"I cancel my reservation": Quebecers give up the electric car they ordered
By Francis Halin
Quebecers who have been waiting for years on a waiting list for their dream electric car are finally giving up because of the price, which has skyrocketed with interest rate hikes.
"I'm canceling my reservation." Solène Besnard, assistant manager at Motion Nissan de Longueuil, has heard this phrase a lot in recent months.
When she would pick up the phone to tell her customer that her electric vehicle had finally arrived, many would change their minds when they saw the price increase.
"With a financing rate of 3% raised to 8%, it's too much for them, several customers have told me," says Solène Besnard, an electrical specialist.
Even with the provincial rebate of $8,000 and the federal rebate of $5,000, totalling $13,000, many have turned their backs on their purchase due to galloping inflation.
2 million target
While Premier François Legault dreams of seeing two million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, Le Journal found that Quebecers' appetite for electric vehicles remains undiminished, but that inflation has had the effect of a cold shower.
In 2017, just 8156 electric vehicles out of 4.8 million were registered in Quebec, or less than 1%, according to the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ). Last year, that figure rose to 90,912 out of 5 million, or nearly 2%.
"When petrol prices rise, we can see that there's much more appetite for electric cars. When it goes down at the pump, you can feel the demand going down too," notes Solène Besnard. "It's more in the wallet," she sums up.
Some of our American neighbors are raising red flags.
A bubble?
At the end of August, an article in the Wall Street Journal went so far as to say that electric cars were "a deflating bubble" in Biden country.
Twice as many surplus vehicles as gasoline-powered ones, rebates to get them out the door as quickly as possible, average price down 20% on last year... the daily newspaper has highlighted data from Cox Automotive, a firm that analyzes the automotive market.
But in Quebec, the situation is quite different, according to Martin Archambault, electric vehicle specialist and producer of the Silence on roule podcast.
"The sympathy capital of Quebecers for electric vehicles is immensely greater than that of the average American," he says.
"California and New England are more pro-electrification. We sell it in the U.S., but they're not as predisposed to clean electricity as we are," he adds.
For Daniel Breton, the American appetite for electric vehicles remains strong, no matter what anyone says.
"For the first time in June 2023, the United States exceeded 10% electric vehicle sales, as did Canada," he concludes.
