Quebec has once again walked back its electric vehicle targets, dropping the mandatory EV sales threshold for 2035 from 90 percent to 80 percent the second time in less than a year the province has loosened a goal it once touted as a hallmark of its green identity.
Quebec Environment Minister Pascale Déry announced the revised figure on June 11 via a statement on X, framing it as a pragmatic response to rising energy costs and shifting market conditions. “We need to strike a balance,” Déry wrote, “between maintaining Quebec’s position as a leading North American EV market and accounting for market realities and regional needs.” She described the new 80 percent target as “more realistic” while insisting it remains “the most ambitious in North America.” As part of the adjustment, non-rechargeable hybrid vehicles will be temporarily counted toward the targets for one year.
The backpedaling follows a trail that began last September, when Quebec first signaled it was pulling back from its original 100 percent EV mandate by 2035 dropping it to 90 percent. That announcement came just weeks before the federal government in Ottawa said it was pausing its own 2026 EV sales targets and launching a review of the national mandate. Now, the goalpost has moved again, this time to 80 percent, even as the province continues to pitch itself as a continental leader in clean transportation.
The original rules, enshrined in December 2024 regulations, had banned the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles including cars, light trucks, pickup trucks, and most SUVs by 2035. Those regulations now exist in a considerably softer form.
Quebec’s retreat mirrors a broader pattern of EV policy reversals across Canada. Ottawa, which announced its own EV mandate in 2023 requiring at least 20 percent of new vehicle sales to be electric by 2026 and 100 percent by 2035, quietly shelved the program in February 2026. In its place, the federal government introduced stricter greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles starting in 2027, paired with consumer incentives, aiming instead for a 90 percent EV adoption rate by 2040.
The shift in tone from both levels of government reflects the uncomfortable reality of slowing EV sales across the country. Canada’s EV market has been further rattled by the United States’s 25 percent tariff on automobile imports and the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle EV sales mandates in California and 17 other states moves that have rippled northward and injected new uncertainty into an already jittery market.
The timing of the province’s policy retreat is particularly awkward given a scathing report released just one day earlier by Quebec’s own auditor general.
On June 10, Auditor General Christine Roy released findings showing that Quebec had exercised poor oversight when it poured $2.2 billion into a portfolio of 11 electric vehicle battery companies. Roy concluded that the risks attached to those investments were “not adequately analyzed or documented” before funds were committed.
The results have been damaging. Four of the 11 companies have since filed for creditor protection. Two have suspended or outright abandoned their projects. Three others have seen their costs balloon significantly beyond initial projections. In other words, a significant chunk of Quebec’s multi-billion-dollar bet on the EV battery sector is in serious financial distress with taxpayers holding the bag.
The province’s softened targets and troubled investment portfolio raise questions about the long-term coherence of Quebec’s EV strategy. On one hand, officials continue to insist the province is leading North America on electric vehicle adoption. On the other hand, the goalposts keep moving, public funds committed to the sector are proving difficult to recover, and the political appetite for ambitious mandates appears to be waning.
What remains clear is that the road to an all-electric future in Quebec and across Canada is proving bumpier than anyone in government initially anticipated.
