Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, told The Logic in an event Tuesday that the auto industry wants the government to raise the $55,000 price cap for incentive-eligible passenger zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs), and increase the $5,000 incentives to be closer to the US$12,500 being considered in the U.S. (The Logic)

Talking point: EVs are expensive. The government wants about 20 per cent of new light-duty vehicle sales to be electric in 2026 as part of its emissions-reduction plan, which called for $1.7 billion in further EV incentives, $400 million for charging stations and $500 million for larger-scale ZEV refuelling sites. The federal incentives could be key since only about half of Canadians have access to provincial help, Joanna Kyriazis, clean-transportation program manager at Clean Energy Canada said at the event. Bruce Wu, CEO and founder of the secondhand-EV marketplace Carnex, said “people are seriously looking at how much they pay each month.” Kingston added that the government’s outlay on charging infrastructure falls short of jurisdictions like California, where EV adoption has been higher than Canada’s national average.