Ontario is increasing its EV incentives up to $10,000 per vehicle, but not for Tesla

The Ontario Government announced this week an update to its incentive program to promote electric vehicles. Premier Kathleen Wynne made the announcement yesterday at WaterPark Place in Toronto.

The initiative builds on the province’s program first launched in 2010 and increases the range of incentives from $5,000 – $8,500 to $6,000 – $10,000 per vehicle, but not without a few exceptions.

There’s a $3,000 cap for incentives for vehicles priced between $75,000 and $150,000, which would include most of Tesla vehicles since the Model S 70 starts at $95,000 Canadian dollar. The higher-end version of the Model S and X will be completely excluded, though buyers will have access to up to $1,000 for the purchase and installation of chargers for home and business use.

Here are the bullet-points of the updated program:

• Increase the current incentive range for EVs from $5,000 – $8,500 to $6,000 – $10,000
• Provide an opportunity to receive an additional $3,000 incentive for vehicles with larger battery capacities
• Provide an additional $1,000 incentive for vehicles with five or more seats
• Continue to provide incentives linked to battery capacity of more than 5 kilowatt-hours
• Cap incentives for vehicles priced between $75,000 and $150,000 at $3,000
• Provide up to $1,000 for the purchase and installation of chargers for home and business use.

The government says that there are currently about 5,800 EVs in the province and that the program under its previous form helped add 4,800 electric vehicles and about 1,100 home chargers in Ontario over the past 5 years.