BC offers incentives for purchasers of clean-energy vehicles

Honda's Plug-in Prius is one of clean-energy vehicles that qualifies for $5,000 rebate under British Columbia's Canada Starts Here program.

The government of British Columbia is putting up $17 million in funding to help consumers get into clean-energy vehicles and to support the “green” tech sector in the province.

Starting December 1, 2011, buyers will be eligible for incentives of up to $5,000 on qualifying vehicles, including electric, plug-in hybrid electric and compressed natural gas vehicles. Some of the qualifying vehicles are the Nissan Leaf, the Chevrolet Volt, the Honda Clarity, the Tesla Roadster, the Mercedes Benz B-class F-cell, the GMC Savana, the Honda GX compressed natural gas vehicle, the Toyota Plug-in Prius, and the Mercedes Smart ForTwo ED. 

As well, over $6 million in provincial funding is available for infrastructure in the form of  new charging stations and upgrades to hydrogen fueling stations at existing facilities. Consumers who want to install a charging station in their homes can qualify for a rebate of up to $500.

An additional $2.5 million will be used to fund the BC SCRAP-IT Society, a non-profit initiative that seeks to remove high-polluting vehicles from BC roads. The group has so far removed over 30,000 vehicles from the province's roads, removing over 200,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.