It’s not clear that sufficient capacities will be available to produce enough EVs to achieve the mandates being imposed on Canadians and Americans, nor is it clear consumers are willing to spend their own money to purchase them.
According to reports, the Trudeau government will soon unveil regulations meant to phaseout the sale of new internal combustion vehicles and compel Canadians to buy zero-emission vehicles. The Biden administration is also mandating a similar shift.
These initiatives, however, overlook two realities — consumer preferences are not easily swayed by top-down government directives and the unrealistic timeline for minerals crucial for electric vehicles (EV) raises serious doubts about the likelihood of success.
Specifically, according to the Trudeau government’s new regulations, all new passenger vehicles and light trucks sold in Canada must be electric zero-emission vehicles by 2035, with interim targets of 20 per cent by 2026 and 60 per cent by 2030.
And the Biden administration has mandated that two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the United States must be electric by 2032.
For the rest of this column: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/why-north-american-electric-vehicle-mandates-are-destined-to-fail/article_0b99a348-9de6-11ee-b07d-174cacf57d61.html#:~:text=It’s%20not%20clear%20that%20sufficient,own%20money%20to%20purchase%20them.