Canadian automotive industry groups are calling for more infrastructure and incentive cash from Ottawa, as regulations for a more aggressive, national regulated zero-emissions vehicle sales target await final approval.
According to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, Canadian Automobile Dealers Association and Global Automakers of Canada, the country doesn’t have “nearly enough” charging stations to support a mandated target of making all passenger vehicle sales “net-zero” by 2035.
This week, the groups a zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) timeline outlining the charging infrastructure needed to achieve that target. If ZEVs make up 20 per cent of all light-duty vehicle sales in 2026, they estimate Canada will need more than 116,000 public chargers, but is on track have just 52,000.
“What the timeline finds is that urgent action is needed right now to put Canada on a path to widespread EV adoption,” said Brian Kingston, CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association.
“We have a significant infrastructure gap. It is not closing and it will become even more of a challenge in the years to come.”
ZEVs include battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles. According to the industry groups, there are more than 70 such vehicles on the market in Canada and 40 more are on the way.
In December, the federal government released draft regulations for the new sales mandate, accelerating a previous goal of reaching 100 per cent ZEV sales by 2040. They would require 20 per cent of all passenger vehicle sales to be net-zero by 2026.
The targets aim to the help the country achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, as scientists continue to warn of impending disaster due to climate change. A recent United Nations report also found the global community “has no credible path” to restricting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, despite legally-binding promises in the Paris Agreement.
The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association has lobbied against Canada’s ZEV sales target, citing supply chain issues and challenges with vehicle production in North America and the current higher market cost of EVs, compared to typical gas-powered vehicles.
Along with their ZEV timeline, the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, Canadian Automobile Dealers Association and Global Automakers of Canada released two dashboards.
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The first claims more than 1.6 million charging stations would be needed across the country if 50 per cent of each province’s vehicle fleet were electric. In B.C., the dashboard estimates close to 220,000 stations are needed, while more than 600,000 are needed in Ontario.
A second dashboard further compares the disparity in maximum federal and provincial electric vehicle incentives available in each Canadian province with the maximum incentives available from the federal Unites States government and the State of California. As it stands, some states have access to as much as $7,200 more than Canadian electric vehicle buyers in five provinces and two territories.
“This is more expensive technology. It will come down over time, but right now there’s a price gap, so you have to incentivize consumers to make the switch,” said Kingston. “Equally important is the charging infrastructure.
“My worry is that this ultimately this will lead to frustration for Canadian drivers. We want them to love this technology and to make the switch to electric, but if someone does that and then finds that they either can’t get a charger at their home or every time they go to a public charger, they’re waiting for 45 minutes, you’re going to see a pushback and a frustration with electrification.”
According to Natural Resources Canada, the federal government is investing more than $1.2 billion to build 84,500 public EV chargers by 2027. There are more than 20,000 EV charging ports across the country at more than 8,000 charging stations.
Ottawa has also invested $1.7 billion in extending its ZEV purchase incentives program until March 2025 and expanded the number of vehicles eligible under the initiative to include more trucks, vans and SUVs.
Ekta Bibra, senior policy advisor for clean transportation at Clean Energy Canada, said she’s pleased to see auto industry groups tracking charging infrastructure and EV incentives in Canada, but lauded Canada’s “significant investments” compared to other jurisdictions.
“Canada has a smaller population compared to the U.S., so when you actually look at our per capita spending on vehicle rebates and charging infrastructure incentives, they actually track quite similarly to what’s in the U.S.,” she told Global News.
It’s also more difficult to obtain EV rebates in the U.S., where there are more strings attached to the rebates than in Canada, Bibra added.
According to the B.C. government, which has regulated ZEV sales targets, more than 18 per cent of all new vehicles bought last year were ZEVs.
In 2021, 43 per cent of new electric vehicles were registered in Quebec, which also has regulated sales targets, followed by 28 per cent in B.C. and 23 per cent in Ontario, Statistics Canada has found.
Adam Thorn, director of the Pembina Institute’s transportation program, said it would be “misleading” to suggest more incentives alone will secure Canada’s sales target when B.C. and Quebec have proven that a regulation drives adoption of EVs.
“It’s really about ramping up the production of zero-emission vehicles,” Thorn said, adding that many manufacturers have already created their own independent production targets.
“(Manufacturers) are the ones who design and build these vehicles and they’re incredibly innovative companies. We have full confidence they’ll be able to do that.”
Thorn said it’s not “incorrect” to lobby for more support, including incentives and charging stations, but he believes the auto industry groups’ dashboard overestimates the number of charging stations needed in Canada.
Ron Burton, a director of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association, said there’s “always room for improvement” in public EV charging infrastructure, but he too felt the claims were exaggerated.
“You do not need one public EV charging station for each current gas fuel pump. A gas-powered car has to go to a fuel pump … an electric vehicle can get 95 per cent of its driving needs met by home-charging. Home-charging is a really important area we have to improve.”
The federal government is still consulting on proposed regulation for the 2035 ZEV sales target.
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