The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) submitted a formal response to the federal government’s electric vehicle mandate this month.
Prior to submitting the document, CADA and OEMs had been lobbying the government to express their concern around a mandate to have all new vehicle sales in Canada be electric by 2035. To achieve that goal, more tools, support, and infrastructure investments are needed to support the mass adoption of EVs by consumers.
“The concern for dealers and consumers is that this proposed federal mandate does not adequately address the necessary structural preconditions for success,” CADA wrote in its report. “Canadians need accessible charging infrastructure and competitive purchasing incentives, or Canadians will face massive limits to consumer choice, and unreasonable increases to vehicle costs.”
The report offers a detailed summary of key public policy actions that would be required to ensure the success of the government’s EV goal. This includes:
- enhancing EV consumer purchase incentives;
- building an accessible public charging infrastructure;
- a public awareness campaign about the benefits of EVs;
- the need for federal, provincial, and municipal fleets to buy more EVs;
- a federal vehicle scrappage program;
- building codes; and
- support for dealer charging installation.
The report also covers certain elements that should be central to the federal government’s regulatory approach, according to CADA, including certain pre-conditions, collaboration, federal leadership, and various levels of support.
“Clearly, for Canada to achieve the target for all new light-duty cars and passenger trucks sales to be zero-emission by 2035, more ambitious government action is required to enhance consumer incentives, invest in charging infrastructure, build consumer education and create an electric vehicle battery supply chain,” said CADA in its report.
Simply setting mandates will not be enough, they added.
Canadian auto dealer will follow-up on this news with a video interview with CADA President and CEO Tim Reuss in next week’s e-newsletter. Stay-tuned for more information.
