Green Plates, HOV lanes and Hybrid issues

[Carspotter Daily]

The cheve volt is a hybrid and it has a green plate. Ridiculous if you ask me, cheve says that it goes 610km, the range of the electric portion of the car is 80km (Give or take a few) out of the 610km of range. A green plate means that you're contributing to the planet by buying a leaf, or tesla or any other EV, not hybrid!! They still pollute this planet, maybe less than most cars, but pollute all the same. Tesla is making the world better and giving back to humanity constantly and benefiting all. Canada should realize that green vehicles are the future and hybrids are the past.

Hybrids DO NOT deserve green plates by any means. Real EVs do.

 

[wayner]

But the Volt is different from other hybrids like a Prius. The Volt will run exclusively on electric while the batteries have power, the ICE is just used as backup for the batteries - the Prius doesn't do that. A colleague of mine has a Volt and he said that he only uses a couple of litres of gas every six months. Therefore I don't see the issue with a Volt getting a Green Plate.

 

[mknox]

Hybrids DO NOT deserve green plates by any means. Real EVs do.

Hybrids cannot get Green Plates. Only Plug-in Hybrids and EVs (not passing judgement... just sayin')

 

[sitter_k]

The cheve volt is a hybrid and it has a green plate. Ridiculous if you ask me, cheve says that it goes 610km, the range of the electric portion of the car is 80km (Give or take a few) out of the 610km of range. A green plate means that you're contributing to the planet by buying a leaf, or tesla or any other EV, not hybrid!! They still pollute this planet, maybe less than most cars, but pollute all the same. Tesla is making the world better and giving back to humanity constantly and benefiting all. Canada should realize that green vehicles are the future and hybrids are the past.

Hybrids DO NOT deserve green plates by any means. Real EVs do.

At least they're trying!

 

[Bratwurst]

Saw a Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid yesterday with a Green Plate. Thought to myself, cool, Porsche is in the electric car game now. When I got home, I researched and found out it had a 9.4 KW/H battery with 32km advertised range. While it is a plug in hybrid, it doesn't seem like it deserves a green plate, not that a green plate is much of a benefit anyway. I guess any attempt at electric is going the right direction however the province hands over a $6500 rebate for this plug in and that doesn't feel right.

 

[Judge Advocate]

Saw a Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid yesterday with a Green Plate. Thought to myself, cool, Porsche is in the electric car game now. When I got home, I researched and found out it had a 9.4 KW/H battery with 32km advertised range. While it is a plug in hybrid, it doesn't seem like it deserves a green plate, not that a green plate is much of a benefit anyway. I guess any attempt at electric is going the right direction however the province hands over a $6500 rebate for this plug in and that doesn't feel right.

The rebate is actually $8500.00!

 

[Peter_M]

The rebate is actually $8500.00!

$6346 for that car. See the list here.

 

[beeeerock]

Saw a Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid yesterday with a Green Plate. Thought to myself, cool, Porsche is in the electric car game now. When I got home, I researched and found out it had a 9.4 KW/H battery with 32km advertised range. While it is a plug in hybrid, it doesn't seem like it deserves a green plate, not that a green plate is much of a benefit anyway. I guess any attempt at electric is going the right direction however the province hands over a $6500 rebate for this plug in and that doesn't feel right.

Not only doesn't it feel right, if feels like a bad joke. From what I found, the combined city/highway economy is 9.4 L/100 km, running premium gas. Since the electric is good for about 25 km only, unless the owner is driving to the corner store, the economy provided by the EV side of the equation is minimal at best and makes a mockery of the PHEV ideals. :crying:

 

[Peter_M]

Not only doesn't it feel right, if feels like a bad joke. From what I found, the combined city/highway economy is 9.4 L/100 km, running premium gas. Since the electric is good for about 25 km only, unless the owner is driving to the corner store, the economy provided by the EV side of the equation is minimal at best and makes a mockery of the PHEV ideals. :crying:

Agreed. If the government needs to cut back on these rebates, I think the first thing they should do is drop all the PHEV rebates, or at least all the rebates for PHEVs that can't go at least 50km (at normal city and highway speeds) without starting up the gas engine. At this point, that would leave EVs plus BMW i3 REX, Chevy Volt and Cadillac ELR. As an aside, why is BMW i3 Range Extender (i.e. the version with an ICE engine) in the EV category on the rebate list?

 

[Chrisizzle]

As an aside, why is BMW i3 Range Extender (i.e. the version with an ICE engine) in the EV category on the rebate list?

The i3 goes 150km on pure electric. That is perfectly respectable. Research shows most people drive less than 75km per day. So, you could own an i3 and never touch the gas motor. It's just now you don't need a 2nd ICE car for the occasional trip to the cottage.

