How your province rates in the global electric car race. National Observer Barry Saxifrage | Analysis, Climate Solutions Reporting | April 8th 2024 One of Canada’s largest and most out-of-control sources of climate pollution is the CO2 we pump out our tailpipes. These emissions keep rising because the number of fossil fuel-burning vehicles (burnermobiles) on our roads keeps rising. To avoid a full-blown climate crisis, our emissions must fall to “net zero” in a few short decades. That will require zero tailpipes spewing CO2. To get there in time, Canada set a goal for all new cars and trucks to be zero-emissions vehicles by 2035. That’s just a little over a decade away. Fortunately, Canadians can switch to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs). These have no internal combustion engine and no tailpipe. Instead, they run on made-in-Canada electricity only — which is some of the climate-cleanest in the world. How are we doing on the switch to zero-emissions vehicles? Take a look.
Canada is in the slow lane, overall......My first chart shows where Canadians are today compared to many other nations. It includes the world’s three largest economies, which are home to the world’s three largest car markets: the United States , Chinaand theEuropean Union.The green bars on the chart show how many new passenger vehicles were BEVs last year. Let’s start at the top. Leading the global race are the Norwegians, who chose BEVs for 82 per cent of new passenger vehicles last year. The next five nations are northern neighbours. Hmm. Contrary to what you might have read, it looks like BEVs work great in cold regions. China is far ahead of the global average at 25 per cent. It also dominates the market in sheer numbers, buying half the world’s BEVs. Further down is the European Union, which averaged 15 per cent BEVs. Its individual nations, however, ranged widely, from Sweden at 39 per cent to Slovakia at just three per cent. The global average, shown in yellow, was 11 per cent. And well below that, distractedly puttering along in the slow lane, are Canada (eight per cent) and the U.S. (seven per cent). Fortunately, not all of our provinces are such slowpokes. Fast versus slow provinces......Check out the graphs and read on https://www.nationalobserver.