Canadian EV customers are delaying buying decisions while they wait for more Chinese EVs to reach their shores, according to a new survey, suggesting widespread awareness of China’s EV dominance is causing EV buyers to ignore Western automakers’ offerings entirely.

The survey was commissioned by Clean Energy Canada, and shows that Canadian interest in EVs is slowly ticking up, with nearly half of them inclined, likely or certain to buy an EV as their next vehicle.

But more interestingly, among potential EV buyers, there’s one big stumbling block: China.

Originally, Canada had the same tariff on Chinese EVs that the USA had, a 100% tariff implemented (unwisely) by President Biden. As trade partners with the US and with a heavily intermeshed auto industry (given Detroit is literally a stone’s throw away from Canada), Canada thought it would be wise to maintain a united front on auto tariffs.

But then, idiocy happened. The squatter in the US White House put tariffs on Canada leading to immediate job losses, and repeatedly threatened its sovereignty. Now, the US’ relationship with Canada is strained, and Canada is looking towards the rest of the world for allies.

At the same time, China saw an opportunity, and decided to put a tariff on Canadian canola . This was a big deal for farmers in the center of the country, and led to the somewhat unexpected effect of the most conservative, oil-loving Canadian provinces lobbying the Canadian government to drop tariffs on Chinese EVs and allow them into the country, in exchange for China dropping canola tariffs.

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