ca

The Nissan LEAF miraculously cut a journey in half this week.

I’ll explain. I took the plug-in sedan on a 43-kilometre trip from Vancouver to Driveway HQ, on 152nd Street, in Surrey. When I set out, the screen display showed that I could drive emission-free for 146 kilometres.

Now, I could have taken off like an F1 racecar and street raced all the way, because electric power offers instant tire squealing torque if you press the pedal to the metal. But that’s not me. Spurred by my ecofriendly driving the previous day, the clever car had decided earlier in the day that I could do 156 kilometres on a full charge. Not boasting but that’s easily more than 20 kilometres better than the average driver can expect to achieve. Okay, maybe my head is swelling.

The big 1-4-6 winked at me. I threw the stick into ECO mode and with two flicks of the wrist pushed it into the enhanced B-mode, which puts the braking power regeneration into overdrive, so to speak.

I glided silently down the road, picking up pace ever so gradually in the busy city traffic. Rolling down the hills to Marpole, I could feel the juice from the brakes topping up that battery.

On the freeway, I hit the posted speed limit and 40 minutes later pulled into HQ. The display flashed 126. I had covered 43 klicks with the power required to move the car just 20! Such fun.

Next week: more on the joy of driving electric.

Contact: keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

“Leaf has a rated driving range of 160 kilometres on a single charge, but it’s capable of going longer distances if the conditions are right and the driver conserves power…” (more…)

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