Sluggish EV sales make scrapping mandate simple

Wouldn’t it make more sense to improve public transit?

by Peter Pellier

Unsurprisingly, Prime Minister Mark Carney scrapped a key component of his government’s EV mandate; namely, that in 2026, 20 per cent of all new cars sold be electric.  As for the balance of the mandate, a 60 per cent target for 2030, culminating in a 100 per cent EV requirement by 2035, which will be subject to a 60-day review.

The reason is simple.  Canadian EV car sales remain sluggish, involving less than 10 per cent of all new purchases.  Given a price differential of approximately $10,000 between comparable gas and electric models, any wonder consumers are reluctant to make the switch.

Exacerbating matters is the ongoing trade war triggered by President Trump’s tariffs, which have placed the entire auto industry behind the proverbial eight ball, notwithstanding significant investments by senior governments to the tune of billions of dollars.

Since the mass production of EV’s began in 2008, with Tesla and Mitsubishi leading the way, they have been aggressively marketed as the wave of the future, to the exclusion of all other technologies.  In short, our politicians have put all the eggs into a single basket, arguably, a flawed policy, given staggering retooling, infrastructure and environmental costs.

Additional demands for power needed to run millions of EV’s pose serious environmental concerns, seeing as a significant percentage of electricity continues to be generated via the use of fossil fuels, certainly throughout Canada and the U.S.  Consequently, any reduction in greenhouse gases derived from the use of EV’s, in part, would be offset by increases arising from the production of power.

Throughout North America, the car remains king.  Canadians love their chariots.  Shouldn’t governments make a concerted effort transitioning more people to transit, rather than simply switching from gas-powered vehicles to electric, certainly in more densely-populated urban centres?  Wouldn’t it make more sense in the long run to spend billions of dollars improving public transit?

At the end of the day, the answer to lowering greenhouse gases falls to each individual by reducing our ecological footprint.  Greater use of public transit, not to mention taxis, would definitely aid in achieving that goal.  We need to develop an economy less reliant on the manufacturing, sale, maintenance and disposal of automobiles, and more dependent on expanded public transit, and rail service, in large part powered by electricity.

It goes without saying, such an approach would significantly benefit the Vehicle For Hire industry.