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New motor vehicle registrations, fourth quarter 2021

Released: 2022-04-21

New Motor Vehicle Registrations, 2021

There were 1,646,609 new motor vehicles registered in 2021, increasing 6.5% from 2020. By quarter, the most new motor vehicles were registered in the second quarter (486,592), and the least were registered in the fourth quarter (337,571). More new motor vehicles were registered in all provinces in 2021 and in percentage terms, the largest increases were observed in Prince Edward Island (+49.4%), followed by British Columbia (+13.1%) and Quebec (+7.9%).

New registrations of multipurpose vehicles increased 16.8% in 2021 compared with 2020. Multipurpose vehicles continue to be the vehicle type of choice of Canadians, comprising 55.6% of new motor vehicle registrations in 2021, up from 50.7% in 2020. New registrations of passenger cars also increased during this period (+1.2% in 2021), while new registrations of pickup trucks (-6.5%) and vans (-13.9%) declined compared with 2020.

Zero-emission vehicles make up more than 5% of new motor vehicles registered in 2021

New registrations of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) hit an important milestone in 2021, with ZEVs comprising 5.2% of all new motor vehicles registered. This represents a gain of 3 percentage points from 2018, when 2.2% of new motor vehicle registrations were zero-emission vehicles. Within this group, 68.3% of new ZEVs registered in 2021 were battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and 31.7% were plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). New registrations of both of these fuel types increased in 2021, with 78.3% more PHEVs and 50.4% more BEVs than in 2020.

Higher numbers of new hybrid electric vehicles (+91.4%), gasoline-powered vehicles (+2.2%) and diesel-powered vehicles (+1.7%) were also registered in 2021.

Share of new zero-emission vehicles registered in smaller provinces continues to increase

In 2021, 93.4% of new zero-emission vehicles were registered in Canada's three largest provinces, with 42.8% of new ZEVs registered in Quebec, 27.7% of new ZEVs in British Columbia, and 22.9% of new ZEVs in Ontario. Though these three provinces still represent the majority, their share has been decreasing since 2018, when they represented 96.9% of new motor vehicle registrations.

In British Columbia, 11.6% of new motor vehicles registered were ZEVs in 2021. In Quebec, 8.9% of total new registrations were ZEVs, and in Ontario, 3.1% of total new registrations were ZEVs.

Of new ZEVs registered in 2021, over half (56.5%) were multipurpose vehicles. Passenger cars represented 42.1% of new ZEV registrations.

  Note to readers

Estimates for Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Alberta are currently unavailable because of contractual limitations of the existing data sharing agreement. However, they are included in the Canadian total.

This survey looks at registrations of new motor vehicles in the provinces and territories in a given year.

Estimates for British Columbia include the territories.

Products

The "New motor vehicle registrations: Quarterly data visualization tool," a new interactive tool that allows users to compare and analyze new zero-emission motor vehicle registration data by fuel type and geography, is now available online.

Geospatial quarterly data on new zero-emission motor vehicle registrations are now available on the Canadian Statistical Geospatial Explorer Hub, which is part of the series Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (Catalogue number71-607-X2020010).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).

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