The Payload

Executive Summary

There has been much chatter about electric vehicles. Are sales going up or down? Should we put tariffs on imports? How much money do they save? But these conversations have an asterisk: they’re about passenger EVs—the cars we drive to work or soccer practice or take on road trips. These are just some of the vehicles on our streets. And from a pollution perspective, they’re only part of the problem.

At least 37% of transport emissions in Canada come from commercial vehicles, such as delivery vans, buses, big rigs, and garbage trucks. And in all the debate over EVs, these often higher-polluting buses and trucks remain largely forgotten. This report dives into this overlooked sector and maps out a package of policies that can get it onto a cleaner path.

Taking action has major upsides. Not only can it make a sizable dent in Canada’s emissions, it could also be a boon for our homegrown manufacturing industry. The first fully electric vehicle to ever roll off a Canadian assembly line was a delivery van (GM’s Brightdrop Zevo 600). And there are no less than seven clean bus and truck manufacturers headquartered in Canada. That doesn’t even include other players in the space, like hydrogen fuel cell manufacturers.

Despite its manufacturing prowess, Canada is firmly at the back of the pack when it comes to adoption. Just 2% of new trucks and buses sold in Canada in 2023 were zero-emissions, compared to 9% globally. By failing to put our homemade zero-emission vehicles on the road, we’re putting Canadian companies at a disadvantage and limiting their capabilities to scale up and export to a large and growing global market.

But more than that, slow adoption is also impacting Canadians’ health. An enormous 15,300 premature deaths per year are linked to air pollution, with vans, trucks, and buses having an outsized impact. In fact, every local delivery truck electrified is the equivalent of more than five households adopting EVs. With poor air quality primarily affecting the most vulnerable in our population, such as children and seniors, it’s a serious problem in need of a serious solution.

Thankfully, there are a number of actions governments can take to accelerate the deployment of cleaner trucks and buses. These include purchase incentives to reduce the upfront cost for fleets and operators, support for charging, and regulations that compel manufacturers to sell more zero-emission commercial vehicles. The latter is especially important to improve supply. While a Clean Energy Canada catalogue published earlier this year showcased the more than 150 zero-emission trucks and buses available for sale in Canada today, wait times can be up to three years for some models, delaying fleets’ ability to decarbonize.

Some of these solutions are already in place, with the federal government and certain provinces farther along than other provincial governments. But there’s much more to be done to get enough clean trucks and buses on the road. Luckily, we can look to other jurisdictions for inspiration. California has the highest zero-emission truck and bus sales in North America with an impressive 17% market share (excluding transit buses), largely thanks to an effective set of policies, including a sales regulation. And the EU recently introduced some of the most ambitious heavy-duty vehicle emission standards in the world, limiting the amount that trucks and buses can pollute.

Without these actions and more, it will be very hard to fight climate change—both here in Canada and around the world. In fact, BloombergNEF recently indicated that the world’s medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are not on track to hit net zero by 2050 and that rapid policy intervention is needed. It’s time to stop overlooking our biggest vehicles.