Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault (CPAC Image Capture)

Skating to where the puck is going, that is how federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault describes the mandate to have all new vehicle sales in Canada be zero emission by 2035.

He says sales numbers show a change is happening.

“Last quarter one in eight of all new vehicles sold across Canada was electric, that’s up from one in three at the end of 2020. There is no mistaking it, we’re at a tipping point and the automakers, are themselves, all going electric too.”

The new Electric Vehicle Availability Standard will channel a supply of EVs into Canadian markets, reducing wait times and increasing purchase accessibility.

Interim target sales under the standard are at least 20 percent by 2026 and 60 percent by 2030.

While there are some doubts over costs of electric vehicles they are, according to Guilbeault, expected to become more affordable in the coming years.

“Almost all industry projections show that by the end of the decade, at the latest, the purchase price of gas powered and electric cars will be about the same.”

Purchase incentives by both upper levels of government are another reason for the predicted price parity.

There is also the potential for other post purchase savings, says Guilbeault, as recharge costs could be as little as $10 per 400 km, with an estimated 10 year savings of a little more than $30,000.

Additionally, the Trudeau government is investing $1.2 billion into the purchase and installation of almost 85,000 charges across the country by 2029, in addition to private enterprises and municipal and provincial governments doing the same on a smaller scale.