Poilievre promises to end EV sales mandates, keep battery plant subsidies

A 2022 Volkswagen ID.4 EV is shown at a charging station in Scarborough, Ont., on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives

HALIFAX — Promising to axe what he’s dubbed the “Car-ney tax,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged Thursday that a government led by him would end Canada’s electric vehicle sales mandate.

The Liberal government introduced regulations to require that 20 per cent of all new passenger vehicles sold in Canada be zero-emissions by 2026. That benchmark rises each year, hitting 60 per cent in 2030 and 100 per cent in 2035.

Electric vehicles, both fully battery-operated and plug-in hybrids, accounted for 15 per cent of new vehicle registrations in Canada in 2024, up from 11 per cent in 2023. Sales are highest in Quebec and British Columbia, which introduced their own sales mandates and were the first to adopt provincial rebates for the purchase of electric passenger vehicles.

“If a company sells even one car over the government-imposed quota, they will face a $20,000 per-vehicle tax, which will obviously be passed on to consumers,” Poilievre told a news conference at a car dealership in Halifax.

The EV mandate regulations include a credit system to give auto manufacturers flexibility on meeting the sales target. They are able to earn and bank credits for sales of electric or hybrid vehicles and lose those credits if they do not meet the targets.

Manufacturers can take up to three model years to work off a deficit and can earn a credit for each $20,000 spent to build fast-charging stations and for early sales of EVs.

But Poilievre claimed the Liberals are effectively imposing a tax on gas-powered vehicles.

“This is Mark Carney’s vision for Canada — a country where you don’t get to choose what kind of car you drive, where prices on everything skyrocket to fund his radical ideology,” he said.

The electric vehicle mandate is part of the federal government’s overall plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. The transportation sector produces a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in Canada each year, and passenger vehicles account for close to half of that.

Poilievre did not mention emissions reduction at his press conference. The Conservative platform calls for a reform of investment tax credits “to reward clean Canadian manufacturing and production” and says exporting Canadian liquefied natural gas would help lower global emissions.

Poilievre said electric vehicles are “another big problem.” He cited a CAA report from February that found cold weather sapped EV battery life by as much as 39 per cent, based on tests of 14 different vehicles. Those findings echoed concerns CAA said it has heard from electric vehicle owners in a recent survey.

Poilievre said the mandate will mean that dealerships have to lay off salespeople and staff and called them a “direct hit to the autoworkers.”

“I have nothing against electric cars. If you want one, buy one. Free choice,” he said, adding that the Conservatives have promised to scrap the GST on Canadian-made vehicles as long as U.S. auto tariffs are in place.

A Conservative government would honour all the agreements that have been signed for the construction of EV and battery plants in Canada, Poilievre said.

Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Auto Manufacturer’s Association, said his group has been opposed to EV sales mandates from the start and welcomed the Conservatives’ announcement in light of the tariffs imposed on the auto sector by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The targets were not feasible when they were first established,” he said. “They are now pure fantasy, given the disruption that we’re witnessing to the automotive supply chain.”

Huw Williams, spokesperson for the Canadian Automobile Dealers’ Association, said ending the mandate is his organization’s top request of campaigning political parties.

“We have made tremendous progress in this country on EV sales and EV adoption, and one of the things that has been beneficial about that is that it’s kept pace with charging infrastructure,” Williams said. The mandates, he argued, will throw off that balance.

Kingston said the next government needs to help build charging infrastructure and provide incentives to offset the higher cost of EVs.

The federal incentive program for electric vehicles was paused in January, a few months ahead of schedule, after the funding ran out due to high demand. The program offered Canadians rebates of up to $5,000 when buying or leasing electric vehicles, and more than 546,000 rebates have been handed out since 2019.

The Conservative announcement on Thursday made no mention of EV incentive programs, and the party does not mention EV incentives in its platform.

The platform does claim that ending the EV mandate would lead to an additional $2.3 billion in government revenue in 2026-27, rising to $5.1 billion by 2028-29.

The Conservatives say that projection is based on a 2024 paper that predicted the EV mandates would lead to billions of dollars in losses in the auto sector, and the loss of 1.1 per cent of GDP by 2030.

Trevor Tombe, an professor of economics at the University of Calgary, said that may not be a reliable way to account for possible growth.

“Fiscal policy-making should be done in a very prudent and conservative manner, especially during times of high economic uncertainty like this,” he said.

The revenue projection does not account for the possible impact of Trump’s tariffs on the auto sector.

Poilievre didn’t mention his latest pledge when he spoke at an evening rally in Saskatoon, but he reiterated his plan to “pre-approve” major energy projects, including nuclear power plants.

He said Saskatchewan’s uranium deposits and production would be taken advantage of under a Conservative government.

“We’re going to build nukes using Saskatchewan uranium,” Poilievre told the crowd. “Canadian technology (and) Saskatchewan uranium will allow us to build nuclear plants and export our technology to the world, bring back those prodigious dollars to our country and unleashing the power of our economy.”

A party spokesperson later said Poilievre was referring to nuclear power plants when he said “nukes.”

Thursday marked the first time Poilievre’s tour stopped in Nova Scotia or Saskatchewan during the campaign. He visited New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador in the second week of the campaign.

The election will be held on Monday.

— Written by Sarah Ritchie in Ottawa with files from Michael MacDonald in Halifax and Jack Farrell in Saskatoon

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2025.