While I wouldn’t quite call myself an electric vehicle skeptic, I have been a bit of a realist about the vehicles. For years, the idea of an electric car was just a lot better than the reality of one, since battery technology was always a couple steps behind what the vehicle themselves actually needed.
The first electric cars were all bad, weird little experiments that the manufacturers only put on sale very reluctantly – if at all, things like the GM EV1 and Honda EV Plus were available as lease only. They didn’t go very far, and while they were interesting science experiments they weren’t great as actual cars. This is why they were only available in California, it’s the only place where they made sense.
Eventually, after years of development, we reached the point where it was possible to buy an electric car that was useful, had good range, and was excellent at doing all the things you need a car to do. It was called the Tesla Model S, and it was the first electric car that could be someone’s only car. It was also an expensive luxury product, a smart move for the company since it let them make a profit on new technology, but not great for those of us with small bank accounts.
You could, of course, get one that was both smaller and cheaper, something like a Nissan Leaf, but then we run into the old problem of short range. It’s not recommended to Regina if you have a Leaf, it’s outside of its stated range.
This long preamble is a way to say that we have now reached the point where someone can conceivably buy an electric car as their only vehicle, even if they’re not necessarily in the tax bracket that can afford a Tesla Model S down payment. Two cars, in fact, have made an electric car make sense.
One is from Tesla, the Model 3, a smaller, cheaper model. The details aren’t finalized, and it won’t be available until late next year at the earliest, but the range will be around 350 kms and the price is promised to be around $35,000 south of the border, so more than that in Canada. The other is the Chevrolet Bolt, which has a range of 383 kms and can, in theory, be purchased in Yorkton early next year, though it’s likely that small town Saskatchewan is going to be low on the priority list for electric car shipments. It’s going to cost around $44,000, once you add shipping and taxes. For both models, there will be rebates to encourage people to try a zero emissions model, possibly fewer rebates in this province than there are in other jurisdictions.
With the introduction of these models, I think we are finally in a situation where an electric car can make sense to someone in rural Saskatchewan. The range is enough for a lot of people to do their regular business, predominantly rural businesses like Peavey Mart are putting in charging points for electric models – Yorkton’s only charging point, in fact – and the price isn’t that different from a mid-range SUV or some other typical family car. Not cheap by any means, but not expensive.
You can soon buy an electric car as your only vehicle, in Yorkton, and not really have much difficulty, though you might spend more time at the province’s Peavey Marts than you ever have before. That’s good news for the environment, good news for consumers, bad news for gas stations and great news for Peavey Mart.
