JAY GOLDBERG: Put the electric vehicle mandate in park

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The Chevrolet Corvette. The Subaru Outback. The Mazda Miata. All these cars vary in price, buyer demographic and sales volume. But they all were designed to have one thing in common: The combustion engine.  

If the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has its way, none of these cars will be sold as new models in Canada, at least the way they were meant to be, by 2035.   

The Canadian government, by fiat, is going to force automakers to stop selling the type of new cars that most Canadians still want to buy.   

This may seem to some like a distant problem. Sure, some might say, it’s in 10 years. It’s a future issue. Right now, Canadians can still buy the cars they want.   

That may be true. But the impact of the Liberal government’s gas-powered new car ban is going to hit consumers a lot sooner than that.   

The government has mandated that 20% of all new vehicles sold in Canada must be electric next year. In 2030, just five years from now, no less than 60% of all new cars sold must be electric.   

That means many car models that many Canadians love will not even be offered north of the 49th parallel because car companies will be forced to push their electric models on buyers.   

We’re not even talking hybrids. The government mandate says all-electric.   

According to the government of Canada’s statistics, just 14% of Canadians were buying electric vehicles last summer.  

That means 86% of Canadians, despite generous incentives in some of Canada’s largest provinces to go electric, still want to buy old-fashioned, gas-powered cars.   

And as consumers, Canadians should have every right to do so.   

If electric vehicles were all the government wants to make them out to be, any astute first grader would ask the following question: Why mandate them?   

The answer is obvious: Buyers aren’t flocking to them in droves.  

Far from it.   

By virtually every observation, demand for electric vehicles is on the decline, not the upswing.   

Companies like Ford, Honda and Stellantis have cancelled plans to produce electric vehicle models or delayed plans to build new factories, despite generous government handouts being on the table, due to slowing consumer demand.   

And there’s momentum south of the border against electric vehicle mandates.    

President Donald Trump ended plans set in place by the Joe Biden administration to mandate that 30% to 56% of all cars sold in the United States be electric. He also revoked permission given by the Biden administration to California and 16 other states to mandate the end of the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035.   

Trump’s moves weren’t just popular with his base. His executive order was hailed by automaker Stellantis as a “hugely positive” development.   

Anyone who can read a chart can clearly see that the public’s appetite to buy electric cars is waning. Automakers want to be able to produce the cars that people want to buy.   

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Automakers that haven’t come out against electric vehicle mandates are only not doing so because they’ve invested so much in producing electric cars that the vast majority of consumers are signalling they don’t want.   

To be clear, if families want to go out and buy electric cars, they should be able to do so. This isn’t a question of choice, it’s about mandates.   

Canadians should be free to buy the cars they want to buy. If they want to buy electric, great. But if they want to buy a new gas-powered car, consumers should have every right to do so.   

The government shouldn’t be dictating what cars are allowed to be on the floors of the showrooms of the nation.   

It’s time for the Carney government to take off their net-zero blinders and get a dose of reality. Canadians should be allowed to buy the cars they want to buy, full stop. The Liberals should repeal their electric vehicle mandate and let consumers be in the driver’s seat.    

Jay Goldberg is the Canadian affairs manager at the Consumer Choice Center