For three years, Canada's electric vehicle policy rested on one blunt instrument: a legal requirement that a rising share of every automaker's new-vehicle sales be zero-emission, climbing to 100% by 2035. As of this month, that instrument is gone. On August 15, 2026, the federal government formally posted its proposal to repeal the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard (EVAS) to the Canada Gazette, opening a 75-day public comment period that runs to October 29, 2026 — the last procedural step in a wind-down that Prime Minister Mark Carney's government first signalled back in February.

If you're shopping for a used EV, this isn't background noise. The sales mandate has been one of the biggest hidden forces behind new-EV discounting, which in turn drags used values down — and its removal changes the incentives every automaker in Canada is operating under, starting now.

Quick answer: Ottawa is replacing a hard sales-percentage mandate with a technology-neutral greenhouse gas emissions standard — targeting 75% ZEV sales by 2035 and 90% by 2040 rather than mandating percentages directly — because the original mandate's near-term targets had become wildly unrealistic. ZEV sales fell from 14% of the new-vehicle market in 2024 to just 9% in 2025, against a mandate that required 20% starting in 2026. For used-EV shoppers, the practical effect is less regulatory pressure forcing automakers to move new EVs at a loss, which likely means less of the aggressive new-vehicle discounting that has been pulling used EV prices down — a trend worth watching alongside the affordability story we covered in our 2026 mid-year used EV market check.

What actually just happened

The EVAS was never a suggestion — it was a binding regulation under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, requiring automakers to hit escalating ZEV sales percentages or acquire compliance credits from competitors who exceeded theirs. The original schedule required 20% ZEV sales starting with the 2026 model year, rising in annual steps to a full 100% by 2035.

The unwind happened in two stages. First, in September 2025, Ottawa quietly paused the mandate's 2026 start date for a 60-day review — a stopgap that bought the industry a year without settling anything. Then, in February 2026, Carney's government announced the real plan: scrap the EVAS entirely and replace it with something built around emissions rather than sales percentages. August's Canada Gazette posting is that plan becoming an actual regulatory proposal, not just a promise. Notably, the existing Passenger Automobile and Light Truck Greenhouse Gas Emission Regulations — which loosely mirror U.S. standards — remain in effect for now, meaning Canada isn't in a total regulatory vacuum during the consultation window, even though the ZEV-specific mandate is gone.

Why Ottawa pulled the plug

The math simply stopped working. ZEV sales — battery-electric and plug-in hybrid combined — fell from 14% of new vehicles sold in Canada in 2024 to about 9% in 2025, moving in the wrong direction against a mandate that demanded 20% starting in 2026. The government's own framing pointed to affordability pressure, charging infrastructure gaps, and softening consumer demand as the reasons the targets had become disconnected from market reality.

Industry groups had been lobbying hard for exactly this outcome. Huw Williams of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association noted that automakers now have relief through at least 2027 before any new framework takes effect. Lucas Malinowski of Global Automakers of Canada emphasized the need for "regulatory and legal certainty," while Brian Kingston of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association called for standards that are "reasonable, achievable and technology-agnostic" — language that shows up almost verbatim in how the government has described the replacement framework.

What replaces it — and what doesn't, yet

The proposed replacement is a technology-neutral greenhouse gas emissions standard, targeting 75% ZEV sales by 2035 and 90% by 2040 — lower and later than the original mandate's 100%-by-2035 target, and structured around emissions outcomes rather than a hard sales quota for any single technology. Critically, that replacement regulation hasn't been finalized. Environment and Climate Change Canada says it will run fresh consultations with automakers and environmental groups before the GHG-based rule actually launches, meaning Canada currently has no active ZEV-specific mandate at all — just a proposal and a promise of one to come.

That gap hasn't gone unnoticed. Pembina Institute director Adam Thorn put it bluntly: "It's difficult to see how the Prime Minister expects to meet his own objective without a policy to drive the transition." Electric Mobility Canada raised a related concern — that removing a binding regulation without an immediate replacement "increases investment risk for the industry," since automakers now have to plan Canadian EV allocation and pricing without knowing what the actual long-term rule will look like.

