ZEV Registrations in Canada Now Topping 12 Percent of All Vehicles
So, how exactly is the electric vehicle market doing these days? A few automakers have made headlines after cancelling or pushing back some of their planned investments, but sales are still on the rise. Data released this week by Statistics Canada is there to support it.
During the third quarter of 2023, new zero-emission vehicles (which also include plug-in hybrids) made up 12.1% of all new motor vehicles registered across the country. This represents an increase from the same period in 2022, when ZEVs were 8.7% of all motor vehicle registrations.
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Canada's three largest provinces accounted for 91.2% of all new ZEV registrations from July through September. Quebec comprised 41.3% of all ZEV registrations, followed by Ontario (26.3%) and B.C. (23.7%).
The highest percentage of ZEVs was registered in B.C. (23.2%), followed by Quebec (20.2%) and Ontario (8.2%).
Inflation? High Interest Rates?
The report shows that Canadians registered a total of 457,836 new vehicles during the third quarter of this year, a drop of 3.3% from the previous quarter but a sizable increase of 16.1% from the same quarter in 2022.
When it comes to ZEVs, it’s also worth pointing out that all-electric models constituted 76.0% of new ZEV registrations in the third quarter of 2023, while PHEVs made up the remaining 24.0%. The latter posted the largest percentage increase (+170,1 %) among fuel types when compared with one year earlier.
Recession Continues for Traditional Cars
Another thing we need to highlight is that most vehicle types saw an increase in new registrations in the third quarter when compared with one year earlier, led by minivans (+65.7%), SUVs (+26.7%) and pickup trucks (+5.7%).
New registrations of passenger cars decreased 8.3% from the same quarter of 2022, marking the ninth consecutive year-over-year quarterly decrease.
