Our Work

Greenhouse gas emissions from personal vehicles represent 13% of overall Canadian emissions. Roughly 85% of Canadian households have at least one car or light duty truck and the total number of vehicles on the road continues to increase. Moving transportation to net-zero will require action on multiple fronts including greater investment in public transit, encouraging active mobility, accelerating the phase-out of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs) and rapid consumer uptake of zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs).

While a full-court press by civil society and governments on all these fronts is necessary, accelerating the uptake of ZEVs and the phasing out of ICEs is strategically important to help Canada’s automotive industry compete in the future clean global marketplace. Accelerating electric vehicle market penetration is also important because Canadian households will continue to own and purchase personal vehicles at a high rate and it is critical that we ensure that purchases of ZEVs are as high as possible.

The Transition Accelerator is focused on accelerating the transition to ZEVs and the phase-out of ICEs while strengthening ZEV manufacturing and assembly-related employment opportunities. We will work towards this by encouraging the equitable uptake of ZEVs, and building a coalition made up of industry, labour, NGOS and academics to promote the ZEV value chain in Canada and secure government adoption of ambitious ZEV industrial and job creation strategies.