Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD is open to acquiring a competing manufacturer and setting up shop to produce cars in Canada—but not if it means entering a joint venture with another company.

“The Shenzhen-based automaker is studying the Canadian market for a potential manufacturing facility, although no decision has been made,” Bloomberg News reports, citing an interview with BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li.

“Perhaps more striking than the Canada factory talk is Li’s candid acknowledgment that BYD is evaluating potential acquisitions of established automakers,” Electrek writes. “Several American, European, and Japanese manufacturers are struggling under the financial strain of maintaining both combustion and electric vehicle product lines simultaneously.”

But while “we’re open to every opportunity we have,” Li said, “I don’t think a JV [joint venture] will work.”

In mid-January, Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to sharply reduce tariffs on electric vehicle imports from China, while China offered up tariff relief for Canadian canola, peas, pork, and seafood. At the time, Canadian observers predicted lower EV prices and possible long-term advantages for the country’s automotive industrial base.

Canada agreed to slash duties on up to 49,000 Chinese EVs per year to a “most-favoured-nation tariff rate” of 6.1 per cent, Carney’s office said in a release. The imports will amount to less than 3 per cent of annual new vehicle sales in Canada, but “will drive considerable new Chinese joint-venture investment in Canada with trusted partners to protect and create new auto manufacturing careers for Canadian workers, and ensure a robust buildout of Canada’s EV supply chain,” the PMO said.

Days later, Carney said he saw the deal as an opportunity for Ontario’s automaking heartland. “We’ve had direct conversations directly from the Chinese companies… with explicit interest and intention to partner with Canadian companies,” he told media during a stopover in Doha, Qatar. “We’ll see what comes to pass. This is an opportunity for Ontario. It’s an opportunity for Ontario workers, opportunity for Canada, done in a controlled way with a modest start.”

Now, Bloomberg says BYD is looking at expanding its reach in overseas markets where it can repeat the “Brazil model”, a marketing and sales approach that has worked well for it in South America and Europe. “Buying existing production capacity with trained work forces is faster and cheaper than building greenfield—and BYD appears to be applying the same logic globally,” Electrek explains.

One place the company isn’t considering an expansion is the United States, a “complicated environment” where tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles exceed 100 per cent and connected car technology is banned.

BYD’s sales fell 36 per cent, to 400,241 vehicles, in the first two months of this year, both news outlets say. “But exports gained momentum, and the company is targeting 1.3 million overseas vehicle sales for the full year,” Electrek reports. “Li said BYD’s recently launched next-generation Blade Battery and ultra-fast flash charging architecture, capable of delivering up to 1,500 kW, will help reverse the domestic sales dip.”

The post BYD Eyes Canadian Manufacturing, But Shuts the Door on Joint Venture appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

EIA’s analysis shows that about 22 per cent of light-duty vehicles sold in the United States in 2025 were electrified in some form — including hybrids, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) — up from 20 per cent in 2024. However, the growth trajectory was uneven: hybrid electric vehicles continued gaining market share, while battery electric and plug-in hybrid sales declined over the year.

The divergence reflects seismic changes in tax policy. Two major incentives — the New Clean Vehicle Credit and the Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit, each worth up to US $7,500 — expired on September 30, 2025 as part of broader tax changes enacted by Congress. The credits had long been a cornerstone of U.S. EV policy, lowering purchase costs for consumers and supporting demand.

Industry analysts widely anticipated a drop in EV sales once those incentives ended. A market expert quoted by Reuters in September said the impending tax credit expiration would likely cause a “short-term dip” in EV sales as buyers rushed to close deals before the deadline.

Indeed, EIA’s figures show that BEVs reached a record share of 12 per cent of U.S. light-duty vehicle sales in September 2025, just before the tax credits disappeared. Afterwards, BEV sales fell to less than 6 per cent in each of the remaining months of the year, marking the first annual decline in battery electric vehicle sales and share in the United States.

Policy shifts and market reactions

Industry reporting confirms a sharp hit to EV demand post-credit expiry. A Yahoo Finance analysis found that EV sales at U.S. dealerships plunged by as much as 74 per cent from peak weekly levels after the federal tax incentive ended, highlighting the role subsidies played in consumer buying decisions.

Automakers have felt the impact. According to The Wall Street Journal, Ford Motor Co. saw electric vehicle sales decline sharply in November 2025, with BEV units down 61 per cent year-over-year as demand softened following the credit’s expiration. At the same time, hybrid sales — which were not eligible for the tax credit — increased, reflecting shifting buyer behaviour.

