Toronto, Ontario – In this week’s electric and autonomous vehicle report, Tesla has secured more than a million Cybertruck reservations, Ontario’s Liberal party promises to bring back EV incentives and the Vancouver fire department unveiled their new electric fire truck.
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The Tesla Cybertruck is quickly becoming one of the most valuable vehicles to never exist, as the automaker announced that it has secured about 1.3 million reservations for the truck, worth a total of $80 billion.
This impressive feat comes in spite of the fact that Tesla doesn’t plan to start producing the Cybertruck for about another year, and while some have already been waiting for two years, more names are added to the reservation list every day.
Just six months ago, analysts reported that Cybertruck reservations had passed the 650,000 mark.
Handouts to “millionaires”
With an election season approaching, Ontario’s Liberal party is promising to bring back a Wynne-era EV incentive plan that could put up to $8,000 in the pockets of Ontarians to buy electric vehicles.
Provincial Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said the program would apply to EVs worth up to $60,000 and offer varying levels of support for both purchases and leases. It would also bundle in up to $1,500 for consumers buying charging equipment.
“Creating a new electric vehicle incentive program is a win-win for Ontario families,” Del Duca said in a release. “It will advance the fight against climate change, create good paying jobs and deliver needed pocketbook relief.”
The program is a rejigged version of Ontario’s previous EV incentive that offered up to $14,000 to EV buyers, but was cancelled by the Conservative government in 2018.
Fighting fire with electricity
Vancouver has made its mark as the first Canadian city to add an electric fire truck to its department’s fleet.
Given the name of Rosenbauer by its Austrian developers, the truck has an impressive charging capacity of 150 kW and the ability to automatically deactivate its engine while it is idling, greatly reducing noise in comparison to a traditional truck.
The truck is 92 inches wide, compared to 101 inches on traditional trucks plus the mirrors. This means the truck will be able to fit into tighter spaces.
Vancouver deputy fire chief Tyler Moore said that the motive behind buying the truck wasn’t purely environmental either.
“It’s really about the firefighter health and safety. Carcinogens from having the diesel engine run at all times, they’re not exposed to that,” said Moore.
