Victoria Femia
With gas prices on the rise across the province, is it better to drive electric?
Dealer partner at Chevrolet Kelowna, Ian Speckman, says there are an abundance of benefits in switching to electric vehicles, including the lower costs of charging.
“Obviously right now at $2/litre, if you take that same conversion to electric cars, we’re probably going to be looking at 20 cents a litre, that’s kind of a 1 to 10 ratio, so a huge savings right there,” said Speckman.
There are also government incentives in buying electric cars. Speckman says there are up to $8,000 in rebates in buying new and people are exempt from the Provincial Sales Tax when buying used.
“I’ve never seen anyone have a gas station in their house, but you can charge your car up at home,” he said.
To put things into perspective, Speckman says if it’s $200 to fill your tank, it would be less than $20 to charge an electric vehicle.
Owner of an EV, Troy Ryder, says he’s saved money since he began driving electric a few years ago.
“I went from driving a gas-guzzling SUV, an older one that eventually died, I replaced it with an electric vehicle,” said Ryder.
“I went from spending $300-$400 a month on fuel, down to $30 a month in electricity.”
As gas prices climb, car dealerships are seeing an increase in demand for electric vehicles.
“People are starting to inquire a lot more, we have a couple hundred orders right now on electric vehicles,” said President of Kot Auto, located at Hyundai Kelowna, John Kot.
“It’s really increased over the last couple months, with the electric line up.”
Speckman said at this time, there’s not enough new EV’s to supply the demand.
“We’re actually out there trying to source all the used we can, we don’t have enough new, no one does to supply the demand,” said Speckman.
“We’re seeing a lot of inquiries and this is pretty normal, whenever we see gas price change… it’s not a matter of if you’re going to buy an electric car, it’s what electric car are you going to buy today, that is your future.”
Electric cars also require less maintenance over time opposed to gas vehicles.
“We have very few moving parts… when you’re using your brakes, they’re actually regenerating energy back into the battery, you’re charging them. But we don’t have a motor, we don’t have a transmission, we don’t have any of those things that we’re always having to maintain,” said Speckman.
“Definitely better off with an electric car, your maintenance costs are pretty much diminished, it’s usually a once a year check up…for a tire rotation and a check up on the car, obviously no oil changes or no fluid changes,” said Connor McGowan, general sales manager at Hyundai Kelowna.
British Columbia is leading the country in transitioning to EVs with more than 60,000 light-duty EVs on the road.