General Motors has also reported financial strain, with roughly US $6 billion in charges tied to declining EV sales and the loss of policy incentives, according to Associated Press reporting. GM’s ambitious electrification plans have been disrupted by a combination of subsidy cuts and looser emissions standards.

Why hybrids are gaining ground

Unlike battery electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles do not plug into the grid and rely on internal combustion engines coupled with electric motors. They were never eligible for the 2025 federal tax credits, yet hybrids continued to gain share throughout the year, buoyed by fuel-efficiency advantages and growing consumer comfort with electrified drivetrains.

Analysts point to price and convenience as key drivers. With federal incentives gone and many EV sticker prices remaining high — the average new EV transaction price exceeded US $60,000 in 2025 — hybrids have become an attractive alternative for mainstream buyers not ready to pay a premium for all-electric range.

Broader industry context

The U.S. trend contrasts with global EV markets, where overall plug-in sales continued to grow in 2025. Benchmark data indicates that global EV sales rose roughly 20 per cent, led by strong growth in European and Chinese markets, even as U.S. EV sales lagged due to fading incentives and weaker policy support.

China in particular remains dominant: EVs accounted for a majority share of the country’s automotive market in 2025, matched with aggressive local incentives and production scale. Those conditions continue to drive China’s outsized footprint in global EV manufacturing and sales.

Future outlook

Looking ahead, industry watchers say the U.S. EV market may stabilize or rebound if states, automakers, or future federal policy introduce new incentives or regulatory support. However, the 2025 experience highlights how sensitive EV adoption remains to public policy and cost incentives — a lesson likely to shape debates on electrification strategy and climate goals in 2026 and beyond.

The post U.S. EV Sales Fell in 2025 as Hybrid Vehicles Gained Ground appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

By Tik Root

The logic behind electric vehicles benefiting public health has long been solid: More EVs means fewer internal combustion engines on the road, and a reduction in harmful tailpipe emissions. But now researchers have confirmed, to the greatest extent yet, that this is indeed what’s actually happening on the ground. What’s more, they found that even relatively small upticks in EV adoption can have a measurably positive impact on a community.

Whereas previous work has largely been based on modeling, a study published this month in the journal Lancet Planetary Health used satellites to measure actual emissions. The study, conducted between 2019 and 2023, focused on California, which has among the highest rates of EV use in the country, and nitrogen dioxide, one of the gases released during combustion, including when fossil fuels are burned. Exposure to the pollutant can contribute to heart and lung issues, or even premature death. Across nearly 1,700 ZIP codes, the analysis showed that, for every increase of 200 electric vehicles, nitrogen dioxide emissions decreased by 1.1 percent.

“A pretty small addition of cars at the ZIP code level led to a decline in air pollution,” said Sandrah Eckel, a public health professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “It’s remarkable.”

The group had tried to establish this link using Environmental Protection Agency air monitors before, but because there are only about 100 of them in California, the results weren’t statistically significant. The data also were from 2013 through 2019, when there were fewer electric vehicles on the road. Although the satellite instrument they ultimately used only detected nitrogen dioxide, it did allow researchers to gather data for virtually the entire state, and this time the findings were clear.

“It’s making a real difference in our neighbourhoods,” said Eckel, who said a methodology like theirs could be used anywhere in the world. The advent of such powerful satellites allows scientists to look at other sources of emissions, such as factories or homes, too. “It’s a revolutionary approach.”

Mary Johnson, who researches environmental health at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and was not involved in the study, said she’s not aware of a similar study of this size, or one that uses satellite data so extensively. “Their analysis seems sound,” she said, noting that the authors controlled for variables such as the COVID-19 pandemic and shifts toward working from home.

The results, Johnson added, “totally make sense” and align with other research in this area. When London implemented congestion pricing in 2003, for example, it reduced traffic and emissions and increased life expectancy. That is the direction this latest research could go too. “They didn’t take the next step and look at health data,” she said, “which I think would be interesting.”

Daniel Horton, who leads Northwestern University’s climate change research group, also sees value in this latest work. “The results help to confirm the sort of predictions that numerical air quality modellers have been making for the past decade,” he said, adding that it could also lay the foundation for similar research. “This proof of concept paper is a great start and augurs good things to come.”

Eckel hopes that, eventually, advances in satellite technology will allow for more widespread detection of other types of emissions too, such as fine particulate matter. That could even help account for some of the potential downsides of EVs, which are heavier and could therefore kick up more tire or brake dust than their gasoline counterparts. On the whole, though, she believes the picture overwhelmingly illustrates how driving an electric car is better not just for the planet but for people.

