The latest release from Statistics Canada shows zero-emission vehicle registrations, led by battery-electric vehicles, resumed their steady climb in Q3 after a dip in Q2

Market share for zero-emission vehicle registrations hit an all-time high of 8.7 per cent in third quarter of 2022, according to newly released vehicle registration data from Statistics Canada.

The increase marks a strong rebound over Q2 of 2022 when ZEV market share slipped to 6.94 percent. The previous all-time high of 7.7 per cent was in Q1 2022.

In actual numbers, registrations of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) — including both battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) — totalled 34,313, up from 29,832 reported in Q2.

This included 29,376 BEVs and 4,937 PHEVs.

On a year-over-year basis, ZEV market share gained 3.3 per cent between Q3 2021 versus Q3 2022.

“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% of new ZEVs registered in the third quarter. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) comprised the other 14.4% of new ZEV registrations,” reads the release from StatsCan.

StatsCan classifies BEVs and PHEVs as “zero-emission vehicles.” The grouping does not reflect Electric Autonomy‘s view, which considers only non-combustion engine vehicles to be zero-emission. However, where statistics below refer to ZEVs, we have adhered to StatsCan’s definition for consistency.

High level trends

For the 2022 year-to-date, zero-emission vehicles (light- and medium-duty) make up 90,163 new registrations, or, 7.7 per cent of all new registrations in Canada.

Looking at battery electric vehicles only, registrations for the first three quarters of 2022 are at 70,835, or, 6.1 per cent of all new registrations, nationally.

But overall, vehicle sales continue to drop in Canada across all fuel types.

“In the third quarter of 2022, 394,348 new motor vehicles were registered in Canada, declining 8.7% from the second quarter of 2022 and 11.7% from the third quarter of 2021,” reads the report.

Multi-purpose vehicles make up the majority of new registrations in Q3 2022 (following the trend for the year).

However, battery electric pickup trucks saw an eye-watering jump in units registered from one in Q1 2022 to 155 in Q2 2022 to 1,260 in Q3 2022.

The ZEV golden triangle

Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia continue to represent the overwhelming majority of new light- and medium-duty ZEV registrations in Canada.

“Canada’s three largest provinces accounted for 91.8% of all new ZEVs registered in the third quarter,” reads the report. The most ZEVs were registered in:

• Quebec: 12,194 new registrations; 12.5 per cent provincial market share
• Ontario: 11,017 new registrations; 7.2 per cent provincial market share
• British Columbia: 8,293 new registrations; 17.6 per cent provincial market share.

In Q3 2022, all provinces and territories (except Prince Edward Island) saw double-digit increases in ZEV registrations for passenger and multi-purpose vehicles.

Looking only at new BEV registrations, market penetration was:

• Quebec: 9,784 new registrations; 10 per cent provincial market share
• Ontario: 9,720 new registrations; 6.3 per cent provincial market share
• British Columbia: 7,508 new registrations; 15.9 per cent provincial market share.

For the first time, Quebec broke the double-digit registration level for just BEVs in Q3 2022.

There were also five vehicles of “other” fuel types (defined by StatsCan as “liquid propane, natural gas, hydrogen”) registered in Q3 — all in B.C.

Data for Canada’s three largest metropolitan regions shows Montreal leading in Q3 2022 with 6,840 ZEV registrations. Toronto and Vancouver follow at 6,497 and 6,271, respectively.