Two Provinces With Highest Electric Vehicle Rebates Had 74 Percent of Sales in 2022

An electric vehicle is charged at a Tesla charging station in Ottawa on July 13, 2022. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

The two provinces of Quebec and British Columbia, which have the highest electric vehicle rebates, accounted for 74 percent of sales last year, Department of Transport figures show.

The two provinces accounted for 45,037 of 60,626 electric sales last year, a Transport Department submission to the Senate National Finance Committee shows, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter. Quebec offers rebates of up to $7,000, while B.C. offers $4,000 rebates, both of which are in addition to the $5,000 rebate Ottawa introduced back in 2019.

Assistant Deputy Transport Minister Ryan Pilgrim previously told the Senate committee that Transport Canada would “continue to give incentives for the purchase of eligible vehicles that reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and support a greener transportation system for Canada.”

“As a result of these incentives we are increasing the number of zero-emission vehicles on the road by making them more affordable to Canadians,” he said, noting that provinces with additional electric vehicle incentives are doing better than those without them.

In 2018, Ontario cancelled its Electric And Hydrogen Vehicle Incentive Program that provided buyers with rebates of up to $14,000. Ontario sold 11,396 of those vehicles last year, while Quebec sold 31,807, and B.C. sold 13,230.

Rebates in other jurisdictions range from $2,500 in Newfoundland and Labrador to $3,000 in Nova Scotia and $5,000 in Yukon, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Electric vehicle sales are lower in provinces without rebates, with 295 cars being sold in Saskatchewan last year, 463 sold in Manitoba, and 1,588 sold in Alberta.

The transport department did not calculate the total rebate payouts under federal and provincial plans in 2022. The costs of the federal rebates were $280,111,613, and the Department of Environment said last December that it budgeted a total of $2 billion for federal rebates.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced on Dec. 19 that Canadian vehicle manufacturers will need to ensure at least 20 percent of new light-duty vehicles offered for sale in the 2026 model year are fully battery-powered electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, or fuel cell vehicles. That percentage will rise to 60 percent by 2030 and to 100 percent by 2035.

Mr. Guilbeault has described the government’s strategy on EVs as “skating to where the puck is going.” He noted in the press conference that one in eight new vehicles sold across Canada was electric in the last quarter of 2023, compared to one in three at the end of 2020.

He said the new Electric Vehicle Availability Standard being introduced by the Liberal government would address the “main barriers” to people buying EVs: the limited availability and long wait time.

“We will do this by ensuring more electric cars come to the Canadian market instead of the U.S. or other markets that have similar targets,” he said. “It ensures Canadians have access to our fair share of the global supply of these vehicles.”