The engine is a small motorcycle motor with only a 10 litre gas tank that generates electricity to power the car another 150km. The gas motor only kicks in when the battery is below 10% and it won't run indefinitely on gas. The research I have done shows two tank fulls before you need to charge again.

BMW seriously limited the i3 in North America to meet EV criteria. For example, in Europe, drivers can manually start the gas motor anytime. That means they can drive forever on gas if required. The sunroof is also not an option here because the added weight reduced range.

 

[mknox]

Agreed. If the government needs to cut back on these rebates, I think the first thing they should do is drop all the PHEV rebates...

The current sentiment is to remove the rebate on cars costing over a certain amount (basically Teslas). I keep hearing "anyone who can afford a Tesla doesn't need $8,500 from the government". I try to push the position that the rebate is not really for the car... it's an incentive to switch from fossil fuels to electricity, and whether you do that in a Smart ED or a P90D, it shouldn't matter.

 

[Chrisizzle]

I look at the rebate and think of it as a percentage. On a Tesla, $8,500 rebate means the government is only paying 5% to 10% of the purchase price of a car.

On the other hand, that amount pays for 35% of an electric Soul or Smart. That is a great deal but, it seems absurd that the government pay for a third of anyone's brand new anything.

 

[mknox]

I look at the rebate and think of it as a percentage. On a Tesla, $8,500 rebate means the government is only paying 5% to 10% of the purchase price of a car.

Interesting thought. Maybe the rebate should be based on a percentage of the retail price up to some cap rather than these fixed amounts...

 

[mnx]

Interesting thought. Maybe the rebate should be based on a percentage of the retail price up to some cap rather than these fixed amounts...

I've always said they should just wipe out the provincial portion of the sales tax. I suppose that is more complicated with HST these days.

Maybe they should just implement an 8% rebate?

 

[mknox]

I've always said they should just wipe out the provincial portion of the sales tax. I suppose that is more complicated with HST these days.

Maybe they should just implement an 8% rebate?

The government never does anything simple. When the HST came in, everyone's electricity prices went up by 8% because prior to the HST only GST was added to electricity costs. The government, under pressure over electricity costs, decided to offer a rebate. We all said why not eliminate the provincial portion of the HST. It would have been a simple matter to deal with for current utility billing systems. But no, they decided to give a 10% credit off the total after-tax bill which meant re-programming of billing systems. It works out to nearly the same thing!

 

[Jaff]

I've always said they should just wipe out the provincial portion of the sales tax.

Agree Matt...with any new program, any government will have to hire additional bodies to implement & run it...imo, we have enough folks working for our governments...by simply forgiving all, or a portion of the sales tax, EV's would still be "promoted", and our government ranks would not be subject to further "bloatation"...:wink::biggrin:

 

[RiverBrick]

In Quebec, some DMV employees are issuing green plates to non plug-in hybrids. As in Ontario, only plug-ins qualify.

This is what was next to me at Costco this evening. The plug-in version of the Sonata hybrid hasn't been released in Canada, and this car is missing the driver's side front charge port.

 

[Carspotter Daily]

In Quebec, some DMV employees are issuing green plates to non plug-in hybrids. As in Ontario, only plug-ins qualify.

This is what was next to me at Costco this evening. The plug-in version of the Sonata hybrid hasn't been released in Canada, and this car is missing the driver's side front charge port.

I find that extremely pointless... Green plates signify to me that you are doing your best to save the environment, having a gas generator on a fake EV doesn't cut it for me. I believe that only true EV's, the ones without gas involved at all should be rewarded with a green plate, not fakes.

 

[mknox]

I find that extremely pointless... Green plates signify to me that you are doing your best to save the environment, having a gas generator on a fake EV doesn't cut it for me. I believe that only true EV's, the ones without gas involved at all should be rewarded with a green plate, not fakes.

What is the "reward" exactly? My car had regular old blue number plates for over 2 years until enough people bugged me about it and I went in and got green ones. Use of the HOV lanes ends next spring, and, as far as I know, there are no other perks for having them.

 

[Carspotter Daily]

[quote name="Carspotter Daily" post=1168426]I find that extremely pointless... Green plates signify to me that you are doing your best to save the environment, having a gas generator on a fake EV doesn't cut it for me. I believe that only true EV's, the ones without gas involved at all should be rewarded with a green plate, not fakes.

What is the "reward" exactly? My car had regular old blue number plates for over 2 years until enough people bugged me about it and I went in and got green ones. Use of the HOV lanes ends next spring, and, as far as I know, there are no other perks for having them.[/quote]

I don't mean perks by "reward". I mean you get the privilege of having a green plate because you are taking the initiative to go green, to fight back against the oil companies, to save the environment. To me the HOV lanes are just an extra "perk". The reward is basically a medal, if you are doing something amazing you receive a medal, my MS wears the ultimate badge of vehicles, the green plate.

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