As we wait for the government’s plan, here are five suggestions to make the new policy get better results than EV sales mandates 

Electric vehicles are having a comeback year in Canada. While EV sales and interest are already soaring in  European markets and other countries, here at home, February EV sales were up 47 per cent year over year, and online searches for EVs grew 94 per cent from January to late March with online car retailer Clutch.ca.

Or you could just ask Canadians. In Clean Energy Canada’s new April survey with Abacus Data, 52 per cent of people expressed openness to getting an EV, with 21 per cent of Canadians saying the new $5,000 federal incentive and recent gas prices have made them even more inclined to go electric than they were before. 

The return of EV momentum in Canada can be traced back to February, when Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new auto strategy that re-committed Canada to an all-electric future, including a renewed rebate program alongside a $1.5-billion injection into our charging network.

Key benefits for Canadians

This announcement also contained another critical component: a commitment to replace the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard (EVAS) with strong tailpipe emission standards to deliver EV sales of 75 per cent by 2035 and 90 per cent by 2040.

While this puts us on a less ambitious trajectory than Canada’s previous EV-regulating policy, an emission-focused approach has the potential to deliver key benefits to Canadians — but only if we get the details right. 

Strong standards would ensure the Canadian market is prioritized when carmakers are deciding where to send EV inventory, including more affordable EV models. Unlike an EV sales mandate, tailpipe standards require carmakers to sell increasingly cleaner vehicles year after year and can initially be met with more fuel-efficient gas cars and conventional hybrids. But as the policy ramps up, carmakers will have to offer more EVs in the Canadian market to meet those standards. 

Market certainty

Rigorous tailpipe emission standards would also offer our market the certainty it needs to support and de-risk investments in Canada’s EV supply chain, including our charging network. 

But all tailpipe emission standards are not equal. While many countries around the world have a version of this policy in place, they have not all delivered the same benefits.

With the EU’s more stringent standards, EV sales reached nearly 30 per cent in 2025, up from 3 per cent in 2019. The EU now has a broad selection of EVs on the market, including more EVs at better prices than Canada, and is the fastest-growing major EV market in the world. 

The U.S., in contrast, swung back and forth on standard stringency under Obama, Biden and now Trump, resulting in mixed signals and ultimately low EV uptake (7.8 per cent in 2025), as well as a dearth of affordable EV models.  

Five recommendations

This is why Clean Energy Canada has five specific recommendations for how these regulations need to be designed in order to best serve Canada’s market.  

First, they need to come into effect in 2027 at the latest. Since EVAS was repealed, Canada has no policy on the books improving the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks after 2026 — and in a fuel crisis, it’s critical there is no policy vacuum here.  

Second, the standards need to deliver 75 per cent EV sales by 2035.  Because these policies operate on a grams-of-carbon-per-kilometre basis rather than setting a specific number of EVs, we need to set a 2035 standard stringent enough to offer a reasonable level of certainty that this new commitment will be achieved.  

Third, we can’t back-load progress. Canada needs to set a standard that delivers at least 40 per cent EV sales by 2030.  Strong interim requirements ensure carmakers continue moving forward with electrification year after year and provide the early momentum that will allow the market to take over in later years. They also provide the certainty that key players, such as charging station networks, electric utilities, raw material suppliers and battery recyclers, need to continue investing in Canada’s EV supply chain. 

Fourth, Canada should have one standard that applies across vehicles of all sizes. The current design of Canada’s tailpipe emission standards has one for cars and a more lenient standard for pickup trucks and SUVs. This has contributed to a significant shift towards larger, more polluting vehicles over the last 20 years.

In 2000, SUVs and pickups accounted for roughly half of all new passenger vehicles sold. Now, they account for nearly 90 per cent. This shift in vehicle type popularity has virtually cancelled out emission reductions achieved through EV adoption. 

Fifth, we need to limit compliance flexibilities. Already, the policy allows carmakers to meet their requirements in many ways, whether by improving the fuel efficiency of their gas cars, selling more hybrids and EVs, trading carbon credits or banking credits for up to five years. As a result, all automakers in Canada have remained in compliance with the regulations to date. 

But too many flexibilities can undermine the policy’s goals and integrity of the credit market. For instance, carmakers currently hold an excess of 32 million credits for future use, with ten companies holding more than a million credits each. This oversupply of credits suggests the policy has been too easy to comply with and is not achieving its objectives.

As a result, since the introduction of the Passenger Automobile and Light Truck Greenhouse Gas Emission Regulations in Canada in 2011, vehicle emissions for passenger cars and light trucks combined have only decreased by 3.9 per cent up to 2024.

The past month has really shown why EVs are the future. But to not get left behind, Canada still needs an approach with robust regulation to provide the roadmap for this journey.