If you are one of the few Albertans itching to join the electric vehicle (or plug-in hybrid) club, you will find an altogether different car buying experience from what you've been used to before.

At some dealerships you'll find salespeople climbing into the car with you for a test drive with the car's manual in hand — because they've never been in one of these cars either. At another, you'll be told you can't test drive their EV models because the manufacturer isn't sending any to Alberta. You can still buy it, but it will have to be sight unseen — and the wait for it to arrive could be well into 2020.

If you're in the market for an EV, you might be inclined to visit a Kia dealership to check out the Niro EV or the Soul EV, since they are two of the most moderately priced, mid-sized EVs on the market. But that will only lead you to learn that Kia is not currently selling any electric models in Alberta, nor are they offering service for EVs if you actually go through the effort to buy one of their cars out of province.

As an explanation for this strategic decision, Kia Canada communications manager Mark James said that as supply of vehicles grows, the company will be expanding into new markets, but for now, Alberta isn't a priority.

"Right now we focus the limited availability of product on those markets that not only offer incentives to consumers but also offer the required infrastructure to support the vehicles," James said in an email.

All of this begs the question: How has Alberta fallen so far behind?

Incentives, quotas and petro pride

In the first quarter of 2019, the total number of electric vehicles on the road in Canada cracked 100,000. The number in this province is just over 2,200.

Alberta does not have any government incentives in place to encourage the move to EVs or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). This stands in contrast to Quebec, which offers up to $8,000; and B.C., where rebate incentives can hit $3,000.

Ontario used to offer up to $14,000, but that was scrapped by the Ford government after it was elected in 2018.

So, despite the federal government offering incentives of up to $5,000 from coast to coast, the rebate opportunities are not equal across provinces.

There are a handful of reasons beyond Alberta's lack of a rebate program that have caused the lag in sales here. The first thing that might come to mind is the Alberta pride in the oil and gas industry; the rise of petro-patriotism, as coined by Maclean's.

"There's a mentality here that somewhat naturally opposes EV ownership because they're perceived — whether true or not — as a threat to the oil and gas industry because oil is used for transportation fuels and the EVs don't use that," said William York, a director for the Electric Vehicle Association of Alberta.

York said another hurdle presents itself in the fact that Alberta is truck and SUV country, and so far what is available in those categories of vehicle isn't pushing people to buy electric — yet.

That could change if companies like Ford keep putting out ads like the one they released earlier this month, bragging about their F-150 all-electric prototype truck being able to pull over a million pounds. Or companies like GM keep making commitments to make their entire fleet electric.

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