Canada invests more and more in electric cars

Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford, Ontario's premier, officially announced on March 16, 2022 that $131.6 million CAD will be allocated to upgrade Honda's plant, which will begin producing CR-V Hybrid vehicles in the summer of 2022. A total of $1.4 billion CAD is planned to be spent over six years to retrofit the plant.

In 2017, Honda has already spent more than $400 million CAD to modernize the Ontario plant's facilities for the production of the CR-V and Civic. Part of that investment came from government loans.

The Canadian government believes that the eventual development of the electric car industry will create many new jobs, including at charging stations, as well as positively impact the environment. But electric and hybrid cars are still very expensive, especially in Ontario, where the Ford government canceled rebates on them back in 2018. Ontario only has a federal rebate program for electric cars.

Honda, for example, now offers the Clarity 2021 hybrid car for a minimum price of $44,505 CAD. The Nissan Leaf, one of the most budget-friendly electric cars, will cost at least $37,498 CAD. The cost of operating an electric or hybrid car is less, but the difference is not so great that Canadians are switching en masse to the new vehicle type.

Electric car sales in Ontario in 2021 were much lower than other provinces offering rebates of $5,000 CAD to $13,000 CAD, according to analyst firm IHS Markit. The Ontario Liberal Party, which is gearing up for the June 2 provincial election, immediately promised, after Trudeau's visit to the Honda plant, to give families discounts of up to $8,000 CAD to buy or lease a zero-emission car and $1,500 CAD payments for the purchase of charging equipment. The party also promised that after winning the election, the Liberal government would make charging stations more available in apartment buildings, parking lots, and city streets. The Green Party made roughly the same promises.