The “when” and “how” of a revived federal zero-emission vehicle rebate remain unknown, but minister Julie Dabrusin says it’s on the way

The federal government is working to bring back a federal zero-emission vehicle rebate, says Minister for Environment and Climate Change Julie Dabrusin.

Dabrusin made the comments speaking to The Canadian Press following Question Period in the House of Commons at parliament earlier this week, but declined to give further details on the mechanics of a future ZEV rebate.

“Will it be named, iZEV? That I can’t tell you. But there will be a consumer rebate,” Dabrusin said to CP.

What happened to iZEV 1.0?

In May 2019, the federal government began giving out a $5,000 rebate to consumers buying battery-electric, hydrogen or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The program was called the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV).

A total of over $3 billion in iZEV funding was used to put half a million ZEVs on Canadian roads.

Then, in January 2025, the federal government announced the program would end due to funding being exhausted.

The abrupt announcement, coupled with the discontinuation of ZEV rebates in several provinces, caused national the share of ZEV sales to slump from an all-time high of 18.9 per cent in Q4 2024 to 8.7 per cent in Q1 2025.

The tumble in ZEV market penetration has triggered a call from automakers for the Canadian government to scrap its ZEV sales mandate. This mandate compels OEMs to have 20 per cent of new vehicle sales to be ZEVs by 2026 and 100 per cent of new sales to be ZEVs by 2035.

But the federal government, so far, isn’t budging in its plan to transition Canadians to zero-emission transportation.

“[The mandate has] been in place since 2023. I don’t see why the Conservatives believe we need to change it in the face of what we’re facing with the U.S. tariffs on the auto industry,” Dabrusin told The Canadian Press.