Ford Canada CEO says early 2025 EV sales fell sharply after federal rebates ran out.
Canada’s ZEV mandate requires 20% electric vehicle sales by 2026, climbing to 100% by 2035.
Automakers warn mandates without incentives and infrastructure could drive up prices and reduce demand.
Ford Canada CEO Bev Goodman said Canada’s federal zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate must be repealed, citing a substantial drop in EV sales and a lack of consumer demand.
Speaking June 10 at the Canada Automotive Summit in Vaughan, Ontario, Goodman said government targets for full battery-electric vehicle sales are misaligned with market realities. “The targets on full battery-electric vehicles need to be aligned with what customers want, and customers have spoken,” she said.
Goodman said Ford’s EV sales in Canada dropped sharply in early 2025 after the federal EV incentive program, which offered up to $5,000 per vehicle, exhausted its funding in January. Although Ford Canada does not publish monthly or quarterly sales results, data from Statistics Canada shows total ZEV sales in February and March fell to 20,878 vehicles, a 44.2 % decline from the same period in 2024.
Those vehicles made up just 6.6 % of total national vehicle sales in those two months, well below the federal government’s required thresholds. Canada’s legislated targets call for 20 %of all new light-duty vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2026, ramping up to 60 % in 2030 and 100 % in 2035.
Goodman said the absence of continued financial incentives and limited charging infrastructure make those goals difficult to meet. “Ultimately, it will have a negative impact, if these mandates stick, on the industry. It will have downward pressure on vehicle sales, it will have upward pressure on pricing, and those are real concerns for consumers and the industry as a whole,” she said.
She added that Ford and other automakers with Canadian manufacturing operations are working with Ottawa in efforts to repeal or revise the legislation. Similar EV mandates exist at the provincial level in Quebec and British Columbia, which Goodman said present additional challenges.
Source: Automotive News
