There Is Confusion

Kristian Aquilina, president of GM Canada, and Bev Goodman, president of Ford of Canada, both made statements this past week suggesting that next year’s federally mandated Electric Vehicle targets are unattainable.

“The targets on full battery-electric vehicles need to be aligned with what customers want, and customers have spoken,” said Goodman. autonews.com

“When these mandates came into play, there was an understanding that there would be some investment in infrastructure as well as consumer incentives to help with the affordability,” Mr. Aquilina said. “Some of those haven’t [happened] or have stopped.” theglobeandmail.com

The government’s current plan requires that battery-operated vehicles make up 20 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2026.

And against a lot of opinions on the matter, we were kinda on track to hit that target.

Then the iZEV rebate program died. halifax.citynews.ca

EV sales in Canada have notably declined since the rebate ended abruptly in March. theglobeandmail.com

However, I do not agree with Bev and Kristian on either of their points.

Let’s talk about what customers want, what infrastructure is in place, and what has happened sales-wise to date.

Back in the seemingly foggy distant memory of 2024, one in seven new cars and trucks sold in Canada were zero-emission vehicles. statcan.gc.ca

South of the Canadian border, where democracy is collapsing and where a large order of McDonald’s fries is even larger, the Ford Mach-E was the second-best-selling electric SUV last year. insideevs.com

GM's US EV sales doubled in the space of a year. topgear.com

Outside of Canada and the US, global electric vehicle sales surged in May 2025, reaching 1.6 million units. That brings the total for the year so far to 7.2 million EVs, a 28% increase compared to the same period in 2024. electrek.co

So maybe people DO want to buy EVs!

I conducted some research with Savanta earlier this year that included questions about this topic.

Canadians agree, 51% are interested in buying electric vehicles.

For those who can’t charge at home, range and charging remain significant concerns for any potential EV buyer.

Thankfully, we add somewhere in the vicinity of 500 to 1,000 new charge ports in Canada each month. There are 35,136 charging ports available at 13,389 locations nationwide. canada.ca

In case you were curious, there are only 11,713 retail gasoline stations in Canada, comparatively. www.canadianfuels.ca

Arguably, there are more pumps at those stations than we have charge points. And those pumps are more consistently working relative to the current failure rate of EV chargers in the wild. financialpost.com

So what accounts for the drop-off in sales this spring?

The second-largest consideration for people considering an EV purchase is the vehicle's price.

If Ottawa brings back some version of the iZEV rebate, that problem might solve itself. anadianautodealer.ca

A separate piece of research conducted by Clean Energy Canada suggests that the majority of Canadians are in favour of a more open car market with better access to affordable electric vehicles from China and Europe. cleanenergycanada.org

In my opinion, the answer is not to end the mandate; the answer is to make and sell vehicles that people can afford to buy.

Bev, Kristian, if you’re reading this, I’m happy to chat about it more.

Chery has confirmed that its flagship plug-in hybrid sedan, the Fulwin A9L, which boasts a 2,000 km range, will begin presales later this month and launch officially in July. carnewschina.com

As of the end of May, Li Auto's cumulative vehicle deliveries reached 1,301,531 units. cnevpost.com

Nio has signed a distributor deal with the Greek company Motodynamics to sell Nio and Firefly vehicles in Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria. cnevpost.com

Xpeng and BP Pulse, the EV charging arm of British oil giant BP, opened their first jointly built charging station. cnevpost.com

BYD sees China’s EV price war as unsustainable, according to a BYD executive, who stopped short of saying the country’s largest EV maker would scale back the aggressive discounting it is kinda responsible for. bloomberg.com

Several of China’s state-owned automakers have pledged to standardize bill payment periods for suppliers to 60 days after authorities raised concerns about supply chain financing. autonews.com

Tesla sales are crashing in China. electrek.co

In what one could only describe as “no fucking surprise to anyone,” Elon and Tesla delay the robotaxi launch. We’ll see what happens on June 22nd. theverge.com

People in Austin, Texas, are protesting the launch of Tesla’s robotaxi service. cnbc.com

