The Dodge Charger Scat Pack is a sporty version of the Dodge Charger, known for its strong engine and bold look. It’s one of the cars that can be bought in Canada.
The big car companies that make the cars, like Ford or Toyota. They create the vehicles before they go to dealerships.
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Hi everyone and welcome to the December 5th, 2025 episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast. I'm your host, Craig Lason, the digital and mobile editor at Automotive News Canada. Coming to you from just outside Windsor, Ontario, the Automotive Capital of Canada. Today on the show I speak with Zancon Automotive Group Principal and Executive Director, Laura Zancon. We discuss the millions of dollars she and other dealers are required to spend on electric vehicles
infrastructure. We also talk about the future of EVs and the government sales mandate and rebates, which are both under review, but first look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week.
New vehicle sales in November were down 8.6% that according to DeRosier Automotive Consultants. DeRosier estimates that automakers last month sold 142,000 new vehicles. However, DeRosier Managing Partner Andrew King says
that picture might not be as bad as it appears. November sales last year were inflated as many Quebecers rushed to buy EVs before the province reduced incentives, and this November also had one fewer sales day. According to the Automotive News Research and Data Center in Detroit, of the 10 brands that still report sales on a monthly basis, 6 posted gains. Toyota was the biggest gainer up 10.1% to 18,238 new vehicles sold.
That was the highest number of vehicles sold by volume among automakers, still reporting monthly figures.
In product news, Stellantis on December 2nd began serial production of the 26 Dodge Chargers Scat Pack, bringing back the gasoline-powered version of the muscle car and set the stage for the return of the third shift at the Windsor assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario.
Stellantis expects to hire about 1,500 workers in Windsor to meet demand for the expanded lineup of muscle cars. The two-door performance version of the Charger features a hurricane 6-pack engine that generates 550 horsepower.
The first models are scheduled to arrive at dealers later this month.
Finally, on the trade front, the US Trade Representative this week heard testimony about the future of the United States Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The last three days saw more than 150 witnesses testify. Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association President Flavio Volpe was one of them.
He was in Washington, DC, to quote, present the argument that the USMCA is working for American interests, end quote.
Volpe says the USTR's own numbers show US content in Canada made vehicles has risen to about 50% from 38% under the new USMCA.
The trade pack, however, expires in July, 2026. US President Donald Trump is said to be considering walking away from the pack and perhaps signing a bilateral deal with Canada and another with Mexico.
Of course, the US could renegotiate the current tri-nations deal.
And that's a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week.
Coming up, we hear from Zancon Automotive Group Principal and Executive Director, Laura Zancon.
Let's just start right from the top. You know, like I said, I'm sure all the automakers have different expectations and standards when it comes to EV investment at dealerships.
Can you just broadly outline what's generally expected of dealers, what they're asking you to add or invest in or spend on?
Yeah, they're asking a lot of dealers. So like it would depend on the electric push that comes from their model mix, right?
So like for example, in a Mazda store, it's not that high. So you know, it's relatively less painful. But in something like, for example, Mercedes store, it's extremely high because they've had that huge push of electric vehicles in the last year.
And so dealers had to step up to that and they had to do whatever the OEM has required for their stores to do.
And it would depend on the store and the number of the volume of vehicles that they're selling per year.
So if you're a high volume store in the GTA, you're going to have a heck of a lot more chargers like.
And if you're in the West, perhaps, or if you're up north and on northern Ontario, less, I'm assuming Quebec would have even more than us.
So you know, it just depends where you are in Canada and the region and the volume that you're making that you're doing per year.
What kind of upgrades or investments are you asked to make generally? I know, like you said, it varies dealership to dealership brand to brand. But generally speaking, what are you being asked to pay for and install?
So like there would be EV charging stations for internal use, like our own service and inventory charging.
There's customer, let's say attraction charging stations, which are probably the most painful because that's where it's kind of out of our control.
And it's like who exactly is using this or who is this supposed to attract? That's kind of a difficult one to kind of pinpoint.
There's repair equipment, you know, like heavy duty hoist, etc., four glyphs. There could be EV staff training.
Like it, like it just goes on and on and on. There's, and also you have to remember, your facility has to have enough of,
enough of an electrical infrastructure in order to carry all of the things that they're asking you to do.
