Unless policies or technologies change, the ownership cost of electric vehicles (EVs) needs to decrease by 31 per cent if Canada to wants to reach its sales target of 60 per cent EVs by 2030, according to a new report released Thursday by Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux.
Last December, the federal government unveiled its Electric Vehicle Availability Standard that outlined zero-emission vehicle sales targets for automakers. The standard requires all new light-duty sales in Canada to be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2035. There are also interim targets of at least 20 per cent of all sales being EVs by 2026 and 60 per cent by 2030.
Those federal government targets come as growth forecasts for auto companies have plateaued and concerns about charging infrastructure persist. The price of EVs has also pushed the cars out of reach for many consumers. According to the Canadian Black Book, the average cost of an EV was $73,000 in 2023.
Despite the PBO’s assessment over ownership costs, the report also says the federal government’s EV sales target would increase the supply of charging ports in Canada by nearly 39,000 units.
“We estimate that by 2030 the market provision of public charging ports will be somewhat less than what is required according to a needs analysis commissioned by Natural Resources Canada,” the report states.
There are currently more than 25,000 public EV chargers in Canada, according to the federal government.
