Transport and Sustainable Mobility Minister Jonatan Julien admits original goal was ‘too ambitious’ and will reintroduce subsidies for hybrid  buses 

One year after committing to electrify 55 per cent of Québec’s municipal fleets by 2030, the province’s Transport and Sustainable Mobility Minister Jonatan Julien announced earlier this month that the government will extend that deadline to an unspecified later date.

Declaring the original goal as “too ambitious,” the minister added that the province will reintroduce subsidies to support hybrid bus purchases by 2028, which will make it easier for public transit agencies to replace vehicles that are reaching end of life.

Blandine Sebileau, a mobility analyst with Équiterre, a non-profit environmental organization, agrees that the 2030 target was overly ambitious, while also pointing out that overall investment in public transit in general has been lacking. “Targets must go hand-in-hand with sufficient investment in transit agencies. The question now is, how will the government invest the savings [of deferred costs]?”

Changing lanes

When Québec released its 2030 Plan for a Green Economy, the province pledged that it would invest 42 per cent of its budget in the transportation sector. The plan encouraged municipalities and businesses to buy fully electric, Québec-made trucks and buses. 

To support the goal of electrifying more than half of the province’s city buses, the government offered purchase incentives for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles of up to $175,000 per vehicle on top of a federal subsidy of up to $200,000.  

Currently, the provincial government offers financial assistance that will cover 90 per cent of the purchase of fully electric urban buses.

Québec’s plan to decarbonize urban fleets was part of a broader response to the share of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that stem from transportation of all kinds. The sector is the source of 43 per cent of CO2 emitted in Québec with road transport alone accounting for 31.2 per cent of that total.

Lower operating costs

A Concordia University study released in late 2025 examined data points produced by fleets from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the city’s public transit agency. It found that electric buses are considerably more economical than diesel or hybrid versions in operations.

According to the researchers, operating costs for electric buses are, on average, 40 per cent to 60 per cent lower than conventional diesel buses. Operating costs for hybrid buses generally fall between the two. 

However, the upfront cost makes converting fleets difficult: an electric bus is roughly twice that of a diesel bus. The price difference also does not include
the additional costs associated with battery vehicles, such as charging infrastructure, training, and retrofitting transit hubs.

Even so, STM maintains its intention to electrify its entire network by 2040.

Wise investments

While Sebileau sees the benefits of electrification, she feels the real benefit would be more public transit of any kind.

“In an ideal world,” says Sebileau, “we’d stick with the original targets. But the situation requires that we consider the most efficient use of public funds. We should really provide more public transit services, which is key here. Agencies had to make difficult choices. They had to cut services to buy electric buses.

“The priority is to get people out of their cars. Better to have five regular buses running every hour than one electric one. More people taking public transit is a much more efficient way to reduce road emissions.”