StatsCan’s latest report, for April to June 2021, holds encouraging news: year-over-year zero-emission passenger vehicle registrations increased at a faster rate than combustion vehicles, representing 4.9 per cent of the total market

Across Canada, 16,167 new battery electric vehicles were registered in the second quarter of 2021, double the number from Q2 2020 and representing 3.3 per cent in total registrations, according to new StatsCan data.

When plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are added (StatsCan includes hybrid electrics in its definition of “zero-emission vehicles”), it brings the total number of new registrations in Q2 2021 to 24,006 zero-emission vehicles. This represents 4.9 per cent of total registrations — and a whopping 89.2 per cent increase over the same period in 2020.

Unsurprisingly, over half of new EV registrations occurred in British Columbia (roughly 24 per cent) and Quebec (roughly 25 per cent). The B.C. data includes registrations in the Territories. Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto posted the most new registrations per metropolitan area, in that order.

But, significantly, more zero-emission vehicles were registered in every province in Q2, year over year, the data shows, with Prince Edward Island seeing an eye-popping 320 per cent increase, New Brunswick a 277 per cent increase and Ontario a 210 per cent increase.

These numbers mean that for the first half of 2021, Canada saw a total of 41,291 new zero-emission vehicle registrations, with 18,685 in Quebec, 11,875 in B.C. and 8,425 in Ontario.

ZEV gains outpace combustion vehicles

While the surge of new EV registrations is encouraging, another equally important statistic to note is that Q2 2021 marks an important distinction: “Registrations of all fuel types rose in the second quarter, but the increases were less pronounced for vehicles with internal combustion engines,” StatsCan says.

The combination of national diesel and gasoline vehicle registrations in Q2 2020 was 290,327 vehicles. In Q2 2021 the combined total was 436,498 — a 40.2 per cent increase.

See StatsCan’s Q2 data here.