A plug-in hybrid is a car that can run on both electricity and gas. You can charge it by plugging it in, and it can also use gasoline when needed, giving you more options for driving.
Tailpipe emissions are the gases and particles that come out of a car's exhaust pipe when it runs. These can be harmful to the environment and our health.
Elocity is a company that makes charging stations for electric vehicles. As more people buy electric cars, companies like Elocity help provide the necessary places to charge them.
Land Rover is a brand that makes luxury SUVs, which are vehicles designed for both off-road driving and comfortable city use. They are known for their strong performance and upscale interiors.
A test drive is when you take a car for a short drive to see how it feels and if you like it before buying it. It's a way to check if the car is right for you.
Polestar is a car brand from Sweden that makes electric cars. They started as a part of Volvo and are known for their high-performance electric vehicles.
Audi is a car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars with modern technology. They are known for their stylish designs and smooth driving experience.
Camp Jeep is a fun event where you can drive Jeep cars on rough terrain to see how well they perform. It's a way to experience the off-road abilities of Jeep vehicles.
The Aston Martin Valhalla is a very fast and fancy sports car that uses both a traditional engine and electric power to go really fast while being more eco-friendly. It's a new model from a famous car company known for making luxurious cars, and people are excited to see what it can do.
The Koenigsegg Jesko is a very fast and powerful car made for racing and high-speed driving. It has special features that help it go faster and handle better on the road.
The Bugatti Mistral is a super-fast luxury car that is very powerful and has a unique design. It's made for those who want the best in speed and style.
LIVE
This podcast is brought to you by Reynolds and Reynolds, the industry leader in automotive
technology. Learn how Spark AI, Reynolds Unified AI data layer, can help you unlock your full
potential by visiting rayray.ca slash spark-ai. Hi everyone and welcome to the February 6,
2026 episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast. I'm your host, Greg 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, Canadian international auto show general
manager Jason Campbell is here to set the table for the event that starts on February 13 in Toronto.
Jason recently spoke with Automotive News Canada publisher Tim Domopoulos and we'll hear that
conversation soon. But first, a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week.
The federal $5,000 electric vehicle sales rebate returns February 16. Prime Minister Mark
Kearney says Ottawa is restoring the rebate program with $2.3 billion. Ottawa will offer $5,000
toward the cost of a new EV and $2,500 toward plug-in hybrids. The rebates will apply only to
vehicles that cost less than $50,000. The government says it hopes the program will help put 840,000
new EVs on the road. The federal government is also scrapping the zero emissions vehicle sales
mandate. Instead, it will now implement strict new tailpipe emissions regulations. Head to our
website for more details. Sticking with EVs, most Canadians support allowing more Chinese
electric vehicles to be sold in Canada. A recent poll finds 61% of respondents support the importation
of Chinese EVs. Canada recently pledged to reduce its tariff on China-made electric vehicles to
6.1% down from 106.1%. It applies to an annual cap of 49,000 eligible vehicles.
Says Leisure's Executive Vice President for Western Canada Steve Masop. Canadians have
changed their views radically in the past 12 months on just how we view our relationship with China.
And this is just one example of that. And finally, in retail news, new vehicle sales
got off to a hot start for the second consecutive year. Automakers sold an estimated 114,000 new
vehicles last month. That's down 2.9% compared with January 2025. But last January was always
going to be a tough act to follow. Under the threat of tariff-induced price hikes and the looming end
to several zero-emission vehicle purchase programs, Canadians had plenty of reasons to rush to buy
new vehicles a year ago. It led to the strongest January sales on record, matching 2018 with an
estimated 118,000 sold. Despite last year's high watermark, the seasonally adjusted annual rate
of sales last month was still 2.08 million. That's higher than any month in the final two quarters
of 2025, and it represents a 9% increase month over month when compared with December 2025.
And that's a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week.
Coming up, we hear from Canadian International Auto Show General Manager Jason Campbell.
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Welcome back to the Automotive News Canada podcast. I'm your host Greg Lason.
We'll now hear a conversation between Automotive News Canada publisher Tim Damopoulos
and Canadian International Auto Show General Manager Jason Campbell.
So Jason, Auto Show or at least the Toronto and Canadian International Auto Show are just
around the corner. What are the top highlights or can't miss experience at the show this year?
Well, Tim, thanks for having me. I think this year we've got a really stellar grouping of,
well, A manufacturers and of course that is the heart of the show. We've got a completely full
floor. There's no empty space. We've got our brands that are most loved, all coming back
into the show. And we've also got an incredible selection of hypercars, a good selection of
concept cars. Probably we've got some of those dream vehicles, much more in abundance this
year than we've had in many, many years. So I think we're going to be having a lot of people
interested in seeing those because they do draw the dreamers as well as the buyers.
