Automakers briefly provide EV rebates after federal incentive ends early – National | USAEMALL.com

Multiple Canadian automakers say they will temporarily offer their own rebates on certain electric vehicles sold this month after the federal government incentive program funding ended early.

The federal government said earlier this month the funding had run out for its $5,000 rebates, which were meant to encourage uptake of EVs in Canada, and is not being extended at this time. The program was originally scheduled to last until March 31.

The news threatens to affect Canada EV sales targets and comes amid rollbacks of American EV mandates and funding by U.S. President Donald Trump.

General Motors, Volkswagen, Nissan and Hyundai are among the manufacturers that say customers purchasing an EV will get a $5,000 rebate applied to their purchase price up to Jan. 31, matching Ottawa’s incentives for zero-emission vehicles (iZEV) program.

“We believe that the sudden … decision to suspend the iZEV rebate Federal program is unfair to valued customers who were in the process of purchasing an electric vehicle,” Nissan Canada said in a public statement last week.

The company said the rebate will be applied only to the Ariya SUV to ensure customers “affected by the sudden change” are still incentivized to complete their purchase.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen Canada told Global News the company began offering additional $5,000 rebates on remaining 2024 ID.4 EV models last Monday, when the federal program funding end was first reported.

General Motors Canada and Hyundai Canada also confirmed their own temporary $5,000 rebate programs in statements to Global News.

GM said its rebate will apply to applicable deliveries of the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Chevrolet Blazer EV, and Cadillac Optiq models between Jan. 13 and Jan. 31.

“Manufacturer-led incentives beyond Jan. 31 are not sustainable,” the company said.

Hyundai said all vehicles sold or leased between Jan. 3 and Jan. 31 that were eligible under the iZEV program will get a rebate guarantee from the company.

“If the iZEV Program is not reinstated in April 2025, (Hyundai Canada) will guarantee the rebate up to the eligible amount for customers who purchased or leased in that period,” Hyundai said.

Mazda Canada said CX-70 and CX-90 plug-in hybrid models sold between Jan. 10 and Jan. 31 will both be eligible for $2,500 rebates, the amount paid through the iZEV program.

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“When the government of Canada implemented its national Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, they promised incentives, infrastructure, and consumer education to support growth,” Mazda Canada president and CEO David Klan said in a statement.

“They are not holding up their end of the bargain, and instead are leaving manufacturers to support consumers while trying to achieve the government’s unattainable targets.”

Global News has reached out to other Canadian automakers including Stellantis, Toyota and Honda to see if they are planning similar rebate programs.

The federal rebate program has proven to be successful as EVs became more popular and available.

In the first 11 months of 2024, the program paid out $927 million for more than 191,000 new EVs, according to Transport Canada’s program database, which does not yet have data for December.

That’s an increase of more than 560 per cent in payouts and a 460 per cent increase in vehicles purchased through the rebate since its launch in 2019.

“We will continue to engage with industry, environmental groups, and across jurisdictions to foster collaboration in decarbonizing the country’s transportation sector and becoming a global leader in zero-emission vehicles,” Transport Minister Anita Anand said in a statement after the iZEV program funding ended.

There are also provincial subsidies remaining in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Yukon, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba. Quebec’s incentive program, which has seen its payout get gradually reduced, will be paused between Feb. 1 and March 31 and is scheduled to terminate at the end of 2026.

Statistics Canada data shows 13.5 per cent of new motor vehicle registrations in Canada last year were for fully electric or plug-in hybrids — up from about 10.6 per cent for the same period in 2023 and 7.7 per cent in 2022.

The federal government has mandated that battery-operated passenger cars must make up 20 per cent of all new vehicle sales in Canada by 2026, and an increasing share every year after that. EVs must account for 60 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035.

Auto-manufacturing groups including the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, Global Automakers of Canada and the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association said last week that the federal mandates should be scrapped after the rebate program funding ended. Industry groups have long argued EV sales targets cannot be reached until affordability concerns are addressed.

On Monday, following his inauguration as president, Trump signed an executive order promising to eliminate what he labels “the electric vehicle mandate” imposed under former president Joe Biden.

Although Biden never mandated the purchase of EVs, his policies were aimed at encouraging Americans to buy them and car companies to shift from gas-powered vehicles to electric cars. Biden set a goal for half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 to be electric.

California obtained a federal waiver to impose a statewide mandate to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, which Trump has vowed to rescind.

In his executive order, entitled “Unleashing American Energy,” Trump said he will “promote true consumer choice” by, in part, “considering the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase.”

The federal government offers tax credits of up to US$7,500 for the purchase of new electric vehicles and up to US$4,000 for used EVs.

Congress would have to overturn the EV incentive program, which was included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Trump’s order also put an immediate pause to billions of dollars in funding allocated for EV charging stations appropriated through that legislation.

In a separate executive order signed Monday, “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost of Living Crisis,” Trump said the push to incentivize EV production “has resulted in artificial price increases” on traditional gasoline-powered vehicles “to subsidize electric vehicles disfavoured by consumers.”

Several automakers in the U.S. and Canada, including GM, Toyota and Honda, have boasted record EV sales in 2024.

Though the pace of EV sales growth in the U.S. slowed last year, EVs accounted for 8.1 per cent of new vehicle sales, up from 7.9 per cent the year before, according to Motorintelligence.com.

While the cost of EVs has slowly come down as the auto industry scales manufacturing of the vehicles and expensive battery prices improve, they still cost more upfront than traditional gasoline-powered cars.

Even before Monday’s order, some automakers have pulled back ambitious plans to go electric. Ford nixed plans for electric three-row SUVs in lieu of making them gas-electric hybrids; General Motors delayed production at an EV battery cell plant.