Quebec cutting some subsidies for buying electric vehicles

Those wanting to purchase an electric vehicle in Quebec will lose out on getting some of the money back that was in place before.

Tuesday's budget calls for subsidies for new fully electric car purchases to be cut down $8,000 to $7,000, and from $4,000 to $3,500 for used fully electric cars.

The cuts come as the CAQ government said it wants to get 1.5 million more electric vehicles on the roads by 2030.

"It is unbelievable that they did that," said Quebec Corporation of Automobile Dealers President Robert Poeti.

The government said it's adjusting the subsidies to reflect the closing price gap between electric and gas vehicles, but car dealers say that's not the case and that the cuts will decrease demand for electric cars.

"They have to wait a year to get the car and lose $1,000 sometime $3,000 for hybrid, so what they can do, they decided to buy another type of car with fuel," said Poeti.

Quebec solidaire finance critic Ruba Ghazal added that the cuts won't help reduce greenhouse gas emissions either.

"The government decided to lower it, but didn't replace it with other investments in public transportation, and that's bad," said Ghazal.

Some environmental groups say reducing rebates is inevitable, but only once more electric cars are on the road.

The current rebates only benefit those with higher incomes, according to Equiterre political analyst Andreanne Brazeau. 

"Its true subsidies will be phased out at one point, we do think too early," she said. "However, the problem is not the amount of subsidy but how they're distributed."

Equiterre recommends capping subsidies at certain income levels and increasing subsidies for households with lower incomes in order to democratize the adoption of electric vehicles.