British Columbia is officially moving ahead with changes to the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act that will require 100% of new light-duty vehicle sales to be zero emission by 2035.
Along with the amendments, the government is also adding funds to the Go Electric EV Charger Rebate Program that ran out of money earlier this year.
B.C. made history as the first jurisdiction worldwide to enact legislation mandating a 100% zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales requirement. This legislation originally mandated automakers to meet escalating ZEV sales targets: 10% of new light-duty vehicle sales by 2025, 30% by 2030, and 100% by 2040. Those dates were pushed ahead and the requirements made even stricter last year, with the province committing to raising ZEV sales targets to 26% by 2026, 90% by 2030, and a complete transition to 100% by 2035, five years earlier than initially planned.
This week the provincial government announced it will be formalizing the changes through legislative amendments.
The amendments come as province has consistently exceeded its original annual sales targets, with ZEVs already accounting for nearly 21% of all new light-duty passenger vehicles sold in 2023, more than double the original target for 2025.
“British Columbia is the leader in Canada on the switch to electric vehicles, and thanks to the success we’ve seen, we’re accelerating our work so we can hit our 100% EV sales target five years earlier,” said the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation, Josie Osborne.
To support this accelerated transition, the government is restarting the Go Electric EV Charger Rebate Program with $7 million in new funding. This program provides financial support for homes, workplaces, and multi-unit residential buildings looking to install EV charging infrastructure.
The government says the program, which ran out of funding earlier this year due to higher-than-anticipated demand, will reopen for applications for single-family homes and workplaces starting on October 31, 2023.
