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Incentives to offset cost of electric vehicle charging stations

New provincial program will offer businesses 80 per cent of cost to install Level 2 chargers.
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The province has announced a new incentive program to offset the cost of installing electric vehicle chargers at workplaces across Ontario. (File photo)

The province announced it’s launching a new program to help businesses install charging stations for electric vehicles (EV).

Announced on Jan. 16, the Workplace Electric Vehicle Charging Incentive Program will provide 80 per cent of the capital costs to install Level 2 chargers, up to $7,500 per charging space.

Level 2 charging stations use a 240-volt system and can fully charge a vehicle from a zero per cent charge in about four to eight hours.

Applications for the program will open on Jan. 16, 2018, and will be reviewed and processed in the order they are received, until the program funding is exhausted.

The investment is part of Ontario's Climate Change Action Plan and is funded by proceeds from the province's cap on pollution and carbon market.

It is estimated there are over 1,300 public chargers available in Ontario and more than 16,000 electric vehicles currently on the road in Ontario.

In the North, a number of communities are installing EV chargers.

In Sudbury, Tesla recently installed its first SuperCharger, which has eight stalls for charging Tesla vehicles, and there is a plan to roll out an additional 15 SuperCharger sites across Northern Ontario, between North Bay and Kenora. The Sudbury station is the first to come online, while most others are estimated to be in service by the end of 2018.