With American tariffs on steel, aluminum and light service vehicles that continue to affect the Canadian automobile industry, the CEO of the three large cars manufacturers in Canada are asking for a break.
They met with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week to press for the elimination of the mandate of the zero emission vehicle of the liberal government (ZEV). Keep, say, will paralyze your companies and put thousands of jobs at risk.
Carney canceled the Canada Digital Services Tax last weekend to maintain commercial negotiations with the US. Could the Zev mandate also be eliminated to help an automotive industry bleeding from the commercial war? And what would that mean to Carney politically if I did?
The mandate requires that the new ZEV number sold in Canada reaches 20 percent for next year, 60 percent for 2030 and 100 percent by 2035 to help the country reach its emission reduction objectives.
Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Association of Manufacturers of Canadian vehicles, which was at the meeting with Carney, said that the mandate of electric vehicles can simply not be fulfilled with respect to the position.
Kingston and other industry actors say that American tariffs have led to a significant fall in the number of Canada exports vehicles, exerting immense pressure on the industry.
According to Statistics Canada, the number of light vehicles exported to the US. In April it decreased by 23 percent compared to the previous year.
Flavio Volpe, president of the Association of Automotive Parties manufacturers, told CBC News that, although Canada imports around $ 80 billion in cars and parts of the US. UU. Each year, it exports about 85 percent of light vehicles that leave the line.
Many of them are plug -in hybrid or electric, but the market of those vehicles in the US is decreasing as it is in Canada.
Kill the Zev mandate of the United States
In January, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, eliminated the Zev mandate of his country that would have required that half of all new vehicles be electric by 2030. A statement from the White House said the mandate was discarded to “promote consumer choice.”
The approval of Trump’s “great and beautiful bill” reached the US ZEV market even more.
This credit was supposed to remain in the books until 2032.
Canada had its own Zev refund. That program offered up to $ 5,000 for the purchase of a new electric car and up to $ 2,500 in the purchase of a new plug -in hybrid.
Although he was supposed to remain in place until March, he stopped in January when he ran out of funds.
In April, the sale of zero -emission vehicles in Canada sat at just 7.5 percent, a 28.5 percent decrease in April 2024.
With low exports and sales without reimbursement, manufacturers say there is not enough demand to achieve the objective of 20 percent next year.
Competitive concerns
Christopher Cochrane, president of the Department of Political Sciences of the University of Toronto, says that Carney is surveyed between his environmental ambition and the need for an industrial policy that keeps the people employed and will protect the automotive industry.
But if Carney decided that she needed to finish the EV mandate, said Cochrane, she could have a window of opportunity.
“He has a coalition of people built not on any particular agreement with him, but is based on a common disagreement with what they see as the main alternative, and that gave him the political policy to do things like getting rid of carbon tax,” he said.
But he said that it is not easy to navigate the environmental and economic concerns of his own party.
“The risk, in the long term, is that it begins to erode and fly that coalition,” said Cochrane. “But right now I think it’s still in a very good shape.”
Fudging it
Adam Chamberlin, an assistant professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, said Carney probably does not want to frame any decision as the end of EV demands.
“Then 2035 may become 2036 or 2037, and the other intermediate objectives by 2030 become 2031 or 2032,” said Chamberlin. “I think it’s that kind of sweet that we are going to see.”
Volpe says that just because the United States wants to abandon its EV ambitions, that does not mean that Canada should do the same.
He says that an electrified car market plays with Canada’s strengths as a country with rich critical mineral reserves, a sophisticated science and technology sector, a well established supply chain and a wide supply of electricity.
Recent holders have suggested that consumers are losing interest in electric vehicles, but a look closer to trends tells a different story. Nisha patel of CBC breakdown where we are in the EV transition and why experts say the future is still electric.
“The rest of the world continues in the march [of electrification] Without discouraging, “Volpe said.” We need to make sure that like that [U.S.] The market wakes up, we are the first to access it. “
Volpe says that any penalty for not fulfilling the Zev mandate must stop and that it must be better align with “market realities.”
He wants the Federal Government to reintroduces the reimbursement of EV and expand it to include conventional hybrids, which according to him would generate support for EVs. The government said Plan to present a new refund programBut that has not yet happened.
Volpe also wants the federal government to help identify the electric cars that Canadians want, and help factories to redo to meet that demand.
