. . . Is Dying With It
This week, just days ago, on November 18, 2025, B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix stood up and did something nobody in Victoria thought they’d ever see an NDP government do: he admitted the province’s Zero-Emission Vehicle mandate was “no longer realistic” and announced they’re scrapping the 90% by 2030 and 100% by 2035 targets. Dead. Gone. They’re writing new legislation in 2026 that will basically copy whatever weaker rules Ottawa comes up with after its own ongoing retreat.
They also permanently killed the provincial EV rebate program. No more $4,000–$7,000 cheques from Victoria to people who can already afford a $70,000 electric pickup.
For anyone who’s been reading this blog the last few months, this shouldn’t come as a shock. I’ve been saying it since summer: the numbers never added up, the subsidies were unsustainable, and regular people were getting priced out of basic transportation while governments played climate saviour with our money.
Turns out even the NDP in British Columbia finally looked at the sales charts, the unsold EV inventory piling up at dealerships, the charging desert north of Kamloops, and the hydro bills that are about to explode if everyone plugs in at 6 p.m. – and they blinked.
This isn’t just a B.C. story. This is the sound of the entire 2020–2023 “EVs are inevitable” narrative hitting a brick wall at 100 km/h.
The Global Dominoes Are Falling – Fast
Let’s run the 2025 scorecard so far:
- UK Labour delayed their 2035 ICE ban by five years the minute they got into power.
- Germany’s government begged the EU to water down the 2035 ban (they did).
- California is openly debating pushing their 2035 ban out to 2040 or later.
- Norway – the poster child – is phasing out its insane subsidies and watching growth crater.
- Québec slashed rebates and is watching EV market share stall.
- Ottawa paused its own national mandate and is “reviewing” it.
- And now B.C. just pulled the plug entirely on the most aggressive provincial targets in the country.
Every single jurisdiction that tried to force 100% electric by 2035 is either delaying, rewriting, or outright cancelling the rules. Every. Single. One.
Why This Is Happening (Because Reality Doesn’t Negotiate)
Early adopters bought all the EVs they’re going to buy. The Tesla cult, the virtue-signalers, the condo dwellers with Level 2 chargers in the parkade – they’re done. Now you’re trying to sell battery cars to nurses who drive 100 km to work in –30°C, to contractors who need to tow 10,000 lbs up logging roads, to families who can’t drop seventy grand on a vehicle that loses half its range when the kids want the heater on.
Without massive subsidies, EVs are still thousands more expensive than a comparable hybrid or gas vehicle. And governments are broke. B.C. just admitted they can’t keep writing rebate cheques forever. Neither can anyone else.
Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids are eating pure-electric lunch. Why? Because you get 60–100 km of electric driving for the daily commute, then a gas engine when you need range, heat, or to tow something. No range anxiety, no $2,000 battery replacement anxiety ten years from now, and you still cut your fuel bill in half. Consumers aren’t dumb – they’re voting with their wallets.
The Political Poison
This was supposed to be the NDP’s signature climate file. Instead it became a tax on working people to subsidize rich folks’ second cars. When the premier’s own supporters in Prince George and Kelowna started screaming about being forced to buy vehicles they can’t afford or charge – Victoria listened. Fast.
That’s the part the downtown Vancouver crowd still doesn’t get: outside the Lower Mainland bubble, most British Columbians heat with propane or oil, live an hour from the nearest fast charger, and think “range anxiety” is something that actually matters in January.
Where We Go From Here
Hybrids and plug-in hybrids are the new consensus. Toyota’s been laughing for five years while everyone else poured hundreds of billions into battery factories that are now getting mothballed. Ford just delayed another $12 billion in EV plants. GM killed the Chevy Bolt production line expansion. Mercedes walked back their “all-electric by 2030” promise. The list goes on.
B.C. says they’ll still push charging stations (good – we actually need those regardless). But the era of government forcing you to buy a specific type of vehicle because politicians know better than you? That experiment just failed its road test.
I’ve said it before on these pages and I’ll say it again: technology should serve people, not the other way around. When governments have to ban what works to force what doesn’t, you’ve already lost the argument.
British Columbia just admitted it. The rest of the world is catching on.
About time.
(With research and drafting assistance from Grok 4 – xAI)
