The first quarter of automotive sales to be impacted by COVID-19 sees a slight drop in EV sales numbers, but a notable increase in their total market share
The first quarter of automotive sales to be impacted by COVID-19 sees a slight drop in EV sales numbers, but a notable increase in their total market share
Automotive sales in Canada in the first quarter of 2020 have seen a marked decline from their typical numbers, a fact that can be attributed to the large-scale disruption imposed by COVID-19 on international supply chains and would-be purchasers. Despite that fact, electric vehicles continue to occupy a growing share of Canada’s total light vehicle market.
According to new vehicle registration data provided by IHS Markit Catalyst for Insight to Transport Canada, 8,412 battery-electric and 3,586 plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold between January 1 and March 31 of 2020. Those 11,998 sales accounted for roughly 3.8 per cent of total light vehicles sold in Canada. That marks a slight drop from Q4 2019, which saw 7,933 battery-electric and 4,303 plug-in hybrid vehicle sales, for a total of 12,236 EVs sold.
Canada’s EV market share in Q1 2020 was 3.8 per cent, up from 3 per cent in Q4 2019
The fact that only 238 fewer EVs were sold this quarter than last is significant, considering that by mid-March, social distancing measures had majorly disrupted business as usual in most of the country.
That 3.8 per cent market share marks an increase from the 3 per cent which EVs represented in Q4 2019. It also represents a considerable jump from the 3.5 per cent share that ZEVs, including fuel cell vehicles, held in Q3 last year and the 1.89 per cent which ZEVs held in Q1 2019.
EV sales drop less than average
Those numbers, aside from providing a sign of hope for the post-COVID EV sector, fit in with a larger pattern demonstrated internationally by recent automotive sales.
Although EVs have not been immune to the COVID-related decline in vehicle sales, they have typically suffered less than their ICE counterparts, according to data recently published by EV-Volumes.
Each of the world’s top 15 EV markets, with the exception of South Korea, saw a significant drop in total vehicle sales in March 2020 as compared to March 2019. In 13 of those 15 markets, however, the percentage of EV sales dropped less than the percentage of total vehicle sales, with the opposite trend demonstrated only in Japan and China.
A number of those markets in fact saw March EV sales figures which were expanded compared to those of 2019. EV sales in Germany grew by 109 per cent, and those in the U.K. by 108 per cent.
While EV sales in Canada declined by 39 per cent between March 2019 and 2020, total vehicle sales faced a steeper drop of 47 per cent, demonstrating that despite the fact that the number of Canadians committed to buying cars of any kind has shrunk, interest in electric vehicles remains resilient.
