Doug Ford hints electric vehicle subsidies won’t be coming back

Premier Doug Ford is signaling there will be no return to the electric vehicle subsidies he scrapped after taking power, setting up a direct contrast with rivals for his job in the June 2 election campaign.

“Since we’ve been in office, electric vehicles have tripled in sales, so I guess that was a good decision,” the premier told reporters Wednesday after he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau each announced $132 million in funding for Honda to retool its plant to build low- and zero-emission vehicles.

Opposition parties took Ford’s remarks as an opportunity to test-drive their own promises as sales figures show Canada lagging well behind other countries when it comes to EV sales.

The Liberals are pledging subsidies of up to $8,000, the Greens $10,000 and the New Democrats yet to set a figure in hopes of helping more drivers over the affordability gap and weaning them off fossil fuels.

“Without a real plan to make EVs more affordable and accessible, driving electric will remain out of reach for far too many Ontario families,” Green Leader Mike Schreiner said in a statement.

Ford has said he objects to “millionaires” getting subsidies on expensive Teslas, although proponents point out incentives can be targeted to exclude luxury vehicles.

But the move to more electric pickup trucks and SUVs means price points will climb because of the larger batteries required to power them for longer distances.

“If you want Canadians to adopt these vehicles you can’t be capping incentives at levels that’s going to cut those vehicles out of the program,” said Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association representing Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

Auto industry associations are calling for more government help so Canada can reach its goal of 50 per cent zero emission passenger vehicle sales by 2030 and 100 per cent in 2035. Federal incentives now range from $2,500 to $5,000 and Quebec, British Columbia and Yukon add their own.

“We’ve got to get over consumer hesitation about the sticker price,” said Huw Williams of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, predicting the cost to buy EVs will decline as production grows. “And if you’re not certain where you can charge up, price won’t matter.”

Figures released by Statistics Canada this week show EV sales are hitting new highs and reached five per cent of all new car registrations for the first three quarters of last year — an increase from three per cent in the two full previous years.

But the lobby group Clean Energy Canada said that trails rates of between 15 per cent and 26 per cent in Germany, the United Kingdom, France and China.

“This is bad news for Canadian drivers, who are missing out on thousands of dollars in cost-savings per year, not to mention insulation from today’s soaring gas prices,” senior policy adviser Joanna Kyriazis wrote on the group’s website.

“It also makes it tough for auto and battery makers to justify investments in Canada when the domestic market for these products is still relatively small.”

Aside from a subsidy of up to $8,000 on the sale or lease of an eligible zero emission vehicle costing no more than $60,000, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said his party would provide as much as $1,500 for charging equipment along with more charging stations in apartment buildings , parking lots, city streets and GO Transit train stations.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath last summer proposed “strong incentives” for EV purchases “excluding luxury vehicles” that her officials say could mirror the $12,500 (US) President Joe Biden has outlined for the United States, $600 for home charging stations and requiring builders to put vehicle charging capacity in new homes.

Ford defended his government’s action on charging infrastructure, which critics have said is not comprehensive enough.

“We’re also putting chargers in every single ONroute,” he said of service centers along Highway 401. “As the market demands it, we’ll continue putting chargers throughout Ontario.”

Ford’s 2018 decision to stop EV incentives led to a lawsuit from Tesla on behalf of buyers.