{"id":97791,"date":"2025-08-26T07:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T07:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97791\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T07:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T07:49:12","slug":"support-for-electric-vehicle-mandates-softening-in-b-c-poll-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97791\/","title":{"rendered":"Support for electric vehicle mandates softening in B.C., poll suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Columbians are increasingly souring on federal and provincial electric vehicle (EV) mandates, a new poll suggests.<\/p>\n

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The Ipsos poll, commissioned by the Energy Futures Institute, found that 56 per cent of respondents opposed EV mandates<\/a>, up three points from last year, while just 34 per cent supported them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn British Columbia, we\u2019ve gone on embarking on the most aggressive electric vehicle mandates in all of North America before we have the infrastructure to support it,\u201d said Energy Futures Institute chair Barry Penner.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanada\u2019s auto industry asks Ottawa to rethink its EV mandate\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd British Columbians are starting to wake up to that reality that, hey, you\u2019re saying I have to buy an electric vehicle, even if I can\u2019t afford it?\u201d<\/p>\n

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British Columbia\u2019s EV mandate requires at least 26 per cent of 2026 model year sales to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), rising to 90 per cent for 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Energy Regulator\u2019s latest market snapshot<\/a> shows ZEVs accounting for just 16.5 per cent of new registrations in 2024, down from nearly 23 per cent the year prior.<\/p>\n

Support for the mandates was highest in Metro Vancouver (40 per cent) and among those aged 18-34 (47 per cent) and 35-54 (40 per cent).<\/p>\n

Opposition was highest in the B.C. Interior and North (68 per cent) and among those aged over 55 (66 per cent).<\/p>\n

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According to the poll, price remains the biggest barrier dissuading people from buying a new EV, with costs cited by 64 per cent of respondents.<\/p>\n

Forty-six per cent cited concerns about vehicle range, while 43 per cent cited lack of access to charging stations.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumer interest is just not there at the moment for the reasons we\u2019ve talked about. It\u2019s concerns about cost, range, and where am I going to charge this thing. And it takes a while for people to get comfortable with technology,\u201d Penner said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBusiness Matters: Automakers \u2018cautiously optimistic\u2019 after meeting Carney over EV mandates\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The poll found strong support for allowing non-plug-in hybrids to count, at least partially, towards EV sales percentages (76 per cent) and for reinstating government rebates for new EV purchases (63 per cent).<\/p>\n

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Until this year, the federal government had offered a rebate of up to $5,000, while the B.C. government offered up to $4,000, subject to income levels, on the purchase of a new EV.<\/p>\n

Penner said manufacturers can face a penalty of up to $20,000 per vehicle sold that exceed the gas-powered vehicle cap, which he argued will\u00a0ultimately lead to retailers to simply reduce the supply of non-electric vehicles they bring to B.C.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tCanada Post\u2019s talks with union have been delayed again\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, non-plug-in hybrids don\u2019t qualify, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPopular vehicles like the RAV4 hybrid that\u2019s actually manufactured in Canada will effectively be prohibited by this legislation \u2026because it\u2019s not good enough, it\u2019s just a conventional hybrid, it\u2019s not a fully electric vehicle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd by the way there are no all-electric passenger vehicles made in Canada. So again, these mandates will have the effect of sending money out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

British Columbia\u2019s energy minister believes the mandate targets remain realistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the companies and the dealers can deal with them, but I think we are working with them on it. They are big advocates for selling EVs, it\u2019s their business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFederal EV rebates paused\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

At the same time, Dix said the New Democratic government remains open to making changes, and would have more to say about the policy in the fall.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re signaling that we\u2019re absolutely open to that, and we\u2019re working with partners like the car dealers, but also environmental groups and many people how are passionate about these issues,\u201d Dix said.<\/p>\n

Penner believes that having vehicle emission regulations at a provincial level is inefficient given that the industry doesn\u2019t work at a province-by-province level, and argued the issue should be handled by Ottawa.<\/p>\n

He further argued that instead of setting hard caps for specific types of vehicles, the federal government should instead set emission targets for vehicles and let manufacturers figure out how to hit them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSet the goal and then step back and let competition and industry figure out how this happens and let consumers also play a role in deciding what technology they prefer to reduce those emissions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of the heavy hand of government coming in and saying this is what you must purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Columbians are increasingly souring on federal and provincial electric vehicle (EV) mandates, a new poll suggests. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,46,295,56839,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-97791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-ev-mandate","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}