Canadian quarterly EV sales set records, defying global trends
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Canadian sales of new battery electric and other low-emission vehicles set records in the second quarter of this year, defying global trends for electric vehicles, the latest Statistics Canada data show.
Battery electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles reached their highest-ever quarterly registration totals and took their highest-ever share of the market in a quarter where overall new motor vehicle registrations rose to their highest total since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall low-emission vehicle
registrations (including non-plug-in hybrids) took a record 20.9 per cent of that total and surpassed 100,000 registrations in one quarter for the first time.
The global EV market has experienced setbacks recently, with manufacturers slowing production, changing plans and delaying some projects amid decreasing demand.
But the latest Canadian numbers are not following that narrative.
“I was expecting it to look a lot more like the US, where we'd see flattish numbers for battery electric vehicles,” said Erik Johnson, a senior economist at BMO. “And we saw the exact opposite of that, where Canada hit the highest number of units they've ever had in the quarter, over 48,000.”
(SOURCE: Statistics Canada)
Total new vehicle registrations reached 511,173 in the second quarter, almost 25 per cent more than the previous quarter and an eight per cent increase over last year.
Johnson says the increase is likely due in part to a wider and more diverse supply becoming available.
BEV registrations reached 48,489 units, a 42 per cent increase from last quarter and 36 per cent rise year-over-year.
Meanwhile, PHEV registrations hit 17,244, a 43 per cent year-over-year increase.
BEVs and PHEVs made up 9.49 per cent and 3.37 per cent of total registrations, respectively.
Quebec led sales of low-emission vehicles — more than half the BEV registrations were in that province — with B.C. second.
Ref: Canadian quarterly EV sales set records, defying global trends (finance)
Photo Credit: Statistics Canada