But we've also got the fan favorites and opening weekend. We've got big displays from Lego,
which have another new concept which they're distributing for the first time in Canada,
coming to the show. And we've got Hot Wheels have another big presents, family favorites for
family day weekend are big. But we've also got some new vehicles launching that that I think are
going to be of interest to the consumers and to media alike. And the fan favorites, which would
have also been major features of the last few shows. Camp Jeep is coming back and that's always
been popular and is being revamped this year. So a lot of interesting displays, some new displays.
And obviously the cars, which are the stars, got a great selection with over 80% of the
the market represented on the show floor here in Toronto.
That's amazing. So any notable automakers that we may have not seen in previous years or EV startups
or mobility brands that you're particularly excited about beyond, beyond Lego and the
other ones you mentioned. Not that it's a consumer brand, but one of the brands which
is coming into the show, the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association are having the global launch
of their new their new version of the project arrow, which is called Borealis. That's the
phase two of that project. And that's going to be shown for the first time at the show.
And the newest version of their technical association with all the different parts
manufacturers called the Vector. And that's going to be shown for the first time
at our media day opening. That's going to be very popular. We've got some new companies
that are coming in. Elocity, which is a EV charging station provider is coming in and
debuting at the show this year. In terms of mainstream brands, Land Rover is coming back.
We've got Grand Touring Automobiles displaying for the first time some Land Rover products
within their display. They're the primary retailer for that product in the Toronto region.
And very happy to have them bringing in some of those vehicles. I think those kinds of
brands which are really loved by the public and we haven't seen or once what consumers
really look for when they come to the show. And new concept cars which are debuting from a number
of different brands. I think we've got 12 different concepts coming in across the show, across
different brands. And everyone looks to see what are the newest, latest things in the market. And
that won't be a disappointment for consumers this year. It's going to be a strong show. And
some new elements which are in the show, which we've got a display from the
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which is celebrating its 65th year and new ownership this year.
That's going to have a big feature space. And the military, the Canadian Armed Forces,
have a display in the show. It's about 6,500 square feet, so it's not small. And it'll be
showcasing all the different elements of the military, the Army, Navy, Air Force will all
be present. And that's something new we haven't seen in our main show floor for many years.
Now, you know, the one thing that has struck me about the Auto Show Circuit and a lot of it
started here in Toronto is hands-on experiences. You mentioned Camp Jeep, but
you know, there's the ability for consumers to actually get behind the wheel and touch and feel
these vehicles and even take them for a spin. Like, tell me a little bit about the hands-on
elements people will be able to experience at the show this year. We've been running test drives
at the show for probably eight or nine years now. So that's not in itself new, but what has
new is just the extent to which people can test drive different vehicles. And the indoor test
track, as returned again, we're going to have more vehicles on that track than we've ever had.
There'll be 25 different vehicles that consumers can take for a test drive. In addition,
there are three other major areas where people can go and take vehicles for test drives.
The 500-level CSBMW and MINI take that over, as they did in 2025. We've got Audi and Polestar
running big test drives out of the out of the South Building and the loading dock area. And we've
also got a display of 10 different brand, 10 different vehicles on the 200-level, which are
going to have in total over 55 different vehicles that people can test at the show. So that's always
a big part of it, of the show and the excitement. But Camp Jeep, we did over 30,000 test drives or
test rides with Camp Jeep last year. And that will expand, no doubt, even more this year,
because we've got an extra hour that we're running the show into the evenings on weekends.
So those kind of hands-on and get your bums and seats is what really helps drive a lot of people
beyond the consideration stage into the, yeah, let's go see a dealer, let's take one for a test
drive stage. And that's always been popular more so since the pandemic, when that has really taken
off as a key marketing tool for manufacturers. You know, in the past few years, there were a lot
of attendees that were electric curious, but the market has changed quite a bit on the electric
vehicle side. So given the tremendous change in that marketplace, how does that affect the show?
You know, there's still a great deal of interest in the electric vehicles on the market when we
talked, when we're in the planning phases for the show. We have a meeting with all the manufacturers
in the past summer, and we discussed the idea of, you know, how much do we want to focus on
this particular area? Do we continue with the indoor test drive? And it was absolutely
clear after that meeting that all the manufacturers really wanted the EV test drive program to stay
apart, the key part of the show. There's so much new product coming out from many different
manufacturers. I mean, 40% of Cadillac sales in Canada are electric right now. And there are many,
many brands which have invested a lot of money in this space and have a lot of product to move.
