The trend for electric vehicles in Canada is bright.
Statistic Canada has crunched the data have reported that in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022 (Q3), 394,348 new motor vehicles were registered in Canada. This represents a decline of 8.7 percent from the previous quarter and an 11.7 percent decline from the third quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, 34,313 new zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) were registered in Q3 2022, comprising 8.7% of total new motor vehicle registrations.
This means the number of new ZEVs registered continued to increase, up 43.2 percent year over year. Continuing the trend seen over the last four years, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) made up the largest share of new ZEV registrations, representing 85.6 percent of new ZEVs registered in the third quarter. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) comprised the other 14.4 percent of new ZEV registrations. Year over year, BEVs (up 85.4 percent) experienced the largest percentage increase among all fuel types, while PHEVs (down 39.2 percent) saw the largest percentage decline.
Canada’s three largest provinces accounted for 91.8 percent of all new ZEVs registered in the third quarter of 2022. The most ZEVs were registered in Quebec (12,194), followed by Ontario (11,017) and British Columbia (8,293).
Nearly one in five of all new vehicles (17.6 percent) registered in British Columbia was a ZEV, the highest percentage of any province. The share of ZEVs among new motor vehicle registrations was 12.5 percent in Quebec and 7.2 percent in Ontario.
In the third quarter, new ZEV registrations in Ontario increased 113.4 percent compared with one year earlier. They also increased in Quebec (up 14.9 percent), British Columbia (up 28.0 percent), Manitoba (up 61.3 percent), Saskatchewan (up 55.0 percent) and New Brunswick (up 39.0 percent). Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island (down 18.0 percent) was the lone province to experience a decrease in new ZEV registrations, after reporting significant gains over the previous four quarters.
In the third quarter of 2022, the census metropolitan area with the highest number of new ZEV registrations was Montréal (6,840), while Toronto (6,497) and Vancouver (6,271) followed closely.