Head of Electric Vehicle Association of Atlantic Canada says the way levy is implemented ‘doesn’t seem fair’

The Nova Scotia budget released this week makes owning an electric vehicle in the province more expensive. 

The budget introduces a $500 registration fee for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and $250 for hybrids, payable every two years upon renewal. The levy takes effect October 1. The budget documentation does not define “hybrid.”

The province expects the new tax to generate $1.6 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year and $3.3 million in 2027-28 once fully implemented.

Recovering lost gas tax revenue

Nova Scotia levies a 15.5 cent per litre tax on gasoline and 15.4 cents on diesel at the pumps. The province collected more than $272 million in revenue from this motive fuel tax in the last fiscal year, down 4.7 per cent from the previous year. The latest budget projects motive fuel tax revenue of $297.7 million for the 2026-27 fiscal year. The new levy is widely seen as an attempt to recover revenue lost as drivers switch to EVs. 

Kurt Sampson, the executive director of the Electric Vehicle Association of Atlantic Canada (EVAAC), is also the zero emission vehicle advocate for CAA Atlantic. He says he is disappointed with how the province is implementing the new tax.

“[The budget] seems like there was a quick effort to find ways to reduce costs and get money from other places very quickly, and this was one of the results of that,” he told Electric Autonomy in an interview.

Two-tier system

Sampson acknowledges the province is losing fuel-tax revenue from drivers who no longer pay at the pump. That revenue supports provincial road infrastructure and other projects. However, he takes issue with what he describes as a two-tier taxation system that he argues is unfair not only to EV owners, but to road users more broadly. 

“It’s problematic because we have two separate systems. We have the system if you drive a car that requires gas, then you pay this tax on gas, and that depends on how much gas you buy. Or if you have an electric vehicle, you pay this one-time fee every two years — or being hybrid, somewhere in the middle. 

“I drive more than twice the average amount of kilometres per year than most people. It doesn’t seem fair to me that I would pay the same amount as, say, someone who’s retired on a small fixed income, who has a little EV that they don’t drive very much.”

Room for dialogue

With the tax not taking effect until the fall, Sampson sees an opportunity to revisit how EVs are taxed — if the government is willing to engage. 

“If this could maybe spark a conversation between the right people to come up with a really good situation, get all the experts in the room talking about all the important pieces of the equation, I think we could come up with something great,” he said. “That would hopefully set the tone and spread across the country.”

Sending the wrong message

Sampson admits the tax is unlikely to change the economics of EV ownership for most drivers. His greater concern is the message it sends to those considering making the switch. 

“For EV owners, especially someone like myself where I drive quite a lot, it nowhere near changes the equation about EV ownership. That $500 every two years, I save more than that every month on gas. So it won’t affect [ownership] for most EV owners now. 

“But there are a lot of people who have these little concerns about getting an electric vehicle, and this will just add to that. It’s just one more hurdle. To what degree is a good question.”

Nova Scotia is not the first province to introduce an EV levy. Alberta imposed a $200 registration fee on EVs in February 2025. In June of that year, Saskatchewan increased its EV tax from $150 to $300. Next year, Québec will impose an annual fee of $125 for BEV owners and $62.50 for those with plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).