Research like this, she says, underscores the importance of continued EV adoption, the sales of which have slumped recently, and the need to do so equitably. Although lower-income neighbourhoods have historically borne the brunt of pollution from highways and traffic, they can’t always afford the relatively high cost of EVs. Eckel hopes that research like this can help guide policymakers.

“There are concerns that some of the communities that really stand to benefit the most from reductions in air pollution are also some of the communities that are really at risk of being left behind in the transition,” she said. Previous research has shown that EVs could alleviate harms such as asthma in children, and detailed data like this latest study can help highlight both where more work needs to be done and what’s working.

“It’s really exciting that we were able to show that there were these measurable improvements in the air that we’re all breathing,” she said. Another arguably hopeful finding was that the median increase in electric vehicle usage during the study was 272 per ZIP code.

That, Eckel says, means there is plenty of opportunity to make our air even cleaner.

Correction: This story originally misidentified the pollutant studied. It is nitrogen dioxide.

The post EVs are already making your air cleaner appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

Ford framed the move as a “decisive redeployment of capital” in a Monday announcement that accompanies its 2026 business plans, as part of its broader Ford+ strategy. The company plans to redirect investment away from larger EVs that have struggled to meet sales and profitability expectations, and toward products and technologies where it sees stronger near-term returns.

“The operating reality has changed, and we are redeploying capital into higher-return growth opportunities,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said in a company press release outlining the new strategy. That includes expanding its lineup of hybrid and extended-range vehicles, as well as a new battery energy storage systems (BESS) business, which Ford said will use existing battery production capacity in the U.S.

Major write-down underscores EV market headwinds

Ford’s nearly US$19.5 billion impairment charge — one of the largest in recent corporate history — reflects the cancellation of planned EV models, the dissolution of a battery joint venture with South Korean partner SK On, and other program-related write-downs. About $8.5 billion of the charge relates to scrapped EV projects, including large pickups and vans, while roughly $6 billion reflects the end of the SK On venture and $5 billion covers other program expenses.

Reuters reporting notes that Ford is discontinuing the fully electric F-150 Lightning and its next-generation sibling, the T3, in favour of an extended-range hybrid model that incorporates a gasoline engine to recharge the battery. Ford is also shelving planned electric commercial vans and repositioning its production lines to prioritize trucks, vans, and hybrid vehicles.

The retrenchment comes as U.S. EV sales have faltered — in part due to federal policy changes that ended consumer tax credits and relaxed emissions regulations — and overall EV market penetration has remained lower than earlier projections. According to Reuters, EVs now account for roughly 10 per cent of new vehicle sales in the U.S., compared with about 25 per cent globally.

Battery plants repurposed for grid and data-centre storage

One of the most notable aspects of Ford’s pivot is its intention to repurpose existing EV battery manufacturing capacity to produce large-scale energy storage systems. At its Glendale, Kentucky battery plant — originally built for EV battery production — Ford plans to invest roughly US$2 billion over the next two years to build lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells and assemble them into 20-foot energy storage containers with at least 5 megawatt-hours (MWh) of capacity each. The company aims to produce at least 20 gigawatt-hours annually by the end of 2027.

The storage units are intended for grid operators, utilities and data centres, where demand for reliable power buffering and peak shaving is growing rapidly. Analysts say that as data centres and other large energy users seek to manage peak demand and integrate more renewable generation, the market for grid-connected battery systems is expanding quickly. One report projected that U.S. energy storage deployments will reach record levels this year amid surging interest.

In reporting by Canary Media, industry watchers say Ford’s strategy reflects broader trends in the energy transition. “They have built up battery manufacturing capacity, and now they need to do something with it,” Pavel Molchanov, managing director for renewable energy and clean technology at Raymond James, told reporters. “While EV demand is languishing, U.S. energy storage deployments are skyrocketing.”

Broader industry and market dynamics

Ford’s shift comes amid a broader reevaluation of EV strategies across legacy automakers. General Motors has also taken impairment charges related to EV production, while Stellantis has scaled back some EV plans in favour of hybrid platforms. Reuters coverage notes that many traditional carmakers — constrained by higher development costs, weakening demand and shifting regulatory environments — are returning to hybrid and traditional powertrain investments.

Analysts also point to weakening consumer incentives as a factor. The U.S. federal EV tax credit, once worth up to US$7,500 per vehicle, expired this year following legislative changes, removing a key subsidy that helped boost EV demand earlier in the decade. At the same time, average gasoline prices in the U.S. have fallen below US$3 per gallon in recent months, making conventional vehicles more attractive to cost-conscious buyers.

