Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the latest Canadian auto standard, which removes the electric vehicle (EV) mandate and reintroduces an EV rebate, alongside major investments in EVs and EV infrastructure.
According to Carney’s speech on Thursday, the Canadian government is scrapping the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, which required EV sales in Canada to reach 60 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2035.
Instead, to ensure Canada is on the right path to increase the share of EVs in the car market to 75 per cent by 2035 and 90 per cent by 2040, the government is reintroducing the EV rebate that was previously discontinued.
The $2.3 billion, five-year program will give both individuals and businesses up to $5,000 when they purchase either battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), or fuel-electric vehicles. Hybrid vehicles also receive a $2,500 rebate.
Alongside dropping the mandate and introducing a new rebate, there is a new $1.5 billion investment in the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s Charging and Hydrogen Refuelling Infrastructure Initiative. According to CBC News, Carney said that this new investment will make it “easier and more convenient for drivers to charge their EVs across the country.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, despite not being at the press conference in Woodbridge, issued a statement welcoming and supporting the federal government’s new auto strategy.
President Trump is doing everything he can to move Canadian auto jobs south of the border. For the past 100 years, Ontario’s auto sector has been the economic engine of Canada. Working together with industry, labour unions and the federal government, we’re going to make sure it…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 5, 2026
“Ontario has been urging the federal government to end its electric vehicle mandate because it made our auto sector less competitive, undermining investment and threatening jobs at a time when the sector is under attack by President Trump,” Ford noted in his announcement.
This new auto strategy comes as EV sales in Canada continue to tumble amid pressures from both automakers and the current situation with the U.S. government. According to Statistics Canada,zero-emission vehicle sales fell by 23 per cent in the first quarter of 2025, with much of the decline attributed to Tesla’s falling popularity.
