Canada announces plans for 25% tariff on electric vehicles coming from the US
Canada has confirmed that, as part of its effort to retaliate against the US over President Trump’s trade war against allies, it will impose a 25% tariff on electric vehicles from the US.
President Trump followed through with his threat to impose new 25% tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada, two countries with which he signed updated free trade agreements just a few years ago when he was president.
The reason Trump can impose those tariffs and break those free trade agreements is due to his use of “emergency power”, which he justifies because he claims Canada and Mexico are not doing enough to stop fentanyl from crossing the border into the US.
Facts do not support this.
Furthermore, when listening to Trump’s rhetoric around making Canada the “51st state” of the United States, it becomes clear that the real reason he is putting economic pressure on Canada is due to his wish to expand US territory as part of some ego-driven legacy-building agenda.
Regardless, we are now in the middle of a North American trade war started by the US president, and Canada has issued its response.
Canada will implement a 25% tariff on $30 billion in goods imported from the U.S. starting on Tuesday, February 4th.
The government is also working on a much more severe second wave of 25% tariffs on an additional list of imported U.S. goods worth $125 billion. This list is currently subject to public commentary for 21 days before being implemented, but it currently includes:
“Passenger vehicles and trucks, including electric vehicles, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, aerospace products, beef, pork, dairy, trucks and buses, recreational vehicles, and recreational boats.”
Considering most electric vehicles in Canada come from the US, this is likely going to greatly slow down EV adoption in the country.
Furthermore, several EV incentives were recently phased out – further accelerating the decline in EV growth.
Electrek’s Take
This is going to be a nightmare for EV adoption in Canada. I think this is an opportunity to revisit the tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
Canada imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, mostly to help protect the US EV industry. Now that the US has become hostile, it makes no sense to protect it. Let the Chinese EVs flow, which will help keep some momentum in EV adoption in Canada.
I know that many Canadians don’t want to help Tesla anymore because they see Elon Musk as controlling Trump, but Tesla is likely already looking to import EVs into Canada from Berlin to circumvent the tariffs.
I am sure that Tesla prefers this current situation over having to import EVs from China again and compete with Chinese automakers in the Canadian market.
I think everyone wins except for American automakers, who should put pressure on the Trump administration to end this senseless trade war.
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China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.
The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.
The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.
China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.
To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.
To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.
The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.
As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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Tesla is starting to experience some consequences for misleading Full Self Driving customers – at least that’s the finding of one arbitration ruling that has Tesla refunding one customer $10,000 plus legal fees for failing to deliver on their promises. Find out more on today’s legally challenging episode of Quick Charge!
An arbitration “court” found that Tesla misled customers with its Full Self Driving product, and has now been forced to refund at least one person’s $10,000 payment (plus legal fees) for the not-quite autonomous driving software. France, too, is piling on claims of deceptive business practices – but there’s some good news for FSD fans! If you’re still willing to pay for it, Tesla will thrown in 0% financing on a brand new Cybertruck.
Check out the relevant links, below, to learn more.
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