Market Snapshot: New electric vehicle registrations exceeded those of diesel vehicles in 2019

Connect/Contact Us

Energy Information RSS Feed

Please send comments, questions, or suggestions for Market Snapshot topics to snapshots@cer-rec.gc.ca

Release date: 2020-11-12

Canadians registered more electric vehicles (EVs) in 2019 (hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric) than diesel vehicles. While hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) make up roughly 40% of new EV registrations in 2019, new battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations have grown the most. In 2015, there were roughly 4 100 newly registered BEVs in Canada, compared to 17 300 HEVs. In 2019, there were over 31 000 newly registered BEVs in Canada, compared to roughly 35 400 newly registered HEVs.

Figure 1. New Vehicle Registrations in Canada, 2015 – 2019, by Vehicle Type

Source and Description

Source: Statistics Canada Table: 20-10-0021-01

Description: This bar chart compares new diesel vehicle registrations to new EV registrations. From 2015 to 2019, new diesel registrations declined from 85 635 to 58 356, while EV registrations increased from 24 197 to 86 354.

While new registrations for diesel pick-up trucks remained stable from 2015 to 2019, new registrations for other diesel vehicles dropped significantly. Total new diesel registrations for multipurpose vehicles (SUV and crossovers), vans, and cars decreased from over 39 000 in 2015, to just over 8 600 in 2019.

The gap between new registrations of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) (ZEVs, or BEVs plus plug-in hybrids)Footnote 1 and diesel registrations has been rapidly declining as well. In 2019, new ZEV registrations were 7 400 below diesel vehicles (58 400 diesel registrations vs 51 000 ZEVs). For comparison, in 2015, there were 78 700 fewer ZEV registrations compared to new diesel registrations, while in 2017, there were only 27 200.

Date modified: