Mia Rabson, Canadian Press
Published Monday, December 18, 2023 at 9:47 PM ET
Last updated on Monday, December 18, 2023 at 9:52 PM EST
Canadian car companies have sold more electric vehicles this year than ever before, but they will need to nearly double that number within three years to meet new national mandates.
On Tuesday, Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault is expected to unveil final regulations under the Canada Environmental Protection Act to establish Canada’s first nationally regulated electric vehicle mandate.
Guilbeault set the goal a year ago, mandating that 20% of passenger cars sold be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2026.
This proportion should increase every year, reaching 60% in 2030 and 100% in 2035.
Final regulations should be published by the end of the week, following extensive consultation and feedback from the public as well as industry and environmental stakeholders.
Data released last week by Statistics Canada shows 132,783 new battery electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles were registered across the country in the first nine months of 2023, accounting for 10.3 per cent of total new registrations.
This is about half of the amount needed in 2026 to reach the first goal.
Still, this is a record number and has been steadily increasing since 2020.
In the first nine months of last year, 90,163 cars, trucks, vans and SUVs were zero-emission vehicles, accounting for 7.7 percent of registered vehicles. This is up from 5% in 2021 and 3.3% in 2020.
This obligation applies to manufacturers, not dealers, who must certify that a minimum percentage of the vehicles they import or sell in Canada are ZEVs.
If you earn more credits than you need, you can bank them for the future or sell them to manufacturers who have a shortage. Investing in charging infrastructure can also cover some of the shortfall.
The draft regulation proposes that fully electric vehicles be given one credit each, while plug-in hybrids, also known as PHEVs, be given credits based on their range.
Only users with a battery range of more than 80 kilometers will receive full credit. If your range is between 50 and 79 kilometers, you’ll get 0.75 credits, but between 16 and 49 kilometers, you’ll get just 0.15 credits.
From 2026 onwards, PHEVs with a range of less than 50 kilometers will receive nothing, but from 2028 onwards, only PHEVs with a range of more than 80 kilometers will be eligible for credits.
Plug-in hybrids can also form only part of a manufacturer’s compliance list, earning up to 45 percent of the credits earned from PHEVs in 2026. In 2027, that maximum will drop to 30 percent, and from 2028 onwards to 20 percent.
Environment Canada said it believes PHEVs, which automatically switch to gasoline engines when their batteries run out of charge, will continue to be needed in rural and remote areas for a long time. One reason for this is the lack of charging infrastructure.
Approximately 80% of ZEV drivers charge exclusively at home for city driving, but the same cannot be said for drivers living in rural and remote areas, who drive far fewer kilometers per day. often require more frequent charging.
Joanna Kyriazis, director of public affairs for Clean Energy Canada, a research institute at Simon Fraser University, said most all-electric vehicles now have a range of more than 450 kilometers, and companies are increasingly looking to extend that range. He said he is looking for ways to extend it.
The government wants to require car companies to make more electric vehicles available in Canada. Kyriazis said he believes that will happen, and that he also thinks it will force companies to start making vehicles more affordable.
Kyriazis said the institute’s recent analysis shows that even if purchase prices rise, the savings from using electricity instead of gas and lower maintenance costs will make up the cost difference within a year. He said that it has been shown that. For example, electric cars do not require regular oil changes.
The Canadian Automobile Manufacturers Association says the government needs to increase the size of rebates offered for EV purchases to offset the added cost of buying an EV compared to a gasoline-powered vehicle.
It also said the availability of vehicle charging needs to be significantly increased to give people confidence that they can power their vehicles when and where they need it.
Quebec and British Columbia already have mandatory electric vehicle sales and are well ahead of other provinces in EV sales. Two-thirds of all EVs sold in Canada this year occurred in these two provinces and accounted for about two-fifths of all vehicle sales.
In the third quarter of 2023, we exceeded our EV sales target of 20% in both Quebec and British Columbia. Ontario had the next highest rate, at 8%.
The state mandate applies to the total number of vehicles sold nationally, not within each state.
