(Yicai) June 24 -- Should Canada increase levies on Chinese new energy vehicles, as has been reported, it would be more of a political signal and will not have a big impact on China’s electric car exports, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association told Yicai.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is mulling imposing new tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars to align Canada with actions taken by the US and European Union, Bloomberg reported on June 20, citing people familiar with the matter.

Canada’s EV market is not well developed due to the cold temperatures, Cui Dongshu said. Last year, sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the North American country surged 50 percent year on year to 185,000 units, but this still only accounts for 11 percent of new vehicle ownership nationwide.

Canada currently levies a 6 percent tariff on China-made cars. There are also tax rebate schemes for EVs produced in foreign countries. These have become more popular since Tesla started to deliver cars manufactured in its Shanghai gigafactory last year. The subsidy works out at about CAD5,000 (USD3,654) per vehicle.

Canada imported CAD2.2 billion (USD1.6 billion) worth of Chinese EVs last year. As many as 44,400 cars were delivered to the Port of Vancouver from China last year, government data shows. This is the port Austin-based Tesla uses to ship Model Ys from China.

The Trudeau administration aims to make zero-emission cars account for 60 percent of all light-weight vehicles sold in Canada by 2030 and for all such autos on sale by 2035.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor