The federal government intends to bring back consumer rebates for electric vehicles but doesn't yet quite know what they'll look like, Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin said on Tuesday.
The federal government launched its rebate program — the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles program or iZEV, — in 2019, but it ran out of funding earlier this year, leading Ottawa to pause the program.
Speaking to The Canadian Press while leaving the House of Commons — where she spent the better part of question period fending off Conservative criticisms of Ottawa's EV mandate — Dabrusin said a renewed consumer rebate is something being worked on.
"Will it be named, iZEV? That I can't tell you. But there will be a consumer rebate," Dabrusin said.
The iZEV program offered up to $5,000 off the cost of a new electric vehicle. Between May 2019 and January 2025, the federal government spent nearly $3 billion on the EV rebate program for more than half a million new passenger vehicles.
The Liberal platform during the election suggested it would look for a way to reintroduce the $5,000 rebate program.
Conservatives spent Tuesday in Ottawa calling for the mandate to be scrapped, citing concerns about an auto sector threatened by U.S. tariffs, and debating an opposition motion to compel the government to "immediately end their ban on gas-powered vehicles."
"Right now (the Liberals) have a mandate in place that makes it so that Canadians will have to buy EVs. But that does not fit the needs of Canadian families," said Lethbridge MP Rachel Thomas during question period.
"If the Liberal government is truly going to stand with autoworkers, then stop making the very vehicles that they're producing illegal."
Canada's electric vehicle mandate requires all new light-duty passenger vehicles sold to be zero-emissions by 2035. Sales of used gas-powered vehicles will still be allowed after 2035. Plug-in hybrid vehicles would also be allowed for sale.
"It's been in place since 2023. I don't see why the Conservatives believe we need to change it in the face of what we're facing with the U.S. tariffs on the auto industry," Dabrusin told The Canadian Press following question period.
Canada's auto manufacturers have grown on their calls for the government to repeal the mandate, as EV sales dropped in early 2025 as the rebates ended.
Electric vehicles remain more expensive than their gas-powered equivalents.
The first quarter of 2025 saw zero-emissions vehicles represent only 8.11 per cent of all new vehicle sales in Canada — a drop from the 16.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to data from Statistics Canada.
On a monthly basis through 2024, the share of EVs among new vehicle sales never dropped below 10.65 per cent, and peaked at 18.29 per cent in December.
In April of 2025, the most recent data from StatCan, EV sales dropped to 7.53 per cent of all new vehicles off of Canadian lots.
Beginning in 2026, the government's EV mandate requires at least 20 per cent of new light-duty vehicles offered for sale in that year be zero-emission. That share rises each year until it reaches 100 per cent in 2035.
Comments
Remove the 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs and we'll quickly see how affordable they are, and how quickly they will displace combustion cars and trucks, especially the North American obsession with killer oversized vehicles.
Canada is now seen as a good place to invest in battery plants because of its potential to create vertical supply chains from its legacy critical mineral supply. With Trump changing the paradigm, Canada can now afford to build all manner of electrical infrastructure, including batteries for the grid and its own battery electric EV industry.
It's time to move beyond cultural dictats from the USA on vehicles and become independent, and EVs are only one way to accomplish that. The Chinese are ahead of everyone else and are now releasing sodium ion hybrid batteries with excellent cold weather performance, energy density and range. Canada has lots of smart people and their is no reason why it can't enter that field to meet uts own conditions and offer competition to currently superior Chinese battery tech
The UK and EU have very reasonable tariffs on Chinese EVs, enough to level the competition with their own EV industry but low enough to expand consumer choice. As the result BYD and MG 4 join Renault and VW in the growing electrification of transport. Germany is electrifying its long, heavy haul trucking industry too and is quickly expanding its charging networks. The fuel savings from electrifying their trucking industry is driving this change.
Europe and Asia have also maintained their very significant electric mass transit networks.
We nearly bought one earlier this year, but could not find what we wanted and suddenly the federal rebate ended. Then the tariffs made ordering one not make sense as one did not know what the cost would be. We await the new rebate and certainty about cost.