Automakers are rolling out some big additions to the electric vehicle landscape this year as the market evolves, but it’s still not clear how much Canadians will be convinced to buy them.
Selection is certainly increasing. At the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto that wraps up this weekend, automakers were showing off more than 40 hybrid and fully-electric plug-in vehicles, while McKinsey & Co. figures around 400 fully electric models will hit the market globally by 2025, including 113 this year alone.
But analysts say that government policies are crucial to actually push companies to sell those models, since automakers otherwise don’t have enough incentive to move away from internal combustion engine vehicles.
“I think the real, key problem for them,” said James Carter, principal consultant at Toronto-based Vision Mobility, “is really because they make so much money off ICE trucks, pickups, SUVs right now, that basically, the question that they’re having to ask themselves is ‘how the hell do we get off this drug?”’
He notes that some companies have been reluctant to move to electrification, while others such as Hyundai and Kia have rolled out popular models but are not producing enough to meet demand, because profitability is a challenge for electric vehicles.
Companies risk losing ground on new technologies if they don’t move fast enough, but also need to make enough profit to make billions of dollars of investment worthwhile, said Carter.
Ford Motor Co. is one of several companies that have made big promises about moving to electric. At the Toronto show they were showing off their all-electric Mustang Mach-E with a towering display and stadium seating for visitors to watch the SUV roll silently on stage. Despite the marketing, it’s still not clear how many will be available for Canadians when they roll out near the end of the year.
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