A multitude of foreign manufacturers could offer EVs without American parts for the Canadian market. For now, Kia seems to be leading the way

It is difficult to speculate to what extent the automobile market will be affected by tariffs (and counter-tariffs) between Canada and the United States.

But it’s probable that, eventually, there will be an increase in the final cost of any item assembled in the U.S. or that uses parts manufactured there.

If that final cost pertains to an electric vehicle that increase could have a substantial impact and, either way, the Canadian automotive industry has some tough challenges ahead of it.

For decades, American cars (with plenty of Canadian parts) represented the closest thing to a domestic vehicle offering for Canada. Now, General Motors and Ford may be the new “foreign cars” as well as the most expensive.

The response to this may be that Canadian EV buyers focus exclusively on vehicles originating from Europe, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, or even China. (Chinese EVs are subject to a 100 per cent tariff to enter Canada; but perhaps this policy will change due to the ongoing continental frenemy situation.)

Even without China, though, the countries mentioned offer a lot of choice for Canadian EV buyers.

Take, for example, South Korea and specifically, automaker Kia.

Kia not only appears ready to bring a new EV to North America, but is indicating it favours the Canadian market over the American one.

The upcoming EV5 will be available in Canada, but not the U.S, according to Kia Canada. It’s an all-electric, five- seat SUV that’s available with all-wheel-drive, fully made in South Korea.

And it may be the first of several Kia vehicles to come to Canada and skip the U.S. market all together.

On February 27, Kia hosted their “EV Day” event in Tarragona, Spain. There were three important vehicles on display: the production version of the EV4, the EV2 Concept and the production version of the PV5 van. The PV5 van displays a design ethos that maximizes the inherent space saving characteristics of an electric power train. It comes in passenger and commercial configurations.

President and CEO of Kia, Ho Sung Song, was there and addressed some of the uncertainties of the U.S. tariff situation and the impact it was having on Kia’s North American retail decisions.

When asked if the PV5 would retail in the United States, his response was clear: “I don’t consider volume sales for the United States, but we have a plan in Canada.”

Kia Canada public relations representative, Susan Bernardo, confirmed to Electric Autonomy that there are plans to bring the PV5 to Canada.

Then, for anticipated big player vehicles of smaller dimension, the EV3 is slated to arrive in Canada within a year.

According to KIA Canada, “we have not confirmed production location for our market.” But depending on how the U.S. tariff situation evolves, we may see all-Korean or Korean-Mexican content and assembly.

In the coming years it will be fascinating to study the logic for Kia to action Canada as a stand-alone North American market for some of their electric vehicle offerings.

But looking at the picture as a whole, perhaps it was always destined to be this way and the tariff spat is just accelerating the inevitable.

Overall, Canada is on a trajectory to be a much more EV friendly market than the United States; not only concerning pricing, but access to charging and social acceptance.

Canada has embraced the EV transition steadily for years. As reported in Electric Autonomy, the adoption rate of EVs in Q4 2024 hit 18.9 per cent, compared to 16.5 per cent in Q3. Importantly, this type of increase is greater than the overall increase in light-duty vehicle sales volumes.

Meanwhile, buyers today are more motivated than ever before to vote with their wallets and seek out purchases from friendly foreign countries for the things not made-in-Canada.

So, out of all this adversity is coming an opportunity for everyone.

The foreign manufacturers that catch on to that and move promptly to realize that potential could end up with a sizeable chunk of our market.

And, so far, that manufacturer seems to be Kia.

Peter Vella calls himself a car nut with a conscience, and has found his enthusiasm for things mobile revitalized by the electric vehicle movement. He travels extensively to most any electric vehicle symposium, international car show or car museum he can get to.