Strategic reset and future prospects

Ford’s revised approach prioritizes profitability and flexibility. The company says it expects its global mix of hybrids, extended range vehicles and EVs to reach roughly 50 per cent of total volume by 2030, up from about 17 per cent today, suggesting hybrids will play a major role alongside any future EV offerings.

The move also underscores widening divergence between the EV market and energy storage. Where EV sales have slowed, grid storage demand — particularly for data centres and utility applications — remains robust, driven by efforts to stabilise electricity systems and integrate renewables.

Yet Ford’s transition is not without risks. Energy storage markets are competitive, with established players such as Tesla already commanding significant shares of the grid-scale battery business. Whether Ford can carve out a meaningful position in storage while recalibrating its vehicle lineup remains to be seen.

For now, the Detroit automaker is betting that redeploying capital from struggling EV programs into hybrids, extended-range vehicles and energy storage will position it for more sustainable, profitable growth in a shifting automotive and energy landscape.

The post Ford Writes Down EV Investments, Shifts Focus to Hybrids and Energy Storage appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

By Matt Simon

Depending on whom you’re asking, renewable energy and electric vehicles will either destroy the grid or save it. The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, true enough, while a gas-fired power plant can generate electricity any time. That supposed precarity of renewables will get even shakier, critics argue, as Americans ditch conventional vehicles for electric ones, which will draw ever more power from an already strained grid.

Luckily, that’s not a realistic scenario because of what renewables and EVs have in common: giant batteries. Solar and wind farms are plugging into huge banks of them to store energy to use as needed, fixing their intermittency challenge. (Engineers are turning Earth itself into an even bigger battery.) And a growing number of cars with cords feature vehicle-to-grid technology, or V2G, also known as bidirectional charging. They can draw clean power when renewables are humming on the grid, and their owners get paid to send some back to a utility to meet growing demand — creating a vast distributed network that could make the electrical system more reliable, not less. Research has found that globally, less than a third of EV owners would have to opt into such a system to meet the rising need for energy storage.

Until now, we’ve been customers of utilities — with power flowing one way to homes — but more and more we’ll be active participants in the grid, sending extra battery power the other way. That shift is getting a head start in Maryland, where last month the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company partnered with Sunrun, which provides home solar and batteries, and Ford, which makes the electric F-150 Lightning, to activate the nation’s first residential V2G pilot project.

“This is the first time there are actual customers who are off-boarding power from their electric vehicles to the grid, and we’re doing it at peak times in the evening,” said Chris Rauscher, vice president of grid services at Sunrun, referring to the periods of greatest need for electricity. “So we’re actually reducing the stress and the demand on the grid — crushing the curve, crushing the peak — which helps lower costs for everyone.”

To understand how this works, think of EVs less like vehicles and more like immense batteries on wheels. In fact, the Lightning’s battery is 10 times bigger than a residential pack, Rauscher said. “There’s more energy capacity deployed today in electric vehicle batteries on the road in the U.S. than in all stationary batteries combined,” Rauscher added. “This is a massive resource.” And it’s only getting more massive: The Natural Resources Defense Council has estimated that if California V2G’ed all of the 14 million EVs it’s expected to have by 2035, it could power every home in the state for three days.

In these early days of the tech, though, only a handful of models sport V2G capabilities, but the number is growing. The hardware and software aren’t wildly complicated. A special charger juices up the vehicle’s battery, then draws from the car to power a house, in the case of vehicle-to-home systems, or sends it back to the utility, in the case of vehicle-to-grid.

Utilities will have to communicate with anyone participating in such a program, for instance with an app that allows a customer to, say, ask that their vehicle never be discharged below a certain percentage. Each utility will also need to figure out how much to compensate people for their power in order to incentivize them to join in. That might mean paying for the amount of energy provided, the same principle behind net metering, in which residential solar customers are reimbursed for the energy they give to the grid. “We’re still in a bit of an early stage here,” said Divesh Gupta, director of clean energy solutions at Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. “There are a lot of things that need to be worked out, particularly on the customer-experience side.”

That battery power need not go all the way back to the grid, though, to help utilities. For years now, owners have been using their Ford Lightning trucks to power their homes. These batteries are mammoth — the extended-range version can go 300-plus miles — and powering a home with one uses just 5 or 6 miles of that range per hour.

