Photo: Olivier Zuida Le Devoir A vehicle is connected to a charging station.
Quebecers who wish to take advantage of a state rebate to purchase a zero-emission vehicle had better hurry. In order to reduce its growing expenses in the Roulez vert subsidy program, the government of François Legault will gradually abolish it by January 2027.
The announcement was made Tuesday, from the 2024-2025 Quebec budget tabled by the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard. The disappearance of the program is scheduled for January 1, 2027, but will have effects from next year. For a new “fully electric” car, the subsidy will increase from $7,000 in 2024 to $4,000 in 2025. Then, this amount will drop to $2,000 in the last year of the program.
For new plug-in hybrid vehicles, the subsidy will increase from $5,000 in 2024, to $2,000 in 2025, then to $1,000 in 2026. For used electric cars, the abolition of Roulez vert will work like this: $3500 this year, $2000 next year, $1000 the following year. Subsidies for the purchase of terminals are extended beyond January 2027.
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The popularity of Roulez vert has generated significant expenditure for the Quebec state this year. From the start of the fiscal year in April 2023 to January of this year, approximately $400 million was disbursed to fund the program. In his latest Plan for a Green Economy (PEV), the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, had planned to release 244 million for Roulez vert in 2023-2024.
In the future, these amounts will be used more in other programs to combat climate change, believes Minister Girard. “The subsidies for electric vehicles, in terms of dollars per ton [reduced], it was not the most effective spending,” he said Tuesday at a press conference, adding that the federal government also offered a $5000 rebate.
Quebec is still far from its electrification objectives. The latest news was that around 240,000 electric vehicles were on Quebec's roads, barely 10% of the Legault government's objective for 2030 (two million zero-emission cars).
Low improvement of the “green plan”
In addition, this year's record revenues from the carbon market — $1.5 billion — are not being fully reflected in Tuesday's fiscal year.
Minister Charette's EPI, which will be updated this spring, has been increased by $300 million, to reach a budget of $9.3 billion over five years. Last year, the Legault government's “green plan” allowed Quebec to achieve approximately 60% of its climate targets.
Minister Girard assures that all revenues from the carbon market “go into the Green Economy Plan”. However, it is impossible at present to know what part of the new funds obtained this year during the various auctions has already been spent and what part has accumulated in the coffers of the Electrification and Climate Change Fund (FECC ) — the new Green Fund.
In its last financial report, filed in March 2023, the FECC reported a surplus of approximately $1.7 billion. The most recent portrait of its finances should be published in the coming weeks.