You could rewrite this as “Canadians crunched by inflation, corporate profiteering, are unwilling to spend money on top-trim, high-margin electric vehicles that manufacturers want to them buy instead of cheaper cars that they can afford”.

It is true, though:

• More people rent, and so can’t charge at home
• Interest rates have made monthly car payments out of range
• People are squeezed everywhere else
• Automakers (and frankly, the rest of the supply side) got addicted to debt-fueled spending and are absolutely unwilling to go back to an era of lowered expectations. I mean, we all have to do with less, but we can’t expect our Captains of Industry to share the pain.