Ottawa Not Expected to Come Up with New Emissions Rules Before Next Year

• The Carney government repealed the EV sales mandate last week.

• The promised stricter emissions rules will have to wait until “early in 2027”.

• Environmental groups warn this delay could slow down EV adoption and increase Canada’s overall emissions.

While the Canadian government followed through with repealing the Trudeau-era EV sales mandate last week, the promised tightening of emissions rules for internal combustion-powered vehicles will have to wait for a while.

Indeed, the government said yesterday that it would only begin consultations on the proposed new tailpipe emissions standards in the fall, which will push back their adoption to early 2027 at the earliest.

These stricter standards are intended as a compromise that would still contribute to reducing the country’s emissions despite the repeal of the EV mandate, which would have banned the sale of new vehicles powered by fossil fuels starting in 2035.

While the 2035 complete ban has always been the headline item, the mandate included progressive targets, which would have required 20% of all new vehicles sold across the country to be either fully electric or a plug-in hybrid.

Since it had been announced in late 2022, this mandate attracted a lot of criticism from consumers and automakers alike, the former complaining about a breach of freedom, and the latter pointing out the challenges associated with developing and selling enough electric models to comply with the mandate.

According to Ottawa, repealing the mandate will lead to an adoption rate of about 75% in 2035 and 90% in 2040.

To compensate for this higher proportion of gasoline- and diesel-powered new vehicles being allowed on the Canadian market, the Carney government promised to limit tailpipe emissions to an equivalent of 74 grams of CO₂ per mile instead of the 172 grams per mile currently allowed.

Despite the repeal of the EV mandate, the existing tailpipe emission regulations remain in effect.

The stricter proposed rules would reportedly target the 2027 to 2032 model years, but the government is apparently still working out how to ramp up the objectives in a way that is both possible for automakers to achieve and contributes to fighting climate change, which means that details could change before the regulation is finalized next year.

Of course, climate advocates warn that repealing the electric vehicle mandate will lead to an increase in emissions over the long term, especially since there is now a delay before tighter emissions rules are applied.

The initial 2035 mandate was expected to reduce Canada’s emissions by 376 million tons of greenhouse gases over 25 years. The government hasn’t provided adjusted numbers that account for the repeal of the mandate and the proposed stricter tailpipe emissions standards.

Source: Automotive News Canada