Canada’s import quota for Chinese-built EVs reached 15,063 of the 24,500 permits available as of August 21 — with 61.5% of the allocation utilized and just 10 days remaining before the first window closes on August 31.
A Global Affairs Canada utilization report executed on Friday shows 15,063 vehicles cleared since March 1, up from the 12,513 recorded in the August 14 report.
Global Affairs Canada has since revised its July figure upward by 300 units, to 5,982 from the 5,682 shown on the July 31 report. Measured against that revised baseline, the August 14 total becomes 12,813.
The update adds 2,550 vehicles in a single week — 2,250 on the revised basis — bringing the August total to 4,950 units across 21 days.
Only 300 units had been added between August 7 and 14, after 2,400 vehicles were cleared in the first week of the month alone.
Weekly volumes of 2,400, 300 and 2,250 point to batch arrivals rather than a steady flow, and make any straight-line projection of the final total unreliable.
Some 9,437 permits remained available as of Friday, with the first six-month period set to close on August 31.
Filling them would require roughly 940 vehicles a day over the remaining 10 days, against an August average of about 240. The window is on course to close materially undersubscribed.
The weekly update landed on the day a three-day postponement of US President Donald Trump’s threatened 50% tariff on a range of Canadian goods expired without an agreement.
The Tariff Deadline
The United States began enforcing 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods after the deadline passed at the end of Friday.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement posted shortly after midnight that Canada had “declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would match the measures dollar for dollar, with retaliatory tariffs on US imports beginning September 8.
Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this week — less than two hours before the original midnight deadline — that he had paused the levies, claiming that the two countries had a deal pending the finalization of documents.
Carney offered a different framing, confirming that the tariffs had been postponed until end of day August 21, but saying substantial progress had been made and that important work remained.
Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters on Thursday that the two sides were “very close” to a deal.
Auto tariffs were the central obstacle.
Sources cited by CBC News said the two countries remained at loggerheads over what tariff, if any, should apply to Canadian-made vehicles bound for the US market.
Washington’s latest offer would lower the rate on Canadian-built vehicles to a headline 15%, down from the current 25% under Section 232, with the effective rate falling as low as 7.5% for vehicles with higher US content.
Canadian officials considered that rate too high.
Category Breakdown
Electric passenger cars valued above C$35,000 ($25,100) stood at 7,013 vehicles, built from 3,510 in May, 135 in June, 957 in July and 2,411 in August through the 21st.
Electric passenger cars at or below C$35,000 were the largest single classification at 7,747 — driven by 465 in June, 4,743 in July and 2,539 in August through the 21st.
The C$35,000 threshold is a free-on-board customs value rather than a retail price, according to Global Affairs Canada’s April consultation document, so vehicles in the lower tier reach showrooms well above that figure once freight, the 6.1% tariff and dealer margin are added.
Non-plug-in hybrid SUVs and passenger vans above C$35,000, which first appeared in July with 259 vehicles, recorded no additional units in August, keeping the category’s cumulative total at 259.
Electric SUVs and passenger vans above C$35,000 also added nothing in August, leaving that line at 44 vehicles since June.
August Composition
The product mix reversed during the third week of August.
Through the 14th, the month had tilted toward higher-value battery-electric passenger cars, which accounted for 1,889 of 2,700 vehicles, or 70.0%.
In the week that followed, sub-C$35,000 cars took 1,728 of the 2,250 vehicles added on the revised basis, or 76.8%.
For the month to date the split is 2,539 below the threshold against 2,411 above it, at 51.3% and 48.7% — the most evenly balanced month of the window.
The pattern returns August toward July, when sub-C$35,000 vehicles dominated at more than 79% of the month’s imports.
Hybrid imports have recorded zero activity in August after the 259-unit July batch — all classified under HS code 8703409090 — which Ford later confirmed was tied to the resumption of China-built Lincoln Nautilus hybrid sales in Canada.
US-Canada Tensions
Trade tensions between the US and Canada, alongside the trade deal signed between Ottawa and Beijing, have already reshaped the way automakers operate in the country.
The quota framework operates under the January agreement between Carney and President Xi Jinping, which replaced the 100% surtax on Chinese-built electrified vehicles with a 6.1% most-favoured-nation tariff inside an annual ceiling of 49,000 vehicles.
US-based Tesla, which produces its entire lineup in the US, has launched a Shanghai-built Model 3 in Canada on May 1 at C$39,490 ($28,300) to exploit the 6.1% rate — far below the 25% national-security tariff applied to US-built vehicles entering Canada.
Global Affairs Canada does not identify importers or brands in the utilization reports, and no automaker has confirmed its share of the quota.
Notice to Importers Serial No. 1162 restricts eligibility to Canadian residents that are EV manufacturers, or to non-resident manufacturers acting through a Canadian agent, which closes the quota to independent importers and leaves brands without a Canadian corporate presence unable to draw on it.
US-based Tesla, which produces its entire lineup in the US, has launched a Shanghai-built Model 3 in Canada on May 1 at C$39,490 ($28,300) to exploit the 6.1% rate — far below the 25% national-security tariff applied to US-built vehicles entering Canada.
The Remaining Allocation
Under Notice to Importers Serial No. 1162, any first-window permits left unused on August 31 carry over into the second six-month period, which opens September 1 with its own 24,500-vehicle base.
The notice states that the total available quantity for the second half will be 24,500 vehicles plus any unused volumes from the initial period, and that a new notice will be published before that window opens.
A rollover of 7,000 to 9,000 permits would give the second window an effective ceiling of roughly 31,500 to 33,500vehicles — a larger pool for brands preparing to enter or expand in the Canadian market this autumn.
Geely-owned Polestar reopened Canadian orders for the China-built Polestar 2 in June at C$69,900 ($50,100), with first imports slated for September — drawing on the carry-over allocation from the second window’s opening day.
BYD is assembling a Canadian retail network targeting about 20 dealerships, though the company has not confirmed a launch date or pricing.
Chery has been staging Omoda & Jaecoo vehicles in the Toronto area since April, with certification and dealer agreements still in progress.