So some stores, I know at least in the beginning, had to really kind of bump up that kind of, I don't know exactly how they would do it, but you know, get into the grid and they've got to pump up their electrical infrastructure in order to sustain everything that the OEM is asking them to put in.
They have to manage the electrical consumption, etc., of peak scheduling for electric use, everything.
So there's a lot more than just here's a station, put another three over there and let's go, let's get on to business and sell cars. There's a lot more to it.
Is any of this negotiable? I mean, how steadfast is the automaker and the brand in for lack of a better term, forcing dealers to install all of this?
I'm assuming this is a non-negotiable piece of the agreement between the dealership and the automaker.
It is. It's pretty much non-negotiable and it's in some cases, not every manufacturer, but in some cases, they put specific deadlines to it.
So, for example, you have to be EV ready by, I don't know, 2026.
And if not, you will not, you're not going to hit your certain money at the end of the year or something like that.
Like it's all tied into the facility enhancement and everything.
So like there's, they're going about it in different ways in order for us to really get on the EV train.
But let's face it, here we are at the end of 25 and nobody's really buying electric anymore.
It's kind of, I don't want to say it's dead in the water, but at the moment, it's really slowed down.
Right.
So, you know, we're at that kind of a stand still, if that makes sense.
Absolutely.
Without asking you to open your books, I would never do that or get too personal.
But are you able to ballpark how much your group has spent either in total across all your stores,
or on average per dealership when it comes to these upgrades?
Is there a way to put some context around that and illustrate how expensive this has been?
It's difficult to do.
That's very, very difficult to do.
I was trying to kind of noodle around that.
So, again, it would depend on how much the OEM is pushing electric onto their dealers.
Right.
So, for example, I get once again, a massive store, not so much.
But if you're in a store that's really pushing, or if you have a brand that's really pushing electric,
there's a lot of push on that.
And once again, the deadline, they want you to do this at a certain time, et cetera.
And I could, I would roughly estimate, and I'm probably off, but anywhere in our group,
from what I know, I would roughly estimate anywhere between three and a half to,
to a good four and a half million dollars altogether, is what we've invested so far.
So, you know, that's a lot of money.
Yeah.
And, you know, and the other interesting, well, it's not interesting, it would be,
the other thing that we have to remember is that the technology is changing so quickly.
So, what they wanted us to jump on right now at the moment,
which can perhaps sustain us for the next year or two,
you never know what's coming around the pike in a couple of years.
So, that's the other thing that's kind of a pain point for us as dealers.
It's like you want us to invest all in this.
But at the same time, we're not really 100% sure on what the market wants.
And that's what everybody's forgetting.
What do people want when they want, when they walk in and they want to buy a car?
What do you want?
Do you want electric?
Or do you want gas?
So, that's what everybody's forgetting.
At this moment in time and looking forward a bit, how do you characterize this spending?
You know, I had a dealer say it's money lost.
I had another say it's an investment.
How do you see this?
Is it a loss right now?
Is it investment?
I just wonder how you characterize the investments you've made so far.
Yeah, I would never say it's a loss.
Okay.
I would never say it's a loss.
Never.
I don't see electric going anywhere.
It's just slower out of the gate.
Yeah.
So the push was just too much right now.
And will we ever get to a point of let's say 75% electric?
I don't think so personally.
But I think we could probably get to 40, 35 to 40% in 10 years.
That's my estimate.
So I would never say that it was a complete waste of money.
But it's a little, it's too fast, too soon.
Right.
So my fingers crossed that whatever new technology there is,
they're able to amp up what we have in order to facilitate that.
Right?
Yep.
That's the other issue.
Yeah.
Has there been return on the investment so far with the vehicles you've been able to sell?
The electric vehicles you've been able to sell?
Are you getting any return back at this point?
You know, we've had one dealer testify to Parliament that, you know,
even though we invested all this, he's still losing on individual EV sales.
What has the return been so far?
I don't think there's necessarily, that's a hard one.
I don't think that there's necessarily a return on investment.
The only thing I would say in everybody who's buying an electric vehicle
and I drive it and I personally love them.
So I'm an advocate.
You have to have a charger in your house.
So if you don't have a charger within the house,
it's not going to work for you because I don't know about anybody else,
but I'm not going to be driving around the city of Toronto,
looking for some kind of a charging station for the vehicle.
