The Legault government has just taken a new step towards banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars in Quebec, with the filing of a draft regulation for the end of the marketing of such vehicles starting in 2035. But the government is also planning an “assessment of market maturity” before this date, mentioning in passing “possible adjustments.”
The draft regulation aimed at “prohibiting the sale of new light-duty combustion vehicles starting in 2035” was published this Wednesday. It provides that “new light-duty combustion vehicles” from the 2034 model year and previous years will no longer be able to be sold or leased in Quebec starting on 1er January 2035. With respect to vehicles of the 2035 model year and later, it will be prohibited to sell or lease them in Quebec, “whether they are new or used.”
According to the government statement, “it is planned that an assessment of the maturity of the market will be carried out by the government around 2030, in order to allow for possible adjustments, to guarantee a successful transition in 2035.”
At the time of tabling the bill from which the draft regulation arises, the Legault government rejected the idea of bringing forward the end of vehicle sales to 2030, judging that by that date, there would not be enough new electric vehicles to supply the Quebec market.
For the moment, the road transport sector weighs heavily in Quebec’s greenhouse gas emissions, with more than 24 million tonnes. Its share of Quebec’s total emissions increased from 24.5% in 1990 to 31.2% in 2021, the most recent report available. From 1990 to 2021, road transport emissions increased by 16%.
Large vehicles
As of March 2024, Quebec had nearly 270,000 fully electric or plug-in hybrid light-duty vehicles, out of some 4.8 million vehicles on the province’s roads. The target set in the 2030 Green Economy Plan is two million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030. In the first quarter of 2024, electric vehicles represented 22.1% of new light-duty vehicles.
A significant portion of these sales are in the light truck category (sports utility vehicles, pick-ups and vans). This heavy trend is also a bad omen, according to what Pierre-Olivier Pineau, holder of the Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, argued at the time of publication of the 10e edition of theState of energy in Quebec.
Not only do larger vehicles consume more energy than cars, but, above all, they require more resources for their construction, in addition to influencing land use.
“With electric light trucks, individuals’ attachment to the vehicle is growing. It is not just a means of transportation, but a lifestyle and a self-image. We are further anchoring the car paradigm in our lifestyles and moving away from a possible path to carbon neutrality,” argued Mr. Pineau.
“If we remain in a paradigm of the individual vehicle, even electric, we will not reverse the trend of human sprawl which fragments the territory, impoverishes ecosystems and requires enormous resources (concrete, steel and other materials) to be developed,” added the expert.
Quebec’s Environment Minister, Benoit Charette, does not intend to act to reverse this trend of acquiring larger, more energy-intensive vehicles. He is instead banking on the electrification of these vehicles.