Heightened demand for SUVs and trucks in Canada is undermining the environmental benefit from increased electric vehicle adoption, a study from Simon Fraser University’s Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team (START) has found.
According to the study, which was undertaken alongside Environmental Defence Canada, Équiterre, a Montreal-based environmental non-profit, and the David Suzuki Foundation, SUVs and trucks accounted for 70% of new vehicle sales in 2022, up from 50% in 2010.
These larger vehicles, in turn, produce around 30% more CO2 than smaller cars, which is hampering Canada’s emissions reduction goals.
Fuel consumption
‘On the positive side, overall fuel consumption (per km traveled) decreased by 15% in total [between 2010 and 2022],’ the report notes. ‘There was a 12% reduction in new vehicle fuel consumption due to improvements in engine and vehicle technology, and a 13% reduction due to the switch from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles.
‘However, during that same period there was a 9.5% increase in new fuel consumption due to the trend towards larger vehicle sales, notably light-duty trucks. In other words, 39% of the reductions in fuel consumption Canada would have seen from increased ZEV sales and fuel economy improvement during this period (2010-2022) has been wiped out by vehicle upsizing.’
EV sales mandate
Canada has an EV sales mandate in place, which requires 20% of new vehicles sold by 2026 to be battery-electric, hydrogen fuel-cell, or plug-in hybrids, and 100% by 2035, a move that the government sees as essential as migrating the automotive sector away from fuel-intensive purchases.
Automakers have lobbied against this mandate, however, calling for alignment with US emissions standards, which, the report claims, includes loopholes that support the purchase SUVs.
‘In theory, a technology-neutral policy such as Canada’s national carbon pricing program should incentivise consumers to shift towards more efficient vehicles in general (leading to reductions in size and mass), it notes. ‘Yet, so far, most consumers are found to have low responsiveness to increases in gasoline or carbon prices—at least when it comes to their decisions about vehicle type.’ Read more here.
