EVCO Disappointed by Government’s Decision to Pause and Review EV Sales Mandate

EVCO President Raymond Leury was interviewed by the CBC on September 5, 2025 in response to the Canadian Federal Government’s plan to pause, and review, the EV Sales Mandate.

Watch the video on CBC’s website

EV mandates are designed to compel auto manufacturers to offer EVs in Canada. A lack of vehicles, particularly affordable vehicles, continues to stymie availability and drag on EV sales.

One example illustrating the point is the availability of Toyota’s only EV sold in Canada, the BZ4X. BC and Québec have had sales mandates in place for many years and are the only provinces in Canada with such a target. In response, Toyota will only sell the BZ4X in BC and Québec. We spoke to Toyota dealers in the Ottawa area who told us that Toyota refuses to ship anything outside of those two provinces. How can you possibly claim to have trouble meeting a sales target when you refuse to sell anything that meets that target? The federal mandate is required to compel Toyota to sell the product they already have. Without that mandate, Toyota will continue to only ship their EV production to jurisdictions that have mandates.

Another example is Ford. Their last consumer EV that Ford launched in Canada (the e-Transit is aimed at commercial customers), the F150 Lightning, was launched 4 years ago, about a year after their only other electric offering, the Mustang Mach-E. Meanwhile, in Europe, Ford has launched the fully electric Explorer as well as the fully electric Capri, which would both sell well in Canada. We would disagree, but Ford would likely deem the all-electric Puma as unviable in Canada. In addition, Ford has announced a fully electric Bronco that will be for sale in China. If Ford were serious about meeting the mandate, they could easily do so by introducing those models here in Canada.

Delaying or softening the mandate rewards manufacturers who have been dragging their feet and slow-walking the transition to electric transportation.

EVCO calls on the Government of Canada to continue accelerating EV adoption by:

• Retaining the EV sales mandate
• Allowing European EVs access to the Canadian market without the need for Transport Canada homologation
• Reducing and eventually eliminating tariffs on Chinese EVs