Despite a sluggish start to the year all provinces saw more ZEV registrations in Q1 2023 than the first quarter of 2022

Statistics Canada is releasing its first round of new vehicle registration data for 2023. And while the numbers for zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in Q1 aren’t quite as strong as they were at the end of Q4 2022, there are some market growth indicators.

In Q1 2023, 30,533 new ZEVs (light- and medium-duty, only) were registered across Canada. These include 23,774 units of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and 6,759 units of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

This represents a total 8.6 per cent market share (down from the previous two quarters). However, comparing the first quarters of the last two years, there are growth indicators.

“Among new ZEV registrations in the first quarter of 2023, BEVs increased 20.7 per cent from the previous year, while PHEVs increased 6.9 per cent. BEVs comprised 77.9 per cent of all new ZEVs registered, while PHEVs comprised the other 22.1 per cent,” reads StatsCan’s report.

“More new ZEVs were registered in all provinces in the first quarter of 2023 compared with one year earlier.”

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.

Pickup trucks see growth, passenger vehicles fall

StatsCan data shows that from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023, pickup truck registration increased by 30 per cent. In contrast car registrations declined between the end of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, dropping 12.6 per cent.

Overall, just 1,398 battery-electric pickups were registered in Q1 2023. In total there were 87,042 pickup registrations in Q1 2023, giving zero-emission pickups 1.6 per cent market share.

Registrations of multipurpose vehicles — StatsCan’s name for the sports utility vehicle and crossover utility vehicle category (SUV/CUV), which is the largest category of passenger vehicles — also saw a decrease of 10.7 per cent between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023.

In the first quarter of this year, 19,833 new zero-emission multi-purpose vehicles were put on Canadian roads. In the last quarter of 2022, that figure was 22,200.

Province-to-province

Over 90 per cent of new ZEV registrations for Q1 2023 occurred in three provinces:

• British Columbia and the Territories (8,047 units making up 17.9 per cent provincial market share);
• Quebec (11,643 units making up 14.5 per cent market share); and
• Ontario (8,453 units making up 5.9 per cent market share).

But all provinces in Canada for which data is available saw increases in new ZEV registrations compared to Q1 2022.

Overall, StatsCan reports that “More new ZEVs were registered in all provinces in the first quarter of 2023 compared with one year earlier.”

In particular, it notes that registrations were up over 72 per cent in Prince Edward Island, over 43 per cent in Saskatchewan, over 41 per cent in New Brunswick and nearly 30 per cent in Manitoba.

Unlike previous years, StatsCan is no longer providing data for metropolitan ZEV adoption rates.