Sales for zero-emission vehicles across Canada in Q4 hit 18.3 per cent: 202,103 battery-electric and 68,882 plug-in hybrids sold in 2024

Statistics Canada has released data showing Canada’s new zero-emission vehicle registrations in Q4 2024, as well as an analysis for the whole year.

Bottom line: it’s the strongest market showing yet.

In 2024, market penetration of zero-emission vehicles reached 14.6 per cent overall — up from 11 per cent for 2023. In terms of units, there were 202,103 new battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and 68,882 new plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEVs) registered in Canada in 2024. That’s out of a total of 1,852,738 new vehicles registered in 2024.

For the year, one in seven new vehicles registered in Canada were ZEVs.

In Q4 alone, there were 61,795 new BEVs registered and 19,410 new PHEVs registered out of 443,402 total new vehicles. That represents an overall 18.3 per cent market share for ZEVs in the quarter and a 7.4 per cent increase from Q3 2024.

(Note: StatsCan classifies BEVs and PHEVs as “zero-emission vehicles.” This grouping does not reflect Electric Autonomy’s policy, which considers only non-combustion engine vehicles as zero-emission. However, where statistics refer to ZEVs, we have adhered to StatsCan’s definition for consistency.)

Quebec’s adoption rates

Zero-emission vehicles accounted for 30.9 per cent of all new registrations in Quebec in 2024.

Quebec’s longstanding goal has been to achieve 32.5 per cent ZEV adoption in 2026 and, were the province to keep on its current trajectory, it would easily hit that target.

However forecasts for 2025 are looking less positive for the province.

Earlier this year Quebec paused its ZEV purchase rebate program after the fund was drained due to an end-of-year buying rush. Soon after the federal government announced it too was pausing its rebate program after funds had run out.

With no purchase rebates available in Quebec (at its peak ZEV buyers in Quebec were eligible for up to $13,000 in rebates), ZEV sales are plummeting [BY] as much as 65 per cent, estimates S&P Global.

A strong showing coast-to-coast

British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island all registered more new ZEVs in 2024 than 2023 — most of them with double digit increases.

Multi-purpose vehicles are the most popular type to be registered in the ZEV category across Canada (65,656 units). There were also 9,397 passenger ZEVs, 5,514 electric pick-up trucks and 638 electric vans registered in 2024.

According to StatsCan data, on a per-unit basis, Quebec registered the greatest number of ZEVs in 2024 (147,507), followed by Ontario (56,600 units representing 8.1 per cent market penetration) and British Columbia (45,832 units; 20.9 per cent penetration).

Analysis of 2024 shows there were more vehicles sold overall than in the previous year, but the largest growth year-over-year was seen in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (52.8 per cent) and battery-electric vehicles (40.7 per cent).