'We're optimistic': Repealing federal electric vehicle mandate top ask for Carney, industry association says

OTTAWA — The president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association says the top ask of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who recently met with auto industry leaders, is to repeal the federal electric vehicle sales mandate, adding pressure to the Liberals to revisit the climate policy. 

Brian Kingston met with Carney on Wednesday, alongside the CEOs of Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, which the industry association represents, where they discussed their push to see the policy repealed, saying they have “made the case pretty clearly,” but will ultimately have to wait for what the Liberals decide.

“I think there’s an understanding, and we’re optimistic that there will be a change on the horizon.”

Carney met with the automakers as he tries to negotiate a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that would see tariffs removed on Canadian products, including on the auto sector, where parts that comply with a free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are exempt.

While trade and tariffs were one focus of the meeting, Kingston says the other was the government’s electric vehicle sales mandate, which aims to see all new vehicles sold be zero-emission by 2035, with the first target of 20 per cent set for 2026.

“A 25 per cent tariff on Canadian production is a huge challenge for the future of this industry. But at the end of the day, we do not control the outcome of those negotiations,” he said, adding they have “full confidence” in the government’s efforts to see tariffs lifted.

“But we do not control what the president ultimately does,” he says. “What we do control is our own policy framework, and why, at a time when the industry is under pressure, would we keep in place a domestic policy that is hugely damaging to this industry? So that’s why it’s the focus.”

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s Office said it had nothing more to add about the meeting besides the readout it released following Wednesday’s meeting, when asked whether the government was open to repealing or changing the mandate.

That earlier statement did not directly mention the electric vehicle mandate itself, saying the ongoing negotiations with the U.S., was discussed as were the efforts to support the sector, as well as “ opportunities to make Canada’s auto sector more sustainable and competitive in the face of shifting trade relationships, market conditions, and supply chains.”

A request for comment from Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin’s office has yet to be returned.

While automakers have long opposed the federal electric vehicle mandate, industry leaders have been expressing new concern in light of the ongoing trade war with the U.S., and the fact that Trump has backed off its previous electrification plans.

Companies also point to falling electric vehicle sales. Under the mandate, manufacturers must earn credits through either selling zero-emission vehicles, purchasing them from other electric-vehicle makers, or spending on building out charging infrastructure.

Proponents of the mandate lay blame for plummeting sales on the fact that the federal government cancelled the rebate for purchasing these vehicles back in January and has yet to release details on when it will introduce a new $5,000 incentive, which the Liberals promised during the spring election campaign.

Laura Scaffidi, a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland, whose portfolio includes the rebate program, said in a statement that the government was, “ looking at ways to reintroduce a purchase incentive worth up to $5,000 that supports Canadian workers, strengthens our domestic supply chains, and reflects the times we are in.”

Kingston says the years-long request from manufacturers for the federal government to scrap the mandate has taken on fresh urgency, given that the 2026 target is just around the corner and the fact that sales of these vehicles have fallen significantly since the policy was first introduced.

“There is no pathway to hitting that target,” he says.

“The urgency of the issue has now made it to the forefront, because this is no longer theoretical.”

The Liberals introduced the zero-emission vehicle sales mandate back in 2023 as part of their efforts to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, taking aim at the transportation sector, which is one of the largest emitters.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called for the mandate to the scrapped.

In an interview last week, the head of a national association representing the electric transportation industry called on the government to make “short-term adjustments” to its interim sales targets, at the risk of the policy becoming a “political football” much like the now-cancelled consumer carbon tax.

• Electric vehicle mandate risks being next carbon tax without 'adjustments,' EV industry warns
• Pressure building on Liberals to rethink electric vehicle mandate

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