So I've got to make sure that everything that I do is well planned.
I've got enough juice in the car to get to where I'm going.
And then at the end of the night, I can plug in and be ready for tomorrow.
So that's the only, that's for me.
It just shows the consumer that they are around, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
It makes them more visible.
Absolutely.
That they're an option, right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
Thank you.
Yeah.
You know, I talked to one dealer at West who said,
look, my urban center stores, we have a rebate in Manitoba now.
So as a Manitoba dealer said, we have a provincial rebate now, an incentive.
And I have seen sales increase in my urban stores, but not in my rural stores.
Are you hearing and seeing similar things in your discussions in Ontario?
I know you're in the GTA, obviously, but I just wonder if you hear anything
from outside of the GTA that sort of illustrates that as well.
That in the interior is maybe doing better than the exterior.
This is obviously before the incentives at the federal level went away.
I just wonder if there's a difference between urban and rural.
100%.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because, you know, you're also forgetting the climate.
Especially when you're going out where it's colder out there, the more north you are,
it's colder out there.
People aren't inclined to really get into the electric because then the charge will go,
it'll go quicker, in other words, with the more things that you have on in the car, et cetera.
So I would 100% agree with that.
Here's a question.
I mean, if anyone knew this answer, we would be the millionaire.
But what is needed to get more consumers to buy EVs?
We know that the OEMs have sort of forced upon the dealers to add service and charging and product.
But as you and I just discussed, they're not selling right now because there's no rebates.
What is the magic formula or the magic bullet or the answer to get more consumers to choose electric?
I'm going to say time.
Okay.
I think it's going to take time for everybody not to just digest what's out there right now.
But also for the OEMs to come up with models and product mixes that attract the consumer a little bit more.
So the technology, I'll tell you right now that the electric vehicle I was driving last year compared to this year,
complete difference.
So that's what I mean by technology in time.
They will, one thing about our OEMs, they're brilliant.
And they're coming on. The technology is strong.
They've got the Chinese right behind them.
So they want to be there too.
And I have every face in them that they're going to do really, really well and do what the customer wants.
And I think if anything, because of the government push so much.
And the fact that the market kind of halted it, people are going to listen to the OEM a little bit more.
So I think that the new technology that will be coming out will be much more suited for the market.
Last question.
It's still in the EV realm.
The federal government is reviewing it's zero emission vehicle sales mandate.
It's reviewing the ISF rebate program that $5,000 credit that was available up to $5,000 credit that was available on an EV purchase.
What would you like to see out of the next iteration of these two things?
Do you want to see them return?
And if so, what do you want to see change or do you want them to return at all?
Good question.
Well, you're on the spot.
So then we can sell our EVs.
And the consumers would want them.
It would make them definitely more attractive for consumers.
Number one, yes.
And I would like us to get to a point where we don't need them.
Right.
So that the actual vehicle itself is affordable.
Because let's face it, affordability, that trumps everything.
So they have to be affordable for it to make sense to the consumer.
Fantastic. Thanks for this.
Thank you.
I hope I helped.
I'd like to thank Laura for her time.
If you'd like to be a guest on the show, have a suggestion or simply want to comment.
Email me at glason at autonews.com.
And remember, you can listen to all our previous podcasts on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play,
or on our website, automotivenews.ca.
Just scroll to the podcast hub in the middle of our homepage.
And don't forget, you can follow automotive news Canada on X, where we're at auto news Canada.
And you can find me there too under at glason ANC.
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That does it for this episode of the automotive news Canada podcast.
We hope you'll join us next time.
So long everybody.
About this episode
Laura Zancon, Principal and Executive Director of Zancon Automotive Group, discusses the significant investments dealers must make for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, including charging stations and staff training. The conversation highlights the challenges dealers face with fluctuating EV sales and the impact of government mandates and rebates. Key insights include the varying costs based on dealership size and location, as well as the need for more consumer-friendly EV models. The episode also touches on the current state of new vehicle sales in Canada and the importance of affordability in driving EV adoption.
November sales slide; New Charger output starts; USMCA under scrutiny. Plus, Zanchin Automotive Group Principal and Executive Director Laura Zanchin talks EV investment, sales, rebates and more.
