Several researchers, organizations and others have supported or urged governments to adopt a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate.
In Canada, over a dozen academics in British Columbia urged the B.C. government to adopt a ZEV mandate in an open letter. Two of the signatories, Marc Jaccard and Jonn Axsen have indicated that this policy would result in significant increase in the share of ZEV vehicles and decrease of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Canada's Ecofiscal Commission suggested that a ZEV mandate would be a more cost-effective measure than other measures to increase the share of electric vehicles in Canada.
"From a policy perspective, the ZEV mandate is a thing of beauty. It sends a clear, long-term signal to automakers and other stakeholders that the electric-mobility transition is under way. The policy has already had a transformative impact on electric vehicle sales in California since its birth there in 1990. It has incentivized innovation globally, in part because it has teeth: automakers choosing not to innovate must buy credits from the other companies, or pay fines. In turn, the more innovative companies are rewarded with the revenue from these credits."
-Jonn Axsen, Simon Fraser University
"...a balanced and flexible PZEV-ZEV standard in Canada that forced vehicle manufacturers and retailers to hit market share targets of 10 percent of new sales by 2020 and 70 percent of new sales by 2030 would reduce annual emissions from this sector by 40 percent."
-Marc Jaccard, Simon Fraser University