So say an owner returns home at 6 p.m., when demand on the grid is skyrocketing as everyone else is knocking off work and switching on air conditioners and other energy-hungry appliances. Because consumption is rising, so too is the price of electricity. But a Lightning owner doesn’t have to pay that if they’re using their battery to power their home for five hours until they go to bed, using 25 to 30 miles of range on their battery. “It basically makes the house disappear, effectively, from the grid,” said Ryan O’Gorman, Ford’s business lead for vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home.

Then the owner can charge again when demand, and electricity prices, are lower. If they work from home, for example, they can charge during the day, when lots of solar power is coursing through the grid.

More homes tapping EV batteries also eases demand on the grid, which is especially welcome during a heat wave when everyone’s running their AC units. Those heat waves will only get worse from here — a growing challenge for utilities to provide the power that keeps people cool and safe. At the same time, ever more data centers are devouring ever more power and stressing the grid to its limits. That infrastructure also must accommodate other forms of decarbonization, like heat pumps and induction stoves, that are essential for weaning us off fossil fuels.

Instead of sitting idly in a garage depreciating, V2G turns an EV into an asset for bolstering the grid and powering the home cheaply. “Cars are parked more than 22 hours a day,” O’Gorman said. “When we look at the advantages of an EV, now that vehicle can provide savings and potentially revenue flows for the customer.” (Interestingly, even electric trains can now send juice back to the grid and generate revenue, thanks to what they gain from regenerative braking: In the Bay Area, the Caltrain system is now being compensated for that energy, slashing its estimated annual power cost from $19.5 million to $16.5 million.)

The residential V2G program in Baltimore follows other experiments across the nation with larger vehicles. In Oakland, California, for instance, the utility Pacific Gas & Electric worked with the electric bus provider Zum to deploy vehicles that take kids home in the afternoon, return to the lot, and plug back into the grid. Because their batteries are so large, they have ample power left over, sending that extra energy to the grid just as demand is spiking. They charge overnight, take kids to school, and plug in again to charge.

This kind of predictability could make commercial fleets even more powerful for V2G than residential vehicles, experts say. A school bus is on a schedule a utility can rely on — it’s parked and available at certain times of day and making the rounds at others. Plus, in the summer, they would be available almost constantly. Other fleets, like delivery and government vehicles, follow regular timetables as well.

Fleet managers can also procure large numbers of the appropriate chargers, buying into the system en masse, compared to a homeowner shelling out for just one. “In the short term, we see commercial-level V2G applications as more viable due to infrastructure costs, but we expect affordable domestic units to emerge as the market matures and demand grows,” said a spokesperson for Nissan, which has long included bidirectional charging in its electric Leaf.

Utilities are still figuring out how to coordinate this ballet between vehicle, charger, and grid on a citywide scale. But the payoff could be big, because all those EVs are existing infrastructure that could help reduce the need to build dedicated battery plants to store renewable energy. The less a utility has to build, the fewer costs it has to pass on to ratepayers. And with more V2G, a utility that has to import lots of electricity from a neighbouring state can now store power locally.

Thus this technology could reduce energy bills. And for participants, their vehicles now provide transportation and energy storage. “It would seem pretty easy to imagine that that’s going to be cheaper than building just stationary battery storage facilities that do nothing but support the grid in times of need,” said Rudi Halbright, product manager of VGI pilot implementation at Pacific Gas & Electric. “Because you’re not getting that secondary use with those batteries. They’re kind of sitting around a lot of the time.”

People are more complicated than battery banks, though. Folks with busy lives want the convenience of charging their cars whenever they like and might not even realize how much prices fluctuate throughout the day, said David Victor, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies the behavior of EV drivers. Many like the peace of mind of having a fully charged vehicle ready at all times. “I take from that that V2G is going to be really, really hard for fleets outside of professionally managed fleets,” Victor said, “that we know reliably are going to be available at the time that the V2G asset is going to be needed.”

Still, given the number of EVs out there, only a fraction of owners need to participate to make a sizable impact. And residential and commercial V2G can complement each other — and in turn, complement a utility’s larger battery facilities — a widescale diversification of energy storage that could accelerate the adoption of renewables. “I fundamentally believe that bidirectional electric vehicles are going to be something that no one’s ever heard of, until suddenly everyone has it,” Rauscher said. “Once we have enough customers enrolled and deployed out there, some percent of customers not plugging in and performing doesn’t really matter.”

The post How EVs can fix the grid and lower your electric bill appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

By Gaye Taylor

A network of EV charging stations across central and northern B.C. has now powered one million kilometres of emissions-free travel, backed by dozens of local governments, Indigenous communities, and tourism groups collaborating to draw visitors and keep them longer.

