Canada is going to ban new gas-powered car sales by 2035

Canada is the latest country to announce an upcoming ban on new gas-powered car sales. Canada has set the target of 2035 in a move to accelerate electric vehicle adoption.

Over the last few years, several countries have announced plans to stop allowing the sale of gas-powered vehicles.

Norway is the leader on that front, and it aims to phase out new fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2025.

It is already well on its way, with the majority of new vehicle sales already being all-electric.

Most other markets are not even close to that, but they have announced longer-term goals.

The UK will implement a ban on new cars with internal combustion engines by 2030 and France announced a similar initiative by 2040.

In Canada, Quebec announced a plan to only allow new electric car sales by 2035, but that was at the provincial level.

Now the Canadian federal government announced that the initiative will be adopted for the whole country:

The Government of Canada will require 100% of car and passenger truck sales to be zero-emission by 2035 in Canada to protect the environment.

It’s unclear whether the government is going to announce new incentives to accelerate EV adoption in order to reach that goal, but Canada already has a $5,000 rebate for the purchase of new electric vehicles under $55,000.

Electrek’s Take

As we have previously discussed, those “bans” are useful to let people know, especially automakers, that the internal combustion engine’s days are numbered.

However, the transition is going to happen much faster, thanks to a few dozen important new EV models coming to market in the next few years.

Those higher-volume EVs are going to quickly become the most compelling cars on the market, which is going to make it clear to consumers that their next vehicle must be electric.

In my opinion, most people in their right mind will not want to buy a car that is not all-electric at some point in 2024 or 2025.

Now, it doesn’t mean that new car sales are going to be all-electric by then, since the industry needs to catch up, but I think a goal by 2030 would make more sense.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.