New motor vehicle registrations, first quarter 2022
Released: 2022-07-21
There were 339,820 new motor vehicles registered in the first quarter, declining 9.6% from the first quarter of 2021, when the global semiconductor shortage began. New gasoline-powered vehicles posted the largest decline, with 13.2% fewer new registrations in 2022, followed by diesel-powered vehicles, down 11.8%. Conversely, battery-electric vehicles had the largest increase from the first quarter of 2021, with 55.2% more new vehicles registered in the first quarter of 2022. Gains were also reported for new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (+37.7%) and new hybrid electric vehicles (+3.8%).
New registrations of all vehicle types declined in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the first quarter to 2021, with vans (-29.3%) reporting the largest percentage decline. There were less new registrations of pickup trucks (-16.5%), passenger cars (-8.7%) and multipurpose vehicles (-5.0%). Multipurpose vehicles, Canadians' vehicle type of choice, represented 56.9% of new motor vehicles registered in the first quarter of 2022.
More zero-emission vehicles registered in all provinces
New registrations of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) represented 7.7% of all new motor vehicles registered in the first quarter. Of these 26,018 new zero-emission vehicle registrations, 75.7% were battery electric vehicles and 24.3% were plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
In the first quarter, 93.1% of new ZEVs registered were in Canada's three largest provinces. British Columbia had the highest proportion of new ZEV registrations, representing 15.5% of all new motor vehicle registrations in the province. Quebec had the most new ZEVs registered (10,399), comprising 12.7% of all new registrations in the province. Registrations of new ZEVs more than doubled (+114.0%) in Ontario from the first quarter of 2021 to the same quarter in 2022. During this same period, new ZEV registrations increased 50.7% in Quebec and were up 9.6% in British Columbia.
More new ZEVs were registered in all provinces in the first quarter of 2022 compared with a year earlier, with the largest gains reported in New Brunswick (+132.8%), Prince Edward Island (+109.5%), Manitoba (+103.0%) and Saskatchewan (+25.0%).
Zero-emission vehicles by subprovincial geography
Data for new ZEVs are also available by subprovincial geographies in the table New zero-emission vehicle registrations, quarterly. In the first quarter, Montréal (6,260) was the census metropolitan area with the highest number of new ZEV registrations, followed by Vancouver (5,035) and Toronto (4,176).
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 (71-607-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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