Feds and provinces need to offer more EV incentives to consumers to compete with U.S.: GM

The president of General Motors Canada says she’d like to see the provincial and federal governments offer more consistent incentives to people hoping to purchase electric vehicles to compete with the options in the United States, and to increase the adoption rate for those types of vehicles.

Marissa West told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday, that while the different levels of government have been very collaborative with electric vehicle manufacturers, there needs to be a consistent mechanism in place so Canada can “keep pace” with the United States.

The federal government — along with some provincial governments, such as Ontario and Quebec — has pledged billions of dollars to companies like General Motors and Volkswagen in an effort to attract business and secure Canada's EV battery supply chain.

The governments of Canada and Ontario earlier this year announced a deal with Volkswagen to see the company build its first overseas battery manufacturing plant in southwestern Ontario, to the tune of more than $13 billion in subsidies.

Meanwhile, recent polling from Nanos Research shows most Canadians support the government offering incentives to foreign car companies, with more than half of respondents saying they either support or somewhat support it.

The economic push is in line with the federal government's ambitious targets for zero-emission vehicle sales: for 20 per cent of vehicle sales to be electric by 2026, 60 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2035.

According to Statistics Canada, 7.2 per cent of new light-duty vehicles sold in the first half of 2022 were electric.

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West said GM “shares the government’s vision” that all light-duty vehicles will be electric by 2035, adding the company is working to make sure there are options at various price points to make it more accessible for consumers.

“It's a journey, and it's going to be continuing work with the government to have some support, as we see in the U.S., and as we see at some level with some consumer incentives while we're in the early phases to support our Canadian customers in the affordability equation,” West said.

“Certainly part of it is on us as (a manufacturer) to have the affordable vehicles, but also we appreciate the collaboration with the government to create some of those opportunities, with some of the incentives, to support in the transition as well,” she also said.

West said her hope is for those incentives to come from a combination of federal and provincial governments, especially because “stackable” subsidies from both levels of government are “really meaningful.”

“It's really getting us to the level that we see in the U.S., and that's been very compelling for customers to consider electric vehicles and to support the adoption rate,” she said.

West added there are still obstacles that consumers face, namely what she called a “chicken or the egg situation” when it comes to the “availability,” and “robustness,” of the charging infrastructure, especially when it comes to road trip and highway scenarios.

Canada is competing with the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which offers billions of dollars in energy incentives south of the border, including for electric vehicles.

When the IRA passed in August 2022, Canada was able to secure a carve-out for electric vehicles, essentially extending the incentives from American to North American.

“So we're really looking forward to Canada continuing to keep pace, and continuing to create an environment that is compelling to make the investments … to create those jobs and also to support the consumers so that they have the confidence to purchase the EVs,” West said.

“What we need is a compelling mechanism that we can rely upon that provides some level of consistency, and then we can continue to invest with confidence in Canada and make sure that Canada remains front and centre in the automotive industry here through this transformation.”

West said she believes North America is at an “inflection point” in its overall EV strategy, and that GM is “well along the way to this all-electric future.”

With files from CTV’s Question Period Senior Producer Stephanie Ha