More non-emitting vehicle units were registered in Q2 2023, but relative to all new vehicle registrations, ZEV market share in Canada held at 8.6 per cent

Editor’s Note: The data used to report ZEV market share in this article (including BEV and PHEV breakdowns) were later revised by StatsCan (Corrected figures: ZEV: 9.9 per cent; BEV: 7.3 per cent; PHEV: 2.5 per cent). These changes are reflected in the chart and our reporting in our StatsCan Q3 ZEV registrations story.

The second quarter of 2023 saw 40,233 battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles registered in Canada, according to new StatsCan data. This represents a significant jump from 30,533 in the previous quarter.

But that higher volume of registrations of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) hasn’t translated to moving the needle on market penetration in Q2, which stayed pointing at 8.6 per cent.

This is because, according to StatsCan, there were more new vehicle registrations overall for vehicles of all fuel types.

However, there are some important gains in the latest round of data including more EV uptake in all provinces and new segment growth.

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.

Fastest growing segments

Among the ZEV segments with the most growth, pickup trucks took the top spot, with a total of 1,273 new vehicles registered in Q2 2023.

“This represents a 721.3% increase when compared with the 155 new BEV pickup trucks registered during the same period a year prior,” reads the StatsCan report.

For PHEVs the fastest growing segment was multipurpose vehicles, with 10,559 registrations in Q2 2023.

Increasing provincial adoption

In keeping with historical trends Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario (in that order) had the most new ZEV registrations in Q2 2023.

Quebec added 16,781 new ZEVs to its roads (representing 14.7 per cent of total new registrations in the province), Ontario saw 11,335 new ZEVs registered (representing 6.2 per cent of total new registrations in the province) and B.C. (which also includes data for the three Territories) accounted for 8,640 new registrations (representing 15.2 per cent of total new registrations in the province).

Meanwhile, in Q2 2023, Manitoba saw 625 new ZEVs registered, Saskatchewan added 449 and Prince Edward Island registered 190.

StatsCan is not able to make data for Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Alberta available “because of contractual limitations.” However, the ZEV tallies for those provinces do appear in the Canadian total.

BEV vs PHEV

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 70.1 per cent of new ZEV registrations in Q2 2023 while plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) accounted for 29.9 per cent.

Looking at just BEV adoption, market penetration for Q2 2023 is 6.0 per cent for Canada and 6.3 per cent nationally for the first two quarters of 2023.

Overall, 51,959 BEV units were registered in the first half of 2023.

Multipurpose BEVs account for 34,662 units — 67 per cent of all BEVs registered in 2023. Passenger BEVs, meanwhile, saw a decline from 8,268 units in Q1 2023 to 5,285 units registered in Q2 2023.