The federal government’s plan to replace electric vehicle sales quotas with a reduced emissions standard is unrealistic and could saddle Canadians with massive costs, according to the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that instead of gradually banning conventional vehicles by 2035, 75% of new vehicles sold in that year would need to meet an electric-equivalent emissions standard.
(Incognito)
For heaven’s sake, can we just admit the painfully obvious point that Canada’s federal and provincial governments committed a massive strategic blunder when they went whole hog into subsidizing the production and sale of EV vehicles and batteries?
Despite widespread approval from provinces and auto manufacturers, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s auto plan might not accelerate the transition to electric vehicles as fast as he says.
On Thursday, Carney ended Canada’s electric vehicle mandate, resumed purchase incentives and said higher standards for fuel efficiency were coming. Ontario and Alberta’s premiers said they were both “pleased” and car manufacturers said the move provided “welcome policy stability.”
With the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars less than four years away now, there remains one seemingly insurmountable obstacle: nobody wants to buy electric cars.
Last year, sales of EVs achieved a market share of just 23.43%. Newly released figures for last month show this fell to 20.6%. The Government has set a target this year of 33%, rising to 66% in 2029.
Once petrol and diesel cars (known as ICE vehicles, short for Internal Combustion Engine) are banned in 2030, zero emission cars must make up at least 80% of the market, with the rest filled with hybrids. However, the latter will also be gradually phased out by 2035. Zero emission essentially means battery-electric, although hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles would also qualify.
South Korea’s LG Energy Solution on Friday said it plans to buy the 49-per-cent stake held by Stellantis in their battery joint venture in Ontario for the nominal amount of US$100.
Stellantis also said on Friday it would book charges of around €22.2-billion ($35.81-billion) in the second half of last year as the Franco-Italian automaker scales down electric-vehicle development plans and launches a “strategic shift.”
But wait there’s more!
Stellantis shares plunge as carmaker takes $22.2-billion writedown on EVs
Chevy Ends Building Tremec Corvette Transmissions in Canada, Production Shifts Back to America
On March 19th, 2025, a Chinese EV, the Dongfeng Voyah 007, crashed in Yunnan, China.
The car caught fire almost instantly, doors jammed, and bystanders had to smash windows to rescue passengers.
Three in the back seats survived, but the front passenger didn’t.
China’s… pic.twitter.com/XbJtjpnpHP
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) February 5, 2026
Poor Joly! h/t Mauser
If you feel like Chinese cars are suddenly right around the corner, you’re not alone. The notion has received a groundswell of both direct and indirect support lately, and as affordable new cars drop like flies from U.S. lineups, American consumers are becoming more open-minded about the prospect of allowing Chinese OEMs to enter the market.
Given the political climate, it’s no wonder that dealers feel caught a bit off-guard by this development. And now they’re getting vocal about it.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will abolish the electric vehicle mandate while replacing it with emissions regulations that he says will achieve a similar objective of reaching widespread EV adoption by consumers.
Carney announced on Feb. 5 that Ottawa will repeal the electric vehicle mandate that would have required automakers to produce and sell only electric vehicles by 2035. Instead, Carney said the government will put in place tougher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model years 2027 to 2032. The revised aim is to reach an EV adoption rate of 75 percent by 2035 and 90 percent by 2040.
The electric vehicle mandate that would have forced 100 per cent of all new cars sold in Canada to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035 was a typical Trudeau-era policy. It had more to do with preening self-righteousness than anything else. It sacrificed economic growth for green fantasies and was extremely paternalistic. As with most climate-change policies, the objective seemed to be more about control than actually accomplishing anything.
Elon Musk’s pivot away from the electric vehicles that made him rich and famous raises a thorny question: Whither the EV market when its Atlas shrugs?
On Tesla Inc.’s quarterly earnings call last week, Mr. Musk said the company would stop production of its model S and X cars. Instead of retooling affected plants to build new models, the factory space will be converted to build humanoid robots.
The federal government is expected to announce its national automotive strategy on Thursday that includes scrapping Canada’s electric vehicle mandate and replacing it with a new system of fuel efficiency standards and credits, CBC News has learned.
Two sources say Ottawa is also expected to bring back popular electric vehicle incentives for consumers purchasing electric vehicles.
Money will also be announced to build more charging stations for EVs across Canada to help consumers, a source said.
The federal government is considering bringing back consumer incentives for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids as it finalizes its national automotive strategy, CBC News has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the plans, whom CBC News has agreed not to name because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, say that a decision on the incentives — and whether they would be similar to a suspended rebate program — has not yet been made.
Canada’s incentive program for zero-emissions vehicles, known as iZEV, was suspended more than a year ago after it ran out of money due to high demand.
Canada is set to open its automotive market to Chinese electric vehicles, as researchers and policymakers warn that a flood of Chinese products in markets such as Europe has come at the expense of domestic producers.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney struck a deal with China to allow 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into Canada annually at a 6.1 percent tariff, replacing the 100 percent tariff imposed in 2024 amid concerns over Beijing’s non-market practices.
Driving down an uncertain road.
On his recent trip to Beijing, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney praised the leadership of Xi Jinping and announced plans to bring 49,000 Chinese electric cars into Canada. In several ways that escaped notice, Carney was following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
As David Frum notes, Trudeau “traveled to Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union to participate in regime-sponsored propaganda activities,” a reference to the Moscow Economic Conference in April, 1952. Stalin’s USSR came billed as a workers’ state based on the “scientific” principles of Marxism-Leninism, as opposed to the “bourgeois” nations with their market economies. The regime’s admirers assumed that the Communist regime’s products would be superior, but it didn’t turn out that way.
In an attempt to figuratively poke Donald Trump and the United States in the eye, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney just announced that Canada is cozying up to China by slashing tariffs on imported Chinese EVs. The new tariff rate will be just 6.1 percent, opening up his country to 49,000 Chinese vehicles initially, and increasing to 70,000 in the coming years. China “reciprocated” by dropping the tariff on Canadian canola oil to 15 percent. Carney’s determination to strike a deal with China clearly put the Chinese in a very favorable negotiating position. It would behoove Mr. Carney to have a talk with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum about the perils of economic surrender to China, especially as it relates to Chinese auto imports.
When Trevor Melanson arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland, last July to pick up his rental car, he was “pleasantly surprised” to be handed the keys to an electric vehicle that most North Americans could only dream of driving — a Chinese BYD.
Melanson, from Vancouver, B.C., was curious to try out a car he had heard so much about — in this case a silver hatchback — but had never seen. When he got behind the wheel of this “efficient car that checks all the boxes,” he realized it was a vehicle that many Canadians would like.
Carney’s propaganda rag the Toronto Star published this article on the same day Trump threatened 100% tariffs over Ottawa’s merger with China’s godless communists and a week after running a piece saying China was unlikely to invest in Canadian EV manufacturing plants.
