Commentary
Over 10 years ago, experts with most tribunes were assuring the world that combustion engines were on the way out and electric vehicles would soon dominate markets. Despite this optimism, Canadians didn’t embrace EVs widely, thus the call for subsidies for manufacturers and purchasers went out. The federal government answered the call and billions in tax dollars were dedicated to rebate programs, subsidies, and loan guarantees for EVs.
Sales of EVs did increase somewhat while EV manufacturers began springing up like daisies.
Today, however, EV manufacturers are falling like dominoes rather than growing like daisies. Ford Canada backed away from EV plans after the company reported losses of US$4.7 billion in 2023. Umicore in Ontario received almost a billion dollars in grants from the Canadian and Ontario governments only to halt construction of its plant a year later. Quebec’s Lion Electric took grants from both Canada and the USA to build electric school buses and has now entered bankruptcy protection with orders unfulfilled. The cities of Calgary and Edmonton ordered electric buses from Vicinity Motor Corporation and Proterra. Both suppliers have gone broke while the cities were stuck with dysfunctional fleets….