Well I finally did it! I’ve been preaching the benefits of the Electric Car for over 30 years! Toyota’s Prius is now 40 years old, and still NOT a full EV! I bought a “poor man’s Tesla”, the Chevrolet Bolt Premier 4-door hatchback. My other cars had female names, they included workhorse Corollas, and one car in my stable was Isabella, a rare 1982 Ferrari Mondial V8 4-seater. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for decades! Just when myself and my Instructor friends were about to buy an EV with former Premier Wynn’s rebate of $15,000, newly elected Premier Ford destroyed this helpful rebate, deeming it “elitist”. Time passed, pollution got worse, the planet heated up, greenhouse gas deniers like Trump were empowered. Was the world doomed? I went to work. Governments in BC and Quebec were still sane. I found out EVERYONE can do it! Rebate Grant’s are available of 15K in British Colombia, or 12K rebate off vehicles from Quebec. The car just has to sit within the province 1 year or more to keep the reduced grant. There’s a surprising glut of slightly used EV’s gently highway driven by corporate salesman. To import my Bolt from BC I would pay $1000 by rail and save 15K, or pay $400 to flatbed truck it to Ontario from Quebec. Both delivered the car to Maple, at the rail yard on Keele St., just south of Rutherford Rd! My Chevrolet Premier Bolt is like new! Due to all the engineering tech within, I named him Sebastian. He had an odometer of only 25k km. Sebastian will give 394km range on a full charge (level 2 charger in my garage takes about 6 hours, and can both be programmed inside the car, or via smart phone) Numerous Apps tell me where I can fast charge Sebastian some for free, (Level 3 Fast charger 30cents/minute $18 for 1 hour full charge). I paid the Montreal dealer $29k, plus Canada tax 13% ouch! (5% with purchase, QST 8%, and PST balence at ServiceOntario when I registered plates: AF1.CA (yes this website) Many Chargers are easily delivered from Amazon. The car needed a 220volt charger, with a 30amp fuse. So I upsized a $285, 240v , 40amp Level 2 home charger by Mustart. A client’s father was an experienced EV electrician, so parts & labor to install cost only: $285. My driving school now saves $150/week not needing gas, hydro costs only $7-week electricity as I only charge it every 2 days, and SAVED $2000 – year off insurance! I will NEVER AGAIN pay for dirty polluting, carcinogenic gas or OIL, which is both guilty of World Wars, and killing millions through Global Warming, giving profits mostly to the greedy 1% who’ve controlled us for too long.
YOU too CAN SAVE money while SAVING the PLANET! Just ask me for details!
c. Jeff C. Pope, Canada’s 1st EV Driving School 2020.