The Government of Quebec reduces its sales targets of electric vehicles, due to the “new realities” of the automotive market harshly struck by the tariff war. A “decline” that worries the environmental environment.
In a statement released at the end of the day Thursday, the Ministry of the Environment announced that it will change the zero emission vehicle standard (Vze standard), which encourages the sale of electric and hybrid vehicles thanks to a quota system.
The new provision increases the value associated with hybrid vehicles in this system. Thus, the branchable hybrids with more than 80 kilometers of autonomy will be recognized as a whole point in the calculation of credits. Electric vehicles already correspond to a point.
The hybrids of less than 80 kilometers of autonomy and the non-branched hybrids, they will see their value increase to half a point.
“We have always discussed the question of transporting transport in a pragmatic way and the current situation leads us to review our approach. We are sensitive to the disturbances that companies experience and that is why our government wishes to help them adapt to the many constraints they face, “said Environment Minister Benoit Charette.
Photo Edouard Plante-Fréchette, the press archives
The Minister of the Environment Benoit Charette
The announcement is a “real decline” in the eyes of Andréanne Brazeau, spokesperson for the David Suzuki Foundation. “It puts on an equal footing the hybrid vehicles branched by more than 80 km of autonomy and electric vehicles, in the eyes of the manufacturers, while these are two vehicles which perform really differently from an environmental point of view. There is one that consumes essence and the other who consumes zero, ”she summarizes.
The Chairman and CEO of Electric Mobility Canada, Daniel Breton, is a bit less worried. “With what is happening with Donald Trump, I understand that the government wants to temporarily adapt to the new economic reality,” he explains. What is more, there are only two models of hybrid vehicles of 80 km of autonomy on the Quebec market, he adds.
Daniel Breton denounces, however, that the standard now grants half a point to non-branched hybrid vehicles. “If the vehicle does not have a greenhouse gas emission ceiling, there, in my eyes, it is a decline,” he said.
“25 years ago, a non -rechargeable hybrid, it was extremely innovative, like DVDs was extremely innovative. But today I would buy a DVD? No, because we are returned elsewhere, ”he illustrates.
The modification of the standard could lead Quebec to miss its objective of prohibiting the sale of petrol vehicles from 2035, according to Andréanne Brazeau. “Quebec has always distinguished itself by its audacity and its avant-garde in terms of transport electrification, but there is officially open to environmental decline,” she said.
