Peter Miller will be the first person to admit he has a battery-powered┬аgolden goose sitting in his garage.
The West Vancouverite┬аis planning to sell his 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, a popular electric car that at one point was discontinued due to concerns over its battery packs spontaneously catching fire тАФ a part that Miller has replaced.
He’s yet to formally put his car on the market, but he’s┬аalready fielding offers from a slew of suitors,┬аincluding both GM and Tesla,┬аwhile word of mouth has other potential buyers also in his ear.
“I’ve got people banging down my door [to buy┬аthis car],” said Miller, who doubts he’ll even bother listing the car on sites like Craigslist or Kijiji┬аbefore he sells it. He expects to resell it for at least $25,000.
Industry leaders say electric and hybrid┬аvehicles are already hard to come by for prospective buyers in B.C. amid growing global supply chain challenges. And demand is only increasing as gas prices reach unprecedented highs.
“Over the past six days, we’ve had┬аa 150 per cent increase in inquiries alone,” said Jon Wilson, manager at the Westwood Honda dealership in Coquitlam.
Wilson says the dealership continues┬аto add more and more customers to its electric vehicle waitlist, as it’s been unable to procure vehicles since last year.
“We’ve been out actually for six months,” he told CBC News.┬а“Typically we’d have 50 to 60 in stock at all times, and then throughout the summer we sold them all and we were unable to get more out of the U.S. market, or even locally.”
Wilson says waitlists have also grown for┬аhybrid vehicles.
Lying in wait
According to the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association (VEVA),┬аwait times for new electric vehicles and hybrids┬аcan exceed upwards of a year as supplies still reel from worldwide inventory shortages.
Coupled with growing domestic demand in Canada тАФ about 13┬аper cent┬аof new vehicles in B.C. sold last year were zero-emission┬атАФ drivers expecting to make the switch to circumvent the pump might be in for a rude awakening.
Vancouver resident Curtis Wensley┬аis among prospective drivers hoping to get behind the wheel of a new hybrid. He’s been on the hunt since his previous vehicle was struck by a driver while parked outside his home.
“We did a lot of shopping around,” he said. He put down a deposit for a hybrid KIA┬аSorento┬аin November and was told by the dealership it would be about a┬аmonth’s wait.
“We were very skeptical,” he said. “We called them in December, and they’re like,┬а‘It will actually be April,'” he said. “Gave it another month, gave them another call. ‘How’s April looking?’ They’re like, ‘Well, more like June, or July.'”
Wensley says he’s anticipating he may have to wait until 2023 before it arrives.
Go big тАФ or go used
John Stonier, former VEVA president and current member,┬аsays the only way buyers are able to drive off the lot with a new electric vehicle is if they┬аgo with luxury models, which can cost upwards of $150,000.
“The prudent way to get into electric cars is to buy used,” he said. “Because of the supply shortage, used vehicles are selling for about the same price as new ones.”
Stonier says used electric vehicles tend to have fewer problems┬аcompared to their gasoline counterparts, largely because they run on fewer parts and require less maintenance.
B.C. has┬аadded a series of incentives to encourage residents to purchase zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), including a┬аprovincial sales tax (PST) exemption on used ZEVs┬аwith at least 6,000 kilometres. ZEVs include┬аinclude battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric┬аand hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
Counting the pennies
Meanwhile, those who have found themselves lucky enough to get into the market over the past year are already starting to see the savings accumulate.
Robin Macqueen, a physics instructor at Langara┬аCollege in Vancouver, has been measuring┬аhis mileage after securing a fully electric KIA Soul in August.
He says the cost of electricity to power his car will work out to about┬а$460 for the year, compared to about┬а$4,200 annually in┬аgasoline at current prices hovering over┬аtwo dollars per litre.
Still, the recent EV convert says B.C. needs to ramp up its infrastructure if it’s to encourage more people to get behind the wheel.
“If over the next 10 years we’re going to switch over to electric vehicles, we’re going to need a lot more charging stations,” he said.
