B.C. extends clean energy vehicle incentive program

British Columbia has extended its point-of-sale incentive program for potential buyers of clean energy vehicles (CEVs), provincial environment minister Terry Lake announced this week.

The Clean Energy Vehicles for British Columbia program was scheduled to wrap up Mar. 31, but Lake announced Tuesday it has been extended through the 2013-14 fiscal year. In order to extend the program, $2.5 million will be carried over from the original $14.3-million Clean Energy Vehicle Program, notes a statement from B.C.’s Ministry of Environment.

The program – which The New Car Dealers Association of B.C. will continue to manage, administer and promote on behalf of the province – provides B.C. residents with as much as $5,000 off the pre-tax sticker price for qualifying new battery electric, fuel-cell electric, plug-in hybrid electric and compressed natural gas vehicles.

Lake also announced a one-year extension for the LiveSmart B.C. Residential Charging Point Rebate Program, which offers rebates of up to $500 per unit for residential electric-charging stations that meet identified eligibility requirements.

Both programs are part of the provincial government’s Clean Energy Vehicle Program, achievements of which include the following:

• 431 vehicles have been purchased to date with CEV for B.C. incentives;
• 111 residential charging point rebates have been issued; and
• $600,000 in funding for design, research and curriculum development on CEVs has been provided to a range of post-secondary institutions in the province, as well as B.C. Hydro and multi-family housing associations.

The program “makes it easier for all British Columbians to choose clean electricity transportation. Climate-friendly vehicles not only help lower travel costs, they improve the air quality in the communities where we live and work,” Rich Coleman, minister of energy, mines and natural gas, notes in the statement.