There are few Canadian markets more integrated with the U.S. than vehicles. And not just the cars we build in Ontario, but the ones we drive across this country.
We rely on U.S. safety standards that effectively determine which cars end up on dealership lots, align our tailpipe emission standards and when the U.S. under Biden erected a 100 per cent tariff wall on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), did Canada look to Europe’s much lower tariff or the U.K.’s lack of one? No, we put up a 100 per cent tariff wall too.
And then a few things happened.
Trump won the election and promised to slash government investments in EV charging and manufacturing, cancel consumer EV tax credits and weaken emission standards (all promises he’s since fulfilled). U.S. automakers have eased their EV ambitions accordingly.
Simultaneously, Canadian EV sales have declined in 2025 after funding ran out for EV rebates federally and in two key provinces, B.C. in Quebec, leaving buyers waiting on the sidelines for incentives to be reinstated (Quebec has since done so).
Seeing opportunity, certain members of Canada’s auto lobby are suggesting that Canada should follow the U.S.’s U-turn on EVs, namely by repealing Canada’s EV availability standard, a policy requiring automakers to supply more EVs to Canadians.
Suddenly, the electric car has become a litmus test for whether we’re still America’s buddy — or ready to be a more global Canada.
Frankly, the choice couldn’t be clearer: align our ambitions with the wider world — where one-in-four cars sold globally this year is projected to be electric — or follow Trump’s retreat, further fortifying an uncompetitive, fossil-fuel-powered North America.
Indeed, Trump is imposing inexplicable self-harm on America’s own auto manufacturing industry, applying tariffs to the steel, aluminum and auto parts it relies on. Combined with his efforts to roll back fuel efficiency standards, Trump is effectively forcing Americans to both produce and drive less efficient vehicles — and pay more to do so.
Like Canada, the EU revisited its EV requirements in light of tariffs and America’s trade war but, in sharp contrast with Trump, decided to keep them. As a result, drivers have access to more affordable EVs, and the EU is within striking distance of its 2030 climate target. It’s a similar story in the U.K., where carmakers are now on track to meeting EV targets, despite claiming they couldn’t possibly do so.
Canada has a number of tools to ensure similar success, such as reintroducing rebates (something the U.K. just did), potentially retooling the EV availability standard, investing in public charging with more focus put on helping apartment dwellers, and, yes, lowering the barriers faced by Chinese and European carmakers.
Indeed, many Canadians are wondering why we should keep in place a 100 per cent tariff on affordable Chinese EVs, with a recent survey by Abacus Data for Clean Energy Canada showing that four-in-five Canadians would prefer a much lower tariff or no tariff at all.
Chinese EVs are not barbarians at the gate, only a drawbridge away from decimating the competition. That simply hasn’t happened in other advanced nations, where Chinese EVs typically make up less than 10 per cent of the EV market. BYDs are built and priced for the countries they sell in and, to level the playing field for domestic producers, are often still tariffed — just not at 100 per cent. There is early evidence that the mere presence of Chinese EVs improves local market conditions and consumer adoption.
Ultimately, we must ask what’s best for Canada.
How about affordable EVs that will save drivers thousands on gas every year? Or better air quality, less strain on our health care system and 11,000 avoided premature deaths, according to one recent study?
And what about Canada’s canola, seafood, and pork industries, which have become collateral damage as a target of Chinese retaliation over our U.S.-aligned tariff? Or better yet, Canada’s enormous critical minerals opportunity, underpinned by the transition to clean energy and especially EVs?
Put another way, we’re not Americans and we needn’t drive like them — or with them.
This post was co-authored by Trevor Melanson and first appeared in the Toronto Star.