The million-kilometre milestone, achieved at the end of 2024, represents the amount of power delivered by EV chargers in the region since the first of 60 Level 2 chargers were installed in 2022 by Charge North in Fort Nelson, 1,600 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

The estimate was calculated and reported by the Community Energy Association (CEA), which facilitated the project. It’s based on the fact that each of its stations provides roughly 40 kilometres of range per hour of charging, and the network has, to date, hosted nearly 16,000 charging sessions.

Today, the 2,800-kilometre network runs 380 kilometres south from Fort Nelson to Fort. St. John, then another 440 kilometres southwest to Prince George. From there, the network splits, connecting eastward to McBride, 100 Mile House, and then back north to Quesnel and Prince George. The eastern network also includes a smaller loop into the Okanagan as far south as Logan Lake.

Westward from Prince George, the network has charging locations in Smithers, Kitimat, and Prince Rupert, with dozens of locations in between. There are also four charging locations on Haida Gwaii.

For many of the communities involved, this is their first foray into public EV charging.

Charge North, launched in 2019 and facilitated by the CEA, was started by six Northern and Interior regional districts plus more than 40 local governments and First Nations communities.

Describing, Danielle Wiess, CEA’s director of transportation initiatives, said the evolution of public EV infrastructure and  purchases in British Columbia really has been a case of, “If you build the infrastructure, adoption will follow.”

She cited a perceptible pattern of EV purchases rising as charging networks spread east from the Lower Mainland to the Okanagan and on to the Kootenays.

What really drove Charge North’s network forward was the recognition that it would bring tourists into communities, and with them, much-needed economic development.

“The main driver, 100 per cent, has been economic development and tourism,” Wiess said, noting that the potential for such development is baked into the EV charging model.

Whereas gas stations are pit stops, increasingly on highways away from town centres, Charge North’s EV charging stations are embedded in communities, providing users with the opportunity to walk around a place, grab a bite to eat, or shop as their vehicle charges. (Level 2 chargers offer about 40 kilometres of range for every hour of charging.)

A testimonial from a couple from Alberta, who used to pass through Golden on their way west, illustrates her point. Before they bought an EV, they used to stop only briefly at the Shell station on the highway. The first time through with their new car, they needed to head downtown to charge. They had a meal and walked around the mountain town.

Now, Wiess said, “they make it a point, on their journey west, to spend a night there every year.”

The post North-Central B.C. network hits million-kilometre EV charging milestone appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

By Adam Thorne, Hongyu Xiou, Lejla Latifović

The federal government abruptly announced that the funding for the rebate program for personal zero-emission vehicles had been exhausted, leading to its official pause — a decision that caught many dealers and customers off guard. This outcome is disappointing, and we urge the government to swiftly restore funding and provide certainty to the program.

With uncertainty looming over export markets, one fact remains clear: transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) is beneficial for Canadians, both economically and for our health. EVs offer long-term savings through lower operating costs and reduced maintenance expenses. As fuel prices rise and air quality concerns intensify, more Canadians are recognizing the economic and environmental advantages of making the switch. Consumer incentives, like the rebate program, are critical in lowering the upfront cost barrier and making EVs accessible to a broader range of buyers. Affordability will be key to the success of the EV transition, ensuring that more Canadians can benefit from the long-term savings and cleaner air that comes with EV ownership. Programs like the federal rebate have already helped participating Canadians access more affordable transportation options that also reduce pollution in communities.

Canada’s auto sector is facing the threat of tariffs, a deeply problematic situation for the entire industry, including EVs. The auto sector is tightly intertwined across the border, and these tariffs threaten the stability, investment and long-term growth of our export markets. However, regardless of what happens with trade policies, Canadians should not be left behind in the global shift to EVs. A strong consumer market ensures that Canadians continue to benefit from lower-fuel-cost and lower-maintenance vehicles.

Restoring funding for the rebate program is a key part of this strategy, helping Canadians continue to access affordable EVs while the industry navigates global challenges. Ensuring that Canadians have access to affordable EVs is critical, not only for individual savings and health but also for supporting an industry in which Canada can be a global leader. The transition to EVs is happening worldwide, and Canada must ensure that its consumers, like those in other leading economies, have access to affordable EVs.

