Zero-emission vehicle registrations of 33,399 units in Q4 2022, including 27,754 battery electrics, pushed Canada’s ZEV market share to an all-time high, up from 8.7 per cent in Q3

The final quarter of 2022 saw fewer zero-emission vehicles registered, but more market share gained, according to new data released by Statistics Canada.

The 33,399 new ZEVs registered in Canada in Q4 2022 (down slightly from 34,313 in Q3 2022) represented a national market share of 9.6 per cent, up from 8.7 per cent Q3.

For battery electric vehicles (BEVs) alone, there were 27,754 new registrations in Q4 2022. They make up 8.0 per cent market share for the period. While total BEV registrations in Q3 2022 were slightly higher (29,376), that was only a 7.4 per cent market share. This is because total of overall vehicle registrations was higher in Q3.

For plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), there were 5,645 new registrations in Q4 for 1.6 per cent market share, versus 4,937 in Q3, which was a 1.2 per cent market share.

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.

Multi-purpose ZEVs a key adoption driver

By far the vehicle segment with the greatest number of ZEVs registered in Q4 2022 was multi purpose vehicles. It is a category made up of “sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and Crossovers,” as defined by StatsCan.

That segment accounted for almost 63 per cent of all BEVs registered in Q4 (17,483 units) compared to just over 32 per cent (8,930 units) from the passenger car segment.

The remaining 4.8 per cent of BEV registrations were pickups (1,030 units) and vans (311 units).

This dominance by the multi-purpose BEV segment was a story throughout all of 2022, accounting for 54,660 units registered for the year. In 2021, by comparison, 30,672 battery electric multi-purpose vehicles were registered.

Province-by-province breakdown

StatsCan does not provide municipal-level data for Q4 2022. However, it is possible to see ZEV sales for most Canadian provinces and territories.

Quebec had the most ZEV registrations in Q4 2022 (12,153), followed by Ontario (10,982) and British Columbia (7,558).

Manitoba and New Brunswick follow at 298 and 248, respectively. Saskatchewan added 178 new ZEV registrations in Q4 2022, and Manitoba just 54.

Yukon and Northwest Territories were the only jurisdictions to meet or exceed their numbers in the previous quarter. Yukon picked up 30 new ZEV registrations in Q4 (compared to 25 in Q3) and NWT held steady at 6 new ZEV registrations, which is the same as their Q3 number.

Breakout data for Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Alberta and Nunavut is not available to StatsCan due to licensing issues. However their figures are included in the national totals.