British Columbia is not planning to reinstate its electric vehicle rebate as the federal government announces new incentives for certain vehicles.
B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix said Thursday the province will instead focus on expanding its network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Ottawa announced several initiatives Thursday aimed at supporting the auto sector and encouraging Canadians to buy electric vehicles, including a $2.3-billion EV Affordability Program. The five-year federal program will offer individuals and businesses up to $5,000 toward the purchase or lease of battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles and up to $2,500 for plug-in hybrids.
For vehicles made in countries that Canada has a free-trade agreement with, the incentive will only apply to sales up to $50,000, meaning Chinese-made EVs will not qualify. There will be no price cap for Canadian-made vehicles.
B.C. paused its electric vehicle rebate program in May 2025 due to funding concerns.
Dix said in November the province would adjust its targets for electric vehicle sales, saying its goals of 90 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035 were no longer realistic. He said the government will introduce legislation in 2026 to adjust sales targets to make them more achievable.
Blair Qualey, president of the New Car Dealers Association of B.C., said he is hopeful the new federal incentives will help consumers who want to buy electric vehicles, but he notes the $50,000 threshold is too low for many EVs on the market.
“Now that manufacturers won’t have the mandate expense to worry about, that may provide them some wiggle room around pricing to see if they can get more vehicles within that $50,000 range,” said Qualey.
Canada is also scrapping the EV Availability Standard, a mandate that would have required all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2035.
Dix said Thursday B.C. plans to align its sales targets with new federal goals of 75 per cent of vehicle sales being electric by 2035 and 90 per cent by 2040.
Qualey said that would be an important first step.
“I think targets are helpful, but I think over time we may find that those will again need to be adjusted, depending on market conditions and consumer uptake,” he said.
Qualey said the province also needs to work with industry to educate consumers about the advantages of electric vehicles.
The latest Statistics Canada data show zero-emission vehicle registrations in B.C. fell nearly 36 per cent in the third quarter of 2025 compared with the previous year. The New Car Dealers Association attributes the drop largely to the scrapping of provincial and federal EV rebates in 2025.
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