To ensure Canadians continue to benefit from EVs, here are three areas where governments can take decisive action:

1. Restore and refine consumer incentivesThe rebate program has been instrumental in making EVs more accessible. Restoring its funding is an important step to ensure affordability remains a priority. Refining the program, such as incorporating income-tested incentives, will ensure support reaches Canadians who need it most.
2. Support provincial actionWhile the federal government has taken steps to bolster the EV sector, provincial governments also play a vital role. Provinces like Ontario — a proven leader in auto manufacturing — have already demonstrated their commitment to the industry through various investments. Complementing these efforts with targeted policies, like incentives, can further accelerate EV adoption. A well-designed provincial incentive program would complement federal measures, ensuring that more Canadians can afford to make the switch.
3. Regulatory certainty in the form of sales targets coupled with investments to overcome barriers to EV adoptionClear sales targets play a valuable role. By setting defined goals for zero-emission vehicle sales, the government can drive further industry commitment, ensuring manufacturers stay on track in their transition to EV production. Expanding charging infrastructure alongside these targets will help ensure that growing EV adoption is not slowed by insufficient access to charging infrastructure. Ensuring Canadians have confidence that charging will be convenient and accessible.

Even as external challenges like potential tariffs create uncertainty in the auto sector, Canada’s EV transition should remain a priority. By focusing on consumer benefits — affordability, lower long-term costs and environmental impacts — Canada can lead the global movement toward more sustainable transportation. Restoring consumer incentives is about ensuring Canadians continue to benefit from a forward-thinking transition that secures a healthier, more sustainable future for everyone.

The post Opinion: Now is the time to invest in Canada’s EV industry and make EVs accessible to more people appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

By Christopher Bonasia

Canada’s electric vehicle sales continue to climb despite reports of slowing growth in the sector, but supply chain bottlenecks could affect the country’s long-term manufacturing ambitions.

Zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) adoption hit an all-time high in Canada toward the end of last year, making up 16.5 per cent of all new vehicle registrations in the third quarter. The sector is expected to continue growing, even though it took a slight hit after the federal government paused its iZEV incentive program, experts say.

The post Canada’s EV sales defy slowdown narrative, but supply chain challenges loom appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

By Charles Conteh and Tia Henstra

The electric vehicle (EV) industry has been one of the most defining technological trends of the past decade, transforming the automotive sector while fuelling advancements in manufacturing.

Yet after billions of taxpayer dollars have been invested, the EV industry in Canada is facing headwinds. Chief among these are the trade tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

For a country with an automotive sector that exports 91 per cent of its parts to the U.S., the threats feel existential. They may also be seen as a betrayal of the centuries-long economic and cultural partnership between two neighbours sharing one of the world’s longest and most porous borders.

Adding to these international headwinds are three other obstacles within the EV industry: high costs, limited battery range and sparse battery charging infrastructure. These concerns continue to affect firms here in Canada, with the likes of Stellantis juggling high inventory, slow sales and falling revenue.

These challenges have sparked skepticism about the future of EVs in Canada and whether the federal and provincial governments’ multi-billion-dollar investments in the industry are wise.

As researchers who study Canada and other countries’ innovation policy initiatives amid breakneck changes in technologies and markets, we argue that Canada has every reason to ratchet up its commitments in the months and years ahead.

Along with artificial intelligence, EV represents the emergent frontier of advanced manufacturing in the digital age. Winners of this innovation race will stand to dominate the global market for the foreseeable future.

The case for staying the course

Despite current challenges, EVs remain the future of the automotive sector. Even conservative estimates suggest that by 2040, around three-quarters of new car sales will be fully electric globally.

Canada’s position in the EV industry is stronger than recent news coverage indicates. The country ranked first among 30 countries in a 2024 EV battery supply chain report, outperforming even China.

This ranking reflects Canada’s vast reserves of critical minerals essential for EV battery production and its burgeoning battery manufacturing sector.

Over the past few years, Canada has attracted significant investments from manufacturers like Umicore, Northvolt and Volkswagen-owned PowerCo.

Canada has reasons to be optimistic about EV and energy storage demand. While concerns about U.S. protectionism loom, Canada’s commitment to zero-emission vehicles ensures fiscal incentives and policies that will likely boost short-term demand.

On the environmental, social and governance front, Canada outperforms many of its global competitors in battery manufacturing. Though by no means perfect, the country’s climate change policy ambitions, clean electricity grid and commitment to sustainable mining position it as a global leader in the EV space.

Advanced manufacturing

Canada’s robust innovation ecosystem for advanced manufacturing is another key strength. A prime example is the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN).

OVIN commercializes advanced automotive technologies and manages the development, testing, piloting and uptake of transportation and infrastructure technologies. It operates seven regional technology development sites across Ontario, including in Waterloo, Hamilton, Windsor-Essex, Durham and Toronto.