And despite there being pullbacks, which has no doubt affected some of the sales levels
from some of the government incentives that were in place in different provinces and federally,
there is still some thought that perhaps this will be coming back at some point. And manufacturers
still see this as a key part of their product portfolio. And there's a huge number of companies
that are working in this space. And we definitely want to showcase this. And I don't think there's
any show that does it better than at our show where we get so many test drives available for
this particular product line. So what's the one misconception people still have about auto shows
today and how does CNIS challenge that in 2026? I don't think the public has much misconception
of the show. The public that we survey all have a great appreciation of what happens here. We've
got over 80% of the consumers that came to the show consider the show helpful or very helpful in
making their next purchase decision. I think where there might be misconceptions is some of the
OEMs that haven't returned to the show since the pandemic. I think the misconception that
some of them have is that you've got to spend and make a palace in the show in order to have a
strong show program. And we've gotten a number of brands that have, I wouldn't call them micro,
but small targeted feature displays, which have done this in a way that will help them stand out,
get attention from the consumers, and can be done at a very reasonable level of cost. And
that's something which I think globally some manufacturers have this misconception that they
have to go big or stay home. Well, that's not the case. We have many different brands represented
at all different sizes. And the consumer experience is very positive, whether you've got three cars
on display or 20. Okay. Now, automakers and OEMs and even dealers for that matter are looking
to engage with a broader group of car buyers. And we often talk about Gen Z and younger generations
and getting them into interested in cars and interested in buying cars. So how does the auto
show help with that? Actually, when we do our consumer survey, as you know, we do this at the
end of every show. And we actually did one in the late fall this year just to understand what
people's buying intentions are, what age they're at, trying to help our manufacturers understand
our consumer better. And in fact, the younger demographics, those kind of in the 18 to 25 age
grouping actually considered the auto show highest amongst all the different age categories in terms
of their valuing the show and finding it a very useful exercise as they start to enter and look
at the car market. But the manufacturers are always looking for people that are looking to
shop around to different brands. And over 50% of the people that came to the show and said that
they're in the market for a new car added at least one brand to their consideration list
after coming out of the show. So, you know, that kind of driving people down the purchase funnel
is what we do best at the show and getting them to take actions after they've been to the show,
whether that be researched more online, go see a dealer, take a test drive or making a purchase.
That's what really is what the show is all about. We're driving excitement and enthusiasm for the
new car market in the critical spring buying season. And that traditional cycle, although
having been disrupted very much during the pandemic is coming back to its more natural
equilibrium and the show being in February is the perfect time to get people excited for the
new spring purchases. Okay. Before we conclude, Jason, I just wanted to give you an opportunity
to add anything. Maybe you can tell me a little bit about the auto show by the numbers. How many
displays are we going to see? How many people do you expect to come this year versus last year?
And tell me a little bit about the critical dates coming up. Yeah, I think that we,
well, this year we will have over 40 mainstream car brands represented at the show.
So that is going to create excellent choice. We've got a very strong contingent of
super VIP cars, which always drives attention when we do our consumer survey asking, you know,
what is the one thing you're looking for most at the show? Obviously, number one is to see new cars
and trucks that are available. But the exotic vehicles always draw a lot of attention. And we've
got an amazing display that will feature some brand new vehicles that we've not had before,
the Valhalla from Aston Martin, the Mestral from Bugatti, the Jesko from Koenigsegg and McLaren's
Supercars. The three of them will probably form the most expensive display in the show. That's
bringing together over 5,000 people working at the show over the course of the 10 days that
were there. We'll drive a lot of enthusiasm, we'll drive social media, and we'll drive over 350,000
people down to the convention center over the 10 days of the show. And we're looking for a big
excitement and a lot of enthusiasm from all the different consumers and all the different brands
that are participating this year. And hopefully, you know, we'll be setting up setting us up for
a good, strong, good, strong end of February and big, big spring buying season here in Ontario.
Jason, really appreciate your time. Best of luck with the show. And thanks for thanks for being
with us today. Thanks. I'd like to thank Jason for his time and Tim for conducting the interview.
If you'd like to be a guest on the show, have a suggestion or simply want to comment,
email me at glasen.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 the homepage. And don't forget, you can follow us on X, where we're at
Auto News Canada. You can find me there too at glasen, A-N-C. And finally, you can find us on
LinkedIn. Just search Automotive News Canada. 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
The February 6, 2026 episode features insights from Jason Campbell, General Manager of the Canadian International Auto Show, set to kick off on February 13 in Toronto. Key highlights include the return of the $5,000 EV sales rebate, a shift in government regulations, and a strong start to new vehicle sales. Campbell discusses the exciting lineup for the auto show, including hypercars, concept vehicles, and hands-on test drives, emphasizing the growing interest in electric vehicles and the involvement of new brands and displays.
EV rebates return; Canadians support Chinese EVs; Strong January sales. Plus, Canadian International AutoShow General Manager Jason Campbell sets the table for the 2026 event.
