The Ontario government plans to rev up Ontario drivers' interest in electric cars by offering up to $10,000 in cash incentives to drivers who buy the cars.

Under a plan announced today by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, drivers will receive rebates of between $4,000 and $10,000 for plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles purchased after July 1, 2010.

"They tell me when they roll the first of these off the assembly line, they're going to be expensive relative to the conventional care powered by an internal combustion engine," McGuinty told reporters from a General Motors dealership in Toronto.

"Well, we want to help people buy those first cars; we want to help the early movers."

The province also plans to build public charging facilities at Ontario government and GO Transit parking lots. The province will build further infrastructure for charging electric vehicles through a combination of private sector companies and Ontario's existing electricity utilities.

As well, those driving electric vehicles will receive green licence plates that would allow them to use less-congested carpool lanes (High Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV lanes) until 2015, even if there is only one person in the vehicle.

McGuinty days they are working with other government and corporate partners, such as The University of Toronto and Wal-Mart Canada, to designate priority parking spots for vehicles with green plates.

And, to show its commitment to the new technology, the provincial government will also add 500 electric vehicles to its own Ontario Public Service fleet.

McGuinty says Ontario wants to become a world leader in driving electric cars. As well, he hopes the incentives will help expand the electric vehicle market for manufacturers and create more jobs for Ontarians.

"Our overall target is a pretty ambitious one," he said. "By 2020, we want one out of every 20 cars on the road in Ontario to be an electric vehicle."

The cash incentives will come into effect in July 2010, shortly before the new hybrid-electric Chevrolet Volt is expected to hit the roads, the first of a number of electric vehicles expected to be unveiled in the next few years.

"This will be the most attractive rebate, certainly in North America," McGuinty said. "It may be the most attractive rebate... in the world."

General Motors is planning to price the Volt at about $40,000. It has said that despite its bankruptcy filing, it's committed to keeping the Volt release on schedule.

The Volt will be different from previous electric cars and from gas-electric hybrids currently on the road. Its battery pack will be charged by plugging the car into a typical residential electrical outlet using it specially designed charging cord. No external charging station will be required.

When full charged, the batteries will be able to power the car for about 65 km. After that, a four-cylinder gas engine can drive a generator to extend the Volt's range to about 1,000 kilometres on a single tank of gas.

Toyota is working on a plug-in version of its Prius, and Mini has an electric vehicle that can travel 200 kms on one charge. Mitsubishi is also developing an electric car called the i-MiEV that can travel 120 kms on a single charge.

Toronto-based Zenn Motor Co., which plans to builds electric cars in Canada, was excluded from Ontario's rebate program because its cars have not been deemed safe for highway use. But the company's Catherine Scrimgeour says Zenn plans to launch a highway-capable car by the end of 2009.

"We are developing a highway-capable vehicle, called the cityZenn, with a planned prototype introduction later this year with a full commercial vehicle for 2010, that will be all electric, unlike the Chevy Volt or the Toyota Prius, with an anticipated range of about 400 kilometres and a top speed of 125 kilometres an hour, and will be chargeable in minutes (with a special recharging unit)," Scrimgeour told CTV News Channel.