ZEVIP program is extended and expected to finance 55,000 new chargers, with money for research and efforts to modernize a ‘patchwork’ grid

Ottawa is putting money into more EV chargers and a bigger grid to feed them in an effort to help the move toward electric vehicles.

Thursday’s federal budget set aside just over $634 million for EV charging infrastructure, anchored by $587 million to renew the Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP).

ZEVIP is a fund targeting public EV charging developments, covering up to 50 per cent of project expenses, or 75 per cent of Indigenous-led projects, with caps of up to $2 million per project.

The program had been set to expire next year.

More than 55,000 new chargers

If approved by Parliament, the renewed funding will flow over five years starting in 2027. It is expected to support more than 55,000 additional chargers in what the budget calls “areas where the infrastructure is needed most,” with the aim of roughly doubling the number of federally supported chargers.

“The charging industry is really encouraged by the multi-year investment in the budget,” said Travis Allan, president and CEO of the Canadian Charging Infrastructure Council (CCIC), in an interview with Electric Autonomy.

“We’ll be looking to make sure that we have great programs in place to deal with the barriers faced by people living in condos and apartments, public fast charging, which needs to cover major corridors and metropolitan areas, and then also charging for fleets and medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which make up a major share of transportation emissions.”

Daniel Breton, president and CEO of Electric Mobility Canada, is also encouraged by the funding and, more importantly, the five-year ZEVIP window, which can make planning and acquiring financing easier.

“The multi-year announcement was as important as the announcement of funding,” he told Electric Autonomy.

“The industry has been so unpredictable for a number of years. This is only adding predictability.”

Breton is disappointed, however, by what’s not in the budget. There is no additional funding for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, EV education or battery recycling.

The Incentives for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles (iMHZEV) program officially ended on March 15, 2026, with no federal replacement.

Ottawa says it has backed more than 50,000 charging installations to date.

The budget projects 58,874 chargers will be in operation or planned by 2028-29 under existing ZEVIP funding. Ontario is anticipated to lead with 23,802, followed by British Columbia at 17,147 and Quebec at 9,555. The Northwest Territories is slated for 42.

Research and development funds

Natural Resources Canada would receive $45 million over five years, also starting in 2027-28, for research and development of charging technology.

“We’re interested to see how those will be spent because we have so many great companies that are working in and innovating in the charging ecosystem,” said Allan.

A further $2.2 million over five years is proposed to go towards the Greening Government Operations Fleet Program, which assesses how ready federal departments are to switch their own vehicles to zero-emission models.

The charging money sits inside Powering Canada Strong, the government’s national electricity strategy, which the budget backs with more than $50 billion aimed at doubling the capacity of Canada’s grid by 2050.

Major electrical grid upgrades

Among the biggest pieces is nearly $4 billion over 10 years, starting in 2027-28, for electricity infrastructure expansion, renewable energy and priority grid projects, including new funding for the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program.

“It’s one thing to install chargers,” said Breton. “We have to get the electricity to go to the chargers.”

The budget also proposes $37 million in 2027-28 to study proposed interties, the transmission links that carry power across provincial and territorial borders and to inform talks over how to split their costs.

The document describes Canada’s patchwork of provincial grids as too fragmented, arguing stronger links would let power move more easily across borders.

To encourage transmission building, the Clean Electricity investment tax credit would be expanded to cover the highest-voltage transmission lines within each province. That credit and the Clean Technology investment tax credit would both be extended to the end of 2040.

Natural Resources Canada would also get $26.4 million over 10 years for data and modelling to guide grid planning, and the budget earmarks $1.6 billion over 10 years to modernize power systems in northern and remote communities.