End of government aid | The countdown has started
Still 20 months before the end of the “Roulez Vert” program, which consists of granting financial assistance for the acquisition of electric vehicles of less than $ 65,000. After December 31, 2026, nothing.
Walking towards electrification will however continue, but undoubtedly not at such a sustained pace. Especially if the American administration gives, as it lets in the implied, the green light to a softening of antipollution standards and maintains its customs rights. These two factors could result in a slowdown in the offer, even the postponement or abandonment of certain models initially intended for the North American market.
Enough speculation.
The German example
The end of public aid leads to sales fluctuations. Let us take for example the sudden judgment of government subsidies in Germany in the fall of 2023. In the year that followed, sales of battery vehicles experienced a significant drop (-27.4 %). A deconction quickly forgotten in January 2025 with an increase of 53.5 % of sales of electric vehicles compared to the same period a year earlier.
The early electromobilists keep champagne in the fridge, however. This strong growth in January 2025 coincided with the tightening of CO limits2 (93.6 g/km) for the European Union car fleet (EU). The manufacturers who miss the target will be imposed heavy fines. Thus, for each 1 g/km more than the specified limit, a penalty of 95 euros ($ 148.20 Can) is applied for each car sold. To avoid these fines, some analysts suspect the manufacturers from having suspended electric vehicle deliveries towards the end of 2024 to count them this year.
What about Quebec?
The abandonment of the “Roulez Green” program, planned for the 1er January 2027, will undoubtedly be amortized by the arrival of new models, of course, but above all by the prices that manufacturers promise to orient downwards. It remains to be seen!
Recall that the objective of Quebec is to have at least 2 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2030. When we compare ourselves, we also console ourselves, Germany wishes to register 15 million by the end of the decade.
