How EV charging rewards work

Canada's Clean Fuel Regulations require gasoline and diesel suppliers to lower the carbon intensity of what they sell, and let them meet part of that by buying credits. Charging an electric vehicle creates those credits.

A household can't claim them directly: credits are registered by the operator of the charging network, with monthly reporting and third-party verification that cost more than one home's credits are worth. So companies register your charger on their network, sell the credits, and pass part of the value back to you per kWh.

22 programs are listed. The ones that publish a rate start at a median of 10¢ per kWh and top out at 18¢. At 300 kWh a month of home charging (roughly 20,000 km a year in a typical EV) that is about $130 to $492 a year, before any charger you'd need to buy.

Pick your province and charger for your own figure, or use the savings calculator to see it over one, three or five years.

No. The money comes out of a credit market, not a government budget, and every program reserves the right to change its rate. 2 advertised rate changes have been recorded since tracking began. What changed lists them, and each program card shows its own rate history.

Programs that pay once a year pay for a year's charging months after it ends, so treat those as a promise rather than a paycheque.

Not with the same charger, as a rule. Each kWh can generate a credit only once, and programs' terms typically require the charger to be registered with them alone. A second charger at another address, or a different vehicle's data, can be a different matter; check each program's terms.

Most programs read your charging from a connected Level 2 charger. There are three ways in:

• Use one you have. 9 programs accept a charger you already own from other makers: usually any smart charger that speaks OCPP, or a Tesla Wall Connector.
• Take theirs. 7 supply a charger, usually against a refundable deposit.
• Buy theirs. 6 work only with their own brand of charger, which you buy (or already have).

At least one (Telemiq) reads the car's own data instead of the charger's. Choose your charger on the homepage to see which programs take it.

Programs that ship you a charger usually hold a deposit (median $300) until the charger has recorded a set amount of charging, commonly 1,500 kWh, or until your first session. Some pay nothing until the deposit is back. The savings calculator counts a deposit against you until the point it is refunded.

7 programs pay on a ladder that climbs with your lifetime kWh, so you start on the bottom rung. Program cards show the first year separately wherever it differs, and the calculator walks the whole ladder year by year.

Most publish what a point is worth (for example, 100 points = $1), and the estimates here convert at that value. Where only members report the value, the rate is marked reported and its estimate gets a "~". Points often have a minimum before they can be cashed out.

From each program's, utility's and government's own website. A check runs every morning, re-reads every page, extracts the rate, and flags the page if anything on it changed. Details that are not in a headline (deposits, payout terms, eligibility) are read from each program's terms and FAQ by hand.

Every program card has a Where this comes from section that says how each figure was confirmed.

How a figure was confirmed:

• Read by the daily check or confirmed in the terms or FAQ: published by the program itself.
• Stated on the page: on the program's website but not in its terms.
• Reported: from members or the press, not published by the program. Estimates get a "~".
• Unverified: not documented anywhere we could check. No estimate is shown.

And the track record: established programs have members reporting real payouts, newer ones have not paid out yet, and unverified ones have no first-hand reports at all.

The program's top rate set against your province's cheapest overnight electricity plan: what charging effectively costs you, or earns you, per kWh. It uses the energy charge only; delivery charges, fixed fees and taxes are on top. See electricity rates.

No. EV Perks is not affiliated with any program, utility or government. Listings are free, there are no paid placements, and links go to the programs' own pages without referral codes.

Use the contact form. A link to the page where the correct figure is published is the fastest way to get it fixed. Program operators can get in touch the same way.