Tesla upgraded the Model S and Model X in the US and raised their prices by $5,000. reuters.com, mashable.com

In case this was somehow unclear, Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” feature isn’t ready to drive by itself. theverge.com

“Last week, both stages of SpaceX's Starship exploded after returning from space. The Super Heavy booster flew apart as it attempted a landing burn over ground, and forty minutes later, the Starship vehicle itself disintegrated somewhere over the Indian Ocean.” futurism.com

The DOGE-father’s favorability among Republicans dropped 16 points since March. cnbc.com

This five-legged robot is both fascinating and terrifying. youtube.com

This four-legged robot plays badminton with humans. youtube.com

Autonomous vehicles and robotics are going to take off in a big way in the years ahead, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. cnbc.com

The Renault Group is working with Wandercraft to bring Calvin, a headless, voice-operated humanoid robot, to market for manufacturing and other industrial use cases. interestingengineering.com, youtube.com

Figure AI unveiled an update to its humanoid robots, showcasing significant improvements in logistics and warehouse use cases. techau.com.au

AI robot smart vending machines may represent part of a future vision for street-side convenience stores and bodegas. youtube.com

Finally, a use for AI that we can all get behind. XRobotics thinks it has cracked the code on getting pizza restaurants to adopt robotics with their pizza-making robot in a box called the xPizza Cube. techcrunch.com

The City of Pendleton, Oregon, is building a solar canopy that will cool wastewater while it powers the city’s wastewater treatment facility. electrek.co

The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) is introducing a temporary limit on how many new data centres can be added to the electrical grid. The agency is concerned that additional projects could compromise the province’s grid’s reliability. cbc.ca

Cyclic Materials, a startup backed by Amazon and Microsoft, announced plans to build a rare-earths recycling plant and research center in Canada. bloomberg.com

“Oil prices jumped on Friday and settled 7% higher as Israel and Iran traded air strikes, feeding investor worries that the combat could widely disrupt oil exports from the Middle East.” reuters.com

A small town in Finland is about to ditch fossil fuels in its heating network thanks to a sand-filled energy storage tank the size of a house. thenextweb.com

Ford’s 2025 F-150 Lobo is a 400-hp V-8 performance-oriented street truck that goes on sale this fall. caranddriver.com

Ford is wondering where the magnets are. bnnbloomberg.ca

Honda plans to launch a whole whack of new hybrid vehicles by 2030. driving.ca

GM and MP Materials plan to develop a US rare-earth EV material supply chain. news.gm.com

GM plans to shift $4 billion of investment from EVs to ICE SUVs at three plants in the US. autoweek.com

Toyota’s shareholders re-elected Akio Toyoda as chairman on Thursday. reuters.com

Renault considers bringing its Alpine sports car brand to the Great White North. autonews.com

Nissan and Stellantis supplier Marelli filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US mostly because of The Donald’s bullshit tariffs. wsj.com

Vinfast is closing half of its Canadian showrooms. mensjournal.com

Transportation Secretary (and ex-reality TV contestant) Sean Duffy declared that he was resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that govern vehicle fuel efficiency in the US. theverge.com

The US Department of Transportation wants to facilitate the deployment of self-driving cars by automakers and tech companies, eliminating the need for traditional controls such as steering wheels and pedals. theverge.com

The Donald signed resolutions into law banning states’ rights to set their own emissions standards. whitehouse.gov

Katherine Judge, executive director and senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets, told the Canadian Press that the most recent export numbers are “really bad.” “Essentially, trade has totally collapsed,” she said. thecanadianpressnews.ca, autonews.com

The Canadian government plans to throw the auto industry a lifeline in the form of military hardware production. autonews.com

Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft, and people who use the service don't care. techcrunch.com

Wayve and Uber plan London robotaxi launch. techcrunch.com

New York-based micromobility startup Infinite Machine has unveiled a funky and futuristic sit-down scooter called Olto, which will retail for $3,495 when it ships later this year. techcrunch.com, wired.com, infinitemachine.com/olto

You read to the bottom. Amazing!