BCBusiness

| BUSINESS CLIMATE T H E B R I E F 16 | BC B U S I N E SS OCTOB ER 2025 Martin Dee At the end of the day, people will not adopt EVs or plug-in hybrids if they don't have convenient charging. That is a must-have." WERNER ANTWEILER, UBC SAUDER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS trucks, is set to come into force in 2026. In its first year, 20 percent of new light-duty vehicles will have to be all-electric, hydrogen fuel-cell or plug-in hybrids; that bar is then slated to rise to 60 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035. Since 2019, B.C. has had an even stricter EV mandate: 26 percent of light-duty vehicles must be zero-emission by 2026, 90 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035. As a result, the number of zero-emission light-duty vehicles in Canada is expected to grow from nearly 500,000 today—roughly 125,000 in B.C.—to 5 million by 2030 and 21 million by 2040, according to Natural Resources Canada. According to S&P Global Mobility, sales of new electric vehicles in B.C. slipped from 24.9 percent at their peak in mid-2024 to 19.2 percent in the first three months of 2025. Antweiler says the cancellation of federal and B.C. government rebates, which had shaved up to $9,000 off the price of an EV, was partly responsible for slowing sales—as was the shift in public attitude toward Tesla and its polarizing CEO, Elon Musk— but a lack of charging infrastructure is also to blame. According to B.C. Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions Adrian Dix, rebates for EVs are unlikely to return in British Columbia; instead, the province is focused on improving the public charging network, from the current 7,000 chargers—1,800 of which are fast chargers—to 10,000 by 2030. EV owners can now drive all of B.C.'s major highways, he adds, with fast char- gers no more than 150 kilometres apart, and multi-unit residential buildings, or MURBs, can get rebates and other perks on new charging systems. "We're going to see continuing growth in this market— and it's a real economic opportunity, because we make electricity in B.C., we don't make gasoline," says Dix, who says the province can easily meet the additional electricity demand that widespread EV charging will require. "So, we believe building out the public network is the best thing we can do." Tony Gioventu, executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of BC, says that because of the government initiatives, EV-driving condo owners aren't hitting the same speedbumps as those in other provinces. Still, he recommends that, before B.C. homeowners buy an EV, they should carefully investigate and price out their charging options. At one high-rise development in Kelowna, owners discovered the electrical upgrade required to install chargers would cost over $1 million. In North Vancouver, a condo owner discovered that to install a charger on his parking spot would top $100,000. He advises stratas to skip the Level 3 chargers—which require significant power and can cost between $50,000 and $100,000—and instead opt for Level 1 or 2 chargers— which are about $3,000 to 5,000—and an electricity management system that helps to address the demand more evenly. In many buildings, he says, simply switching to LED lighting can be enough to meet the added power demands. "A lot of buildings can manage more than they realize," he says. "And it's not just about EV charging. It's, 'Do we have enough power and is there a way we can manage the power so we can have everything?'" Antweiler agrees that most multi-family buildings should skip the fast chargers and instead invest in load-sensing and load-sharing technology that allows more people to simply "plug and forget." He also hopes for more availability of charging in workplaces, as well as at residential curbsides. He would like to see rules requiring landlords to provide EV charging access in rental buildings, and for owners of large rental complexes to produce electricity reports similar to those required in stratas. For his part, Antweiler's own range anxiety turned out to be unfounded. In fact, he uses so little gas that he gets warnings the fuel has gone stale. He recently travelled to Norway, where roughly 90 percent of new car sales are EVs and charging is readily available—a model he hopes to one day see in British Columbia. "In the end, what will drive the choice of EVs is when people realize that electricity really is cheaper per kilometre, that they can conveniently charge at home and that they have lots of choice," says Antweiler. Early EV adopters were willing to accept a certain level of inconvenience, he adds, but the next tier of buyers isn't quite so sure. "But at the end of the day, people will not adopt EVs or plug-in hybrids if they don't have convenient charging," he says. "That is a must-have."

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