The surge in gas prices is driving more Quebecers to consider electric vehicles, industry experts say.<\/p>\n
Since early March, the price of regular gasoline in the province has jumped more than 30 per cent, while diesel has risen over 40 per cent, largely due to ongoing instability in the Middle East. On the island of Montreal, gas prices are now hovering around two dollars per litre, with diesel seeing a similar spike.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Wenger, co-founder of AutosConsultants.com, said the combination of high fuel costs and federal incentives is already changing consumer habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou factor those two things in, a high price of fuel, EV rebates, we are seeing an increase in demand for electric vehicles in the market,\u201d Wenger said.<\/p>\n
Across Quebec, electric vehicle (EV) sales have surged in recent weeks, with some reports showing a nearly 20 per cent increase in just one month, and year-over-year sales jumping as much as 600 per cent. Test drives of EVs have also climbed more than 50 per cent over the past year.<\/p>\n
Daniel Breton, president and CEO of Electric Mobility Canada, noted that EV adoption tends to be permanent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you go to an electric vehicle, you don\u2019t go back. More than 95 per cent of EV owners say they will stick with either electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Breton also highlighted the broader economic benefits of switching to electric.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn top of that, on top of the fact that electricity is a lot more predictable, there\u2019s also the factor that the majority of oil sands production in Canada is foreign-owned. The vast majority of electricity production in Canada is not only Canadian-owned, but it\u2019s publicly owned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For those who continue to drive gas-powered vehicles, there are still ways to reduce fuel consumption. Wenger recommends using eco mode in vehicles, checking tire pressure, removing roof racks when not in use, switching to summer tires, respecting speed limits, and leaving earlier to avoid sudden acceleration.<\/p>\n
Drivers can also use apps like GasBuddy or a new interactive map from the R\u00e9gie de l\u2019\u00e9nergie, which tracks real-time gas prices at more than 2,500 stations across Quebec. Stations are required to update prices within five minutes of any change.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo decrease our reliance on foreign suppliers for our source of fuel would be excellent for the province,\u201d Wenger said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The surge in gas prices is driving more Quebecers to consider electric vehicles, industry experts say. Since early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-584253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}