Photo: Government of Canada
As electric vehicles (EVs) continue to increase in sales each year, one Canadian minister says it’s not enough, suggesting instead that the country should adopt a national EV sales mandate.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said a national mandate forcing automakers to sell higher percentages of EVs is necessary to put in place as soon as the end of next year, according to CTV News.
Guilbeault said, “This [mandate] will not come into effect in the next few months but it will come into effect very soon.” Guilbeault continued, “We’re at three, maybe four [percent of total vehicles sold being electric]. We have to get the 50 percent. It’s a lot of heavy lifting.”
Canada Invests $2 Million for Up to 350 EV Chargers in Ottawa https://t.co/IxI3pU16E0
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) December 9, 2021
As road transport makes up a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, a 50 percent switch to EVs would play a major role in reducing the overall emissions from passenger vehicles.
Canada’s plans to reach net-zero carbon by 2050, and earlier this year, the federal government moved its goal of reaching 100 percent EV sales by 2035 from 2040.
About 75% of new EVs registered in Canada last year were primarily in B.C. and Quebec, as both provinces have an EV rebate. Ontario’s EV rebate ended in 2018 and last year EVs registered accounted for 19%; the rest of Canada was at less than 5%.
While only three percent of new cars registered in the past two years have been battery-electric or hybrids, Canadians still bought more EVs in the last two years than in the prior eight years combined.
