OTTAWA — Canada’s electric vehicle mandate is under fire from Washington — and if it falls, one of the biggest losers could be Elon Musk.
That’s because the mandate, a climate change policy from the Justin Trudeau era, requires carmakers to hit 20 percent EV sales by 2026, or else buy credits from companies that have exceeded the goal. In Canada, that means they have to buy credits from Tesla, because it only sells EVs.
And the policy is bedeviling Prime Minister Mark Carney’s attempt to forge a trade deal with President Donald Trump.
Carney is pursuing a new economic and security agreement that persuades Trump to remove, or significantly reduce, 25 percent tariffs on Canadian autos that aren’t covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, plus similar levies on steel and aluminum.