By serving as a bridge between government, industry and researchers, OVIN has become a model for multi-level governance, with projects jointly funded by the federal and provincial governments and close working relationships with municipalities.

As the EV industry navigates economic and policy challenges, initiatives like OVIN are crucial for driving long-term growth and competitiveness.

The road ahead

While Canada’s automotive innovation ecosystem is generally robust, it requires some calibration to overcome current challenges and claim the next frontier of the global EV race.

In particular, Canada needs to consolidate its EV innovation ecosystem by integrating the upstream of its domestic supply chain assets with the downstream of its technology commercialization and adoption.

In other words, this means getting more critical minerals to market and making sure a substantial portion of the materials mined in Canada are processed and used domestically to build batteries and vehicles, so the entire EV production cycle benefits Canada’s economy.

Such an endeavour will require Canada to establish the right policies, regulations and financial support to tap into its vast reserves of critical minerals to supply the country’s battery plants.

It is the presence of these reserves that made Canada attractive to the automakers in the first place. Leveraging them wisely will be critical for the country’s long-term success in the EV industry.

The post Canada’s EV industry is facing existential threats — here’s how it can still flourish appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.

By Christopher Bonasia

Canada’s electric vehicle sales continue to climb despite reports of slowing growth in the sector, but supply chain bottlenecks could affect the country’s long-term manufacturing ambitions.

Zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) adoption hit an all-time high in Canada toward the end of last year, making up 16.5 per cent of all new vehicle registrations in the third quarter. The sector is expected to continue growing, even though it took a slight hit after the federal government paused its iZEV incentive program, experts say.

“The recent end to federal EV rebates is likely to slow down adoption in 2025 compared to our earlier forecast,” Aleksandra O’Donovan, head of electrified transport at BloombergNEF, told The Energy Mix.

BloombergNEF has yet to update its 2025 forecast following the iZEV program’s suspension, but O’Donovan said the decision probably “shaved off some of the otherwise expected peak in EV sales.”

But even so, “beyond 2025, Canada’s zero emission vehicle mandates will keep the EV market growing, by pushing automakers to grow EV sales in the country and to introduce affordable EV models,” O’Donovan added.

Reports of an EV growth slump emerged in 2024 after several automakers and battery manufacturers scaled back production plans. But key to that framing is that growth had slowed—not stopped nor reversed. Global EV sales rose 25 per cent last year, with especially high growth in China, and less in Europe. Sales in the United States and Canada grew by 9 per cent, reports Barrons.

Sales growth was slower in 2024 than in previous years that saw increases of 103 per cent in 2021, 60 per cent in 2022, and 33 per cent in 2023. But this does not signal the demise of an all-electric vehicle future. Some analysts suggest the narrative deceivingly implies that consumer demand is waning, when the real barrier is a lack of affordable options. Automakers are able to squeeze more funding from governments by making the transition to electrified transport seem more difficult, reports the Toronto Star.

Still, steady EV growth is key to federal and provincial  ambitions of building up Canada’s EV manufacturing supply chain. Lagging EV demand was cited as the reason battery manufacturer Umicore paused construction of a facility in Ontario. And in Quebec, where Northvolt says it is still moving forward with plans for a factory, the parent company in Sweden declared bankruptcy when battery demand didn’t meet expectations.

Battery manufacturers are impacted by the size of the EV market, but they are “generally experiencing market dynamics differently,” said BloombergNEF energy storage analyst Evelina Stoiko. Cases like Northvolt’s are not reflective of the entire industry, and even in that case there were other factors at play.

Several other battery and EV projects are in the works, after Canadian governments courted companies like Volkswagen and Honda with subsidies. Those offers include construction support funding, but also production subsidies linked to volume, which is tied to EV demand. Auto industry insiders are indicating that the final amounts for these subsidies will be less than expected due to “ headwinds in EV sales,” reports the Financial Post.

Amid these challenges, Canadian governments have raised about $100 billion in public and private investment for projects that build and expand the EV manufacturing sector. But many of the projects have not yet started, and only part of the $31-billion in support promised by federal lawmakers has been distributed as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepares to leave office in a few months—to potentially be replaced by a government that would undo those policies.

“We have reshaped the industrial landscape of this country,” Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told a Canadian Club luncheon last week. “I would wish that we don’t reverse that because I think that we have prepared Canada best for the 21st century.”

The post Canada’s EV sales defy slowdown narrative, but supply chain challenges loom appeared first on Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future.