The Government of Canada is committing $84.4 million to install more than 8,000 new electric vehicle chargers across the country, according to CBC News.
The feds will also invest $5.7 million into three projects through the Green Freight program, which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of trucks, and an additional $7.2 million for 30 education and awareness projects about EVs.
This comes just a few days after Prime Minister Mark Carney repealed Canada’s controversial EV mandate, which would have required EV sales in Canada to reach 60 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2035. Nonetheless, the Liberals still have an ambitious target of EVs accounting for 75 per cent of new car sales by 2035, and 90 per cent by 2040.
To help with this, the government has brought back the previously discontinued EV rebate, a $2.3-billion, five-year program to give individuals and businesses up to $5,000 when they purchase either battery-electric or fuel-electric vehicles. Hybrids, meanwhile, will receive a $2,500 rebate.
Alongside the rebate and new auto strategy, Carney also announced a $1.5 billion investment in charging infrastructure through the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB).
However, CBC News outlines at least one major hurdle related to EVs in Canada: a relative lack of charging infrastructure. While the new $84.4 million investment is one initiative to address that, there are still only about 33,000 EV chargers across the country, per Natural Resources Canada. And yet, the department estimates that mass EV adoption in Canada by 2035 would require 447,000 public charging stations and 11.9 million at-home charging ports.
While those figures were based on a scenario where 100 per cent of new car sales were EVs, Canada’s goal of 75 per cent means that there’s still a dearth of hundreds of thousands of chargers across the country. It remains to be seen what other initiatives, if any, the Carney Liberals may take to further drive EV investment. Last month, Carney did make a deal with China to bring in nearly 50,000 of the East Asian country’s EVs at a lower tariff, but that still accounts for a relatively small amount overall. Moreover, the Canadian government has been in talks with other countries about expanding auto manufacturing, including South Korea and Germany.
Source: CBC News
