Environment and Climate Change Canada came out swinging with its zero-emission vehicle sales mandate in 2022. And late last year it finalized the legislation that requires ZEVs to account for an escalating percentage of light-duty vehicle sales every year, arriving at 100 per cent in 2035. Resiliently high ZEV prices, battery supply-chain problems with no quick fixes, and the recent slowdown in electric-vehicle sales growth haven’t been enough to encourage the feds to take a step back.
Nor has momentum for such changes south of the border. With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in late March softening its ZEV standards that were proposed just last year, advocates of the regulations criticized the move as a surrender to corporate and union interests. Industry boosters, on the other hand, said it was an acknowledgment that North America’s auto sector can’t turn to ZEV production on a dim