British Columbia to stop sales of polluting new vehicles

All new light-duty trucks and cars will be electric or zero-emission by 2040 under a British Columbia government proposal.

Its premier John Horgan says the government will introduce legislation in 2019 to implement the change.

The targets will start at 10% by 2025, rising to 30% by 2030 and 100% by 2040, Reuters reports.

The province will expand its fast-charging network and spend an extra C$20 million this year on incentives for consumers who buy EVs to help with the switch.

“We need to make clean energy vehicles more affordable, available and convenient,” Horgan says.

British Columbia offers credits of up to C$5000 for the purchase or lease of new battery electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, and C$6000 for new hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. It plans to expand the incentives.

The province follows Quebec, which passed legislation in 2016 targeting 15.5% of sales and leases to be zero emission vehicles by 2020. Some US states, such as California, have similar laws designed to increase the supply and sales of plug-in EVs.

Canadian EV sales are booming, more than doubling in the second quarter of 2018 compared with the same time in 2017, clean-tech data firm FleetCarma

says. Demand is still far lower than for conventional vehicles though.

The most popular EV in Canada is the Tesla Model 3, followed by the Nissan Leaf and General Motor’s Chevrolet Bolt, according to FleetCarma.