The provinces are already diverging from Ottawa

Two provinces run their own ZEV mandates independent of the federal one, and both have already cut their targets to track the new federal direction rather than sticking with their original, more aggressive numbers. British Columbia amended its Zero-Emission Vehicles Act in April 2026, dropping its 2035 target from a full 100% (set back in 2019) to 75%. Quebec followed in June 2026, lowering its own target to 80% by 2035. Both moves signal that the federal repeal isn't an isolated Ottawa decision — it's reshaping EV policy at the provincial level too, even in the two provinces that had pushed hardest on electrification.

Worth noting: none of this touches the federal purchase-side incentive. The Electric Vehicle Affordability Program rebate is a separate policy lever from the sales mandate, and it remains in place — see our breakdown of whether the federal rebate applies to used EVs for how that program actually works. Provincial rebate programs are summarized in our provincial EV incentives guide as well.

What this means if you're shopping used

Here's the mechanism worth understanding: sales mandates create pressure on automakers to move EV inventory regardless of profitability, because missing the target has regulatory consequences. That pressure has been a real driver of the aggressive new-EV discounting Canada saw through 2025 and into 2026 — discounting that pulls comparable used values down with it, since a heavily discounted new EV resets what buyers expect to pay for a lightly used one.

Remove the mandate, and that specific pressure eases. Automakers can now price and allocate EVs to Canada based on actual demand and margin, not a compliance deadline. That doesn't mean discounting stops — plenty of other forces are still pushing used EV prices down, which we've covered in detail in why 2026–2027 will flood Canada with used electric vehicles — but the mandate-driven piece of that discounting pressure is now gone. If you've been waiting for the "right moment" to buy, the honest answer is that the forces at play just shifted, not disappeared; our guide on whether used EVs are worth it right now is a good next read before you commit either way.

The bigger uncertainty is on the supply side. With no finalized federal ZEV rule and provinces now setting softer targets, some automakers may slow-walk which EV trims and volumes they send to Canada at all, since there's less regulatory obligation forcing their hand. That's worth watching over the next 12–18 months as the GHG-standard consultation plays out — it will shape exactly how many new EVs (and, eventually, how many off-lease used ones) actually show up in the Canadian market.

The bottom line

The EV sales mandate that shaped Canadian automaker behaviour since 2023 is being formally repealed, replaced — eventually — by a softer, emissions-based standard that won't be finalized until after an October 2026 consultation period closes. The immediate effect is regulatory breathing room for automakers and less mandate-driven pressure to discount new EVs, which matters directly for used EV pricing. The federal purchase rebate is untouched, but BC and Quebec have already softened their own provincial targets to match Ottawa's new direction. For used-EV shoppers, this isn't a reason to rush or to wait — it's a reason to pay closer attention to actual new-EV pricing and inventory trends over the next year, since the regulatory floor that's been shaping them just moved.

FAQ

Is Canada's EV sales mandate actually gone as of today? The repeal is a formal regulatory proposal posted to the Canada Gazette on August 15, 2026, with a 75-day public comment period ending October 29, 2026. It isn't finalized yet, but the government has made clear this is the intended outcome, and no replacement regulation is active in the meantime.

Does this affect the federal EV rebate? No. The Electric Vehicle Availability Standard (the sales mandate) and the Electric Vehicle Affordability Program (the purchase rebate) are separate programs. The rebate is unaffected by this repeal — see our rebate explainer for details.

Will removing the mandate make used EVs more expensive? It could ease one source of downward pressure on used prices — mandate-driven new-EV discounting — but multiple other factors (off-lease supply, interest rates, automaker pricing strategy) still push independently on used EV values. It's one input among several, not the whole picture.

Why did BC and Quebec also lower their EV targets? Both provinces amended their independent ZEV mandates in 2026 to track the federal government's new direction — BC cut its 2035 target from 100% to 75% in April 2026, and Quebec cut its target to 80% by 2035 in June 2026 — rather than holding to their original, more aggressive schedules while Ottawa moved in a different direction.

Sources: Canada's National Observer, "EV sales mandate officially on the way out"; Canadian Auto Dealer, "Ottawa moves to repeal EV mandate as auto industry welcomes shift"; Electric Autonomy Canada, "Repeal of EVAS leaves feds with no ZEV mandate"; McMillan LLP, "Federal Government Hits Pause on 2026 Start to ZEV Sales Mandate"; Electric Autonomy Canada, "B.C. drops ZEV sales target to 75 per cent for 2035".