The mandate initially called for 20% of all new cars sold in Canada to be EVs in 2026.
After the end of federal incentives last winter, EV market share fell from 18 to less than 9% in the country.
The government has also launched a 60-day review to make the program more cost-effective.
After months of lobbying from the automotive industry and faced with a decline in popularity for electric vehicles, Ottawa has pushed back its EV sales mandate by a year.
Indeed, the Canadian federal government would have required that 20% of all new vehicles sold in the country next year be electric vehicles, but this won’t be the case.
Instead, this mandate will now apply only in 2027, but further changes are possible since Prime Minister Mark Carney also announced a 60-day review of the program in order to make it more cost-efficient.
Two factors are behind this decision to soften EV sales targets, and both are related to the government’s decision to cancel EV incentives late last year.
Since the proportion of electric vehicles sold in the country reached 18% in 2024, the 2026 mandate targeting 20% seemed easily achievable.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney | Photo: Liberal PartyIt seems, however, that federal incentives were instrumental to EV sales, as their popularity fell dramatically in the first months of 2025, after Ottawa’s incentive program was abandoned.
Indeed, of all new vehicles sold nationally year-to-date, less than 9% were powered by electricity.
In light of this significantly reduced demand, automakers have been lobbying the government to review or abolish its electrification mandates, which they now consider to be unachievable.
The government also pledged to reinstate incentive measures for electrified vehicles, but no timeline has been given for that to happen.
Ottawa Announces the End of its Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles
Pushing back and reviewing the current EV mandate also serves as a relief measure for the auto industry, which has been hit hard by the tariffs and counter-tariffs now in place between Canada and the United States.
As a refresher, the Canadian EV mandate, instigated under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is a rolling target that requires EV market share to reach 20% in 2026 (now 2027), 60% in 2030 and 100% in 2035, making it impossible to sell new light-duty vehicles that are powered only by a combustion engine only ten years from now.
Key players in the Canadian automotive industry, such as Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, have welcomed the announcement that the mandate has been pushed back, but continue to call for a complete repeal of the program, which they say puts too much pressure on the industry due to slower-than-expected consumer adoption for Electric vehicles.
On the other hand, Greenpeace Canada expressed concern that the Canadian government is bowing to President Trump’s “attack on people and planet” by lowering its environmental standards.
Source: CBC News
