B8 G THE GLOBE AND MAIL | W E D N E S DAY , A P R I L 1 , 2 0 2 6 GLOBE INVESTOR | REPORT ON BUSINESS Rising fuel costs and the prospect of Chinese electric vehicles enter- ing the Canadian market are reig- niting consumer interest in EVs, with data showing a surge in sales and online search interest. After months of stagnation, searches for EV insurance quotes jumped 40 per cent year over year in March, according to a Rates.ca survey released Monday. Search volume for electric vehicles on online car retailer Clutch, mean- while, grew 94 per cent from Ja- nuary to the end of this month. While the upfront costs of pur- chasing, maintaining and insur- ing a vehicle remain the biggest deterrent for a majority of EV- interested Canadians, higher fuel prices resulting from the Iran war are changing those considera- tions. “EVs are becoming more acces- sible, they’re becoming more af- fordable,” said Rates.ca insurance broker Daniel Ivans. “And as gas prices hit the level where they’re at now, consumers who are on a budget, they’re almost forced to consider other options.” With fuel prices reaching a national average of $1.78 a litre this week, it costs about 32 per cent more to fill up a gas-powered vehicle than just a month ago, according to data from energy analysts En-Pro. Meanwhile, some estimates show that EVs save drivers about $3,000 a year in equivalent fuel costs. On the other hand, higher repair and replacement costs for things such as batteries still mean EV insurance premiums for many models tend to be 30 per cent to 35 per cent higher than for an average gas-powered vehicle, Mr. Ivans said. Data from auto claims technology company Mitchell showed that in early 2025, bat- tery-electric vehicles averaged about $7,026 per repair com- pared to $5,345 for gas vehicles. The cost of an EV itself can be out of reach for some, with the av- erage listing price of a used EV on AutoTrader hovering at $45,841, compared with $36,816 for all used vehicles, including EVs. But cost pressures may soon be easing with the introduction of cheaper Chinese models into the Canadian market and new gov- ernment rebates. After provincial and federal EV rebates expired in 2025, the Car- ney government introduced a new $2.3-billion Electric Vehicle Affordability Program earlier this year to help with the high cost of vehicles. “A zero-emission vehicle rebate coming back into the mar- ket brings another $5,000 to most [EV] consumers,” said Daniel Ross, senior manager of industry insights and residual value strate- gy at Canadian Black Book, the in- dustry data and analytics publica- tion. Importantly, consumer choice when it comes to EVs is also set to increase. Canada’s trade deal with Beijing, announced in January, is expected to open the gates to an initial 49,000 Chinese-made EVs into the Canadian market with a tariff rate of 6.1 per cent – down from the 100-per-cent duty Otta- wa maintained on Chinese EVs in 2024. The import cap is set to tick up gradually every year, reaching 70,000 in five years. The deal might speed Canada along the path toward $35,000 electric vehicles as it designated part of the quota for EVs with price tags at that figure or less. According to Global Affairs Cana- da, these low-cost vehicles will add up to half of China’s allot- ment by 2030. Electric carmaker BYD Auto Co. has already expressed intent to open as many as 20 dealerships in Canada within a year, position- ing itself among the first Chinese automakers to sell in Canada. BYD’s Seagull sells for as little as US$12,000 in China, but BYD vehicles would likely go for closer to the high-$30,000 range in Can- ada. Among those interested or unsure about EVs, 56 per cent of respondents to the Rates.ca survey said they would consider a Chinese-built model if it’s more affordable. The recent uptick in EV vehicle interest extends to Europe as well. Advert views for new BYD models in Britain spiked 77 per cent year over year, some reports suggest, while BYD vehicles were up more than 375 per cent. The picture, however, is very different in the United States. “Our EV demand remains real- ly low,” said Thomas Libby, an auto analyst with S&P Global Mobility. Under the current ad- ministration, the U.S. has been rapidly retreating from emissions rebates and credits while assemb- ly plants once converted to build- ing batteries used in EVs have been converted back, Mr. Libby said. On this side of the border, would-be buyers put off by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s jabs at Canada’s sovereignty, cuts to electric-vehi- cle subsidies and federal rebates, along with continuing concerns around vehicle range and charg- ing infrastructure, contributed to plummeting electric vehicle sales in recent years. But shifting consumer senti- ment is already translating into purchasing decisions. EV sales on Clutch have roughly doubled since early January from about 5.3 per cent of the company’s total sales to nearly 10 per cent in the past two weeks. “The rationale behind an EV purchase has been at a road- block,” Mr. Ross said. “That road- block is starting to fall down.” Cheaper EV models prompt surge in interest Online searches for EVs and insurance quotes jump as Chinese EV maker BYD prepares to enter domestic market MARIYA POSTELNYAK CONSUMER AFFAIRS REPORTER Seagull electric vehicles from Chinese automaker BYD sell for as little as US$12,000 in China, but would likely go for closer to the high-$30,000 range in Canada. NG HAN GUAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS I have long advocated that retirees should wait until age 70 to start their CPP pension. It makes good financial sense for most people. As the chart shows, that message is starting to gain traction. Until recently, very few retirees postponed the start of their CPP pensions beyond age 65. The take-up rate for starting CPP at age 70 was minuscule before 2016, less than 1 per cent in fact. The main reason retirees have long given for starting CPP early is the “bird in the hand” argument – it’s hard to resist collecting a government benefit as soon as you can, even if waiting means you receive much more. But in 2016, the take-up rate at age 70 started to creep upward, slowly at first and then much more quickly from 2019 and on. By 2024, the take-up rate at 70 climbed above 7 per cent. The Chief Actuary of the Canada Pension Plan pre- dicts that it will continue to increase. I am tempted to take credit for this phenomenon since my book, Retirement Income for Life, was first published in 2018. But there are also other reasons why people are starting to