Normally, January is the quietest time of year for car dealerships, which won’t be the case in 2025 if they don’t want to be stuck with a yard full of electric cars.
• Also read: Also the end of the subsidy for charging stations
• Also read: Suspension of the Roulez vert program: here’s what you need to know
“There will be a lot of volume in showrooms in January,” predicts François Duquette, president of Saint-Jean Hyundai, in Montérégie.
The suspension of the Roulez vert program, on 1is Next February, shakes up the dealers’ business plan for 2025. The subsidy of $7,000 currently offered by Quebec for the purchase of a new electric vehicle will increase to $4,000 in January then to $0 in February.
As soon as the reduction to $4,000 was announced in March, sales exploded in Quebec. Just during July, August and September, the SAAQ registered 40,763 new zero-emission vehicles, more than in the rest of Canada (34,873).
The announcement, Monday evening, of the suspension of the subsidy from 1is February will slow down this momentum, thinks Jacques Olivier, whose Olivier Group has 19 dealerships of different brands in Quebec.
“We received models which were intended for the West of the country to meet demand,” says the businessman. His yards are full of electric vehicles.
Manufacturers reacted to the race around December 31 by redirecting volume to Quebec. Now, dealers will have to deal with a drop in demand due to the end of subsidies.
“The more cars I have in inventory, the more it costs me in interest to finance it,” summarizes Jacques Olivier.
Tuesday, at Saint-Jean Hyundai, François Duquette was waiting for instructions from the manufacturer and was already thinking about “January offensives to attract customers with better promotions” in order to sell off stocks.
Surprise and anger
These yards full of cars which will temporarily no longer be subsidized by Quebec could be expensive, warns the Corporation of Automobile Dealers of Quebec (CCAQ).
“All the dealers pay for their inventory and finance it, they pay interest on what is found in their yards,” explains the president of the organization, Ian P. Sam Yue Chi.
The CCAQ learned of the suspension of the program unexpectedly on Monday evening and noted that it had been “let go without warning” by Quebec.
“We respect our part of the contract, we have a diversity of models, we have inventory, we are prepared to present them to the public and we want the government to respect its own commitments in this transition,” says Ian P .Sam Yue Chi.
As the end of the subsidy is planned for 2027, discussions are already underway to see how Roulez vert could be used for first-time buyers or low-income families, for example.
Adaptation
The surprise was rather to see Quebec suspend the program due to lack of funds, as if the transition to electric cars was working too well, that the subsidy program was too popular.
“The money for the Roulez vert program comes from the former Green Fund, which is very well capitalized,” underlines the CCAQ.
In Lanaudière, in Rawdon, the Bourgeois family, which owns a Chevrolet dealership, is not surprised to see Quebec close the floodgates on subsidies for electric cars.
“We’re not going to stop selling them, we expected that,” says one of the owners, Christine Bourgeois.
Manufacturers will adapt to the end of subsidies, she assures, as will dealers.
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