Premier David Eby is resisting calls from Ontario to scrap B.C.’s electric vehicle mandate, holding to his goal of growing the EV sector even as sales plummet.
Eby’s comments came after Ontario Premier Doug Ford sent a letter Wednesday saying the 100,000 people who work in the auto sector, which contributes $13.3 billion annually to the Canadian economy, are at threat due to U.S. tariffs, and that B.C.’s EV rules only make the problem worse.
“Unfortunately, existing EV sales mandates in Canada are making our auto sector less competitive and threatening the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Canadian workers, particularly since the U.S. has rolled back its federal EV policies,” wrote Ford.
“Given this context, keeping EV sales mandates in only certain Canadian jurisdictions, currently only British Columbia and Quebec, creates a fragmented, uncompetitive market that risks pushing investment, jobs and production out of Canada and into the U.S.”
He added: “I am now urging you to align British Columbia’s approach with that of the federal government’s new direction by repealing your province’s EBV sales mandates altogether.”
B.C. was the first province to adopt EV mandates in 2019. But EV sales have dropped from a high of 24 per cent in 2024 to 18.3 per cent in 2025, due to lesser consumer rebates, anti-EV policies by the U.S. administration of Donald Trump, persistently high costs, and the tarnished reputation of industry leader Tesla.
Conventional hybrids overtook EVs in popularity in B.C. in 2025 for the first time, at 20.9 per cent of sales.
Prime Minister Mark Carney last month scrapped Canada’s mandate to sell 100 per cent electric vehicles by 2035. Instead, he replaced it with pollution standards and the return of consumer rebates.
British Columbia did not exactly follow suit.
EV mandate will reflect today’s ‘realities,’ says Eby
Energy Minister Adrian Dix said the province would revise its provincial mandate with more realistic targets later this spring that would align with federal GHG standards.
“I can assure premier Ford that we are, in fact, amending our electric vehicle mandate to ensure it reflects the realities of today,” Eby told reporters this week.
“But also share that electric vehicles are a way for British Columbians to shield themselves from high gas prices driven by the war in Iran right now, and that our mandate helps us get access to more vehicles and cheaper vehicles for British Columbians, which is a crucial thing also.”
Still, it was clear from the premier’s comments, and subsequent follow-up letter, that it is treading carefully on EVs so as to not appear dismissive of Ontario’s concerns and the Canadian auto sector as a whole.
Eby said B.C. has suffered international tariffs on its seafood, and paid a higher price for Canadian steel, to help hold the line with Manitoba and Ontario on trade disputes with China and the United States. That’s on top of ongoing softwood lumber tariffs.
“We have accepted these pressures because we believe in the broader principle of standing together in the face of an unjust trade war,” Eby wrote in a reply letter to Ford, released Friday.
He added: “In moments like this, it is crucial that all premiers support one another as part of a strong and unified Team Canada.”
‘Let’s start moving forward,’ says Ford
The two provinces are not always in alignment, however. B.C. supports Canada’s decision to relax tariffs on cheaper Chinese electric vehicles, believing it could increase EV adoption rates even if it harms the Ontario-based auto sector, for example.
Ford told reporters that EV mandates by Canadian provinces make the United States auto sector stronger, and provinces need to respond in alignment.
“All I’m asking is for them to get rid of all their environmental requirements on cars, and let’s start moving forward,” he said. “That’s what we need. We need to support our auto workers from coast to coast to coast. It’s like me telling premier Eby: ‘By the way we aren’t buying your beautiful lumber anymore. Nah, you just keep it over there.’
“It should be team Canada, not team x, y, z province. We need to stick together as a country.”
B.C.’s exact path forward on EVs is still mostly unknown.
While Dix has said mandates will remain, the only hint at what they could be lies in B.C.’s analysis that it considers the new federal GHG requirements as the equivalent of a 75 per cent EV market share by 2035 — a potential marker of where the province might land on a new mandate target.