collect CPP later. First, they are retiring later. Second, other experts have also been pointing out the financial advantages of deferring the starting age. And third, the pro- longed period of low interest rates has made it hard to argue that one is better off starting early and collecting interest on the payments. Of course, not everyone should start their CPP pension later. Those who might be better off starting sooner include people with limited savings, those with health problems who do not expect to live a normal life span, and CPP participants who have earned the maximum CPP pension by age 65 and are still working. The latter group would be required to continue making CPP contributions if they don’t start receiving CPP pension, even though the additional contribu- tions are of limited benefit to them. The most heartening aspect of the trend to CPP at 70 is that you will no longer feel alone in your decision. Until 2016, one might have reasonably won- dered “if starting CPP late makes so much sense, then why is no one doing it.” That statement is no longer valid. As an aside, I should point out that the rules under the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) are slightly different. Quebeckers can actually wait until 72 to collect their QPP pensions. Now that more Canadians outside of Quebec are waiting until 70, perhaps the CPP rules should be changed to align with the QPP. FREDERICK VETTESE At long last, more Canadians are waiting until 70 to start their CPP pensions Waiting longer to start retirement Percentage of CPP participants who start their CPP pension at age 70 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8% Females Males THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ACTUARY, CANADA PENSION PLAN [ CHARTING RETIREMENT ] Alarm bells are ringing in the $2- trillion private credit industry, with investor concerns about the growing risk of default on private loans to software businesses, which may be disrupted by artifi- cial intelligence and higher inter- est rates. Fear of contagion in an increas- ingly interconnected financial system has some investors head- ing for the exits, pulling their cap- ital from private credit funds from Blue Owl Capital Inc., Black- Rock Inc., Blackstone Inc. and others. Yet, the broad private credit sector is in better shape than the headline news presents, says Philipp Soummer, who manages the private credit fund at Chron- icle Wealth, a Toronto-based mul- ti-family office and asset manage- ment firm. “It’s important to disambig- uate the two key risks in private credit: Liquidity and valuation,” Mr. Soummer says. “The second risk is far worse than the first. Right now, I’m not seeing any- thing regarding a deterioration of valuations or from a default per- spective.” What he sees is a gap between retail investors’ liquidity expecta- tions and the way the funds are structured. “These funds have effectively democratized access to both pri- vate equity and private credit for non-institutional investors. As an advisor or investor, you need to understand the terms of the fund you are buying,” he says. “Investors want both the up- side from the illiquidity, and they want the yield premium. You have to pick one.” Victor Kuntzevitsky, portfolio manager with Stonehaven Pri- vate Counsel at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel Inc. in Aurora, Ont., sees the current anxiety in the sector as a sign of a maturing market, not a reason to run for the exits. “The current turmoil in private credit is visible, but it’s orderly, and exactly what the structure of semi-liquid private credit mar- kets was built to handle,” he says. However, Mr. Kuntzevitsky faults the way these investments have been marketed as offering an attractive yield while “being like an ATM, where funds could be withdrawn at any time.” He points out that some Cana- dian legacy credit funds had excessively liberal liquidity terms in which investors could request their money back within two weeks to a month. “There was a mismatch between the loans the funds held compared to the redemption terms they offered,” he says. “When these funds were over- whelmed with redemptions, they didn’t have enough cash on hand and were forced to gate, prevent- ing further withdrawals.” Mr. Kuntzevitsky says the risk of contagion in private credit funds is higher in Canada because of the large overlap of advisors and investors in these funds: “If one fund gates, the adviser might think, ‘If this fund has issues, I’m going to submit redemptions in the other funds, too.’ ” Another contributing factor to contagion is career risk, Mr. Soummer says. If an adviser thinks there’s even a 1-per-cent chance of a broader problem in private credit, “they will take liq- uidity now, earning less for their client but not losing their job.” Whether the average investor should even own private assets is debatable. Steve Balaban, chief invest- ment officer of Mink Capital and founder of Mink Learning, at which he trains family offices and advisors globally on private equi- ty and debt investing, says there are some long-term benefits to having “something steady in a portfolio,” which private markets can provide. He also points out that most of the world’s companies are pri- vately held and exposure to them offers portfolio diversification at a time when the S&P 500 is increasingly concentrated among large technology companies. However, Mr. Balaban ques- tions the high fees of private cred- it funds. And while family offices and other institutional investors have the assets and expertise to make direct loans to companies they understand, retail investors lack transparency on the borrow- ers and loan structures, he adds. Because private investments are more opaque by nature, the amount of due diligence and continuing monitoring tends to be labour-intensive, Mr. Soum- mer says. Investors must understand the types of loans and where they sit in the capital structure – includ- ing the amount and type of lev- erage and the collateral backing the loan, the nature of the borrower’s business, and the cov- enants and other legal docu- ments. Mr. Kuntzevitsky disputes the marketing pitch that multiasset- class portfolios are essential for every investor. For those looking to invest new capital, he prefers the expected risk/reward of publicly listed credit funds, some of which have similar holdings to private funds but carry market valuations cur- rently 30 per cent to 50 per cent lower. Special to The Globe and Mail Private credit turmoil exposes marketing problem with illiquid funds RITA SILVAN