New vehicle registrations were down in 2022, declining 9.6% from the first quarter of 2021 to 339,820, according to the numbers released earlier this week by the Government of Canada. Sales of gas-powered vehicles fell the most with 13.2% fewer new registrations in 2022, followed by diesel-powered vehicles, down 11.8%. Though they only make up 7.7% of the total market, registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were up 55.2% from 2021 numbers, indicating that the government awareness campaign, infrastructure investments and incentives have been somewhat successful. The semiconductor shortage along with related supply chain issues have caused there to be fewer cars available to purchase, thus the expected decline in registration numbers.
According to the statistics, 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.
The big news here is that more zero-emission vehicles were registered in all provinces. 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. BC had the highest proportion, representing 15.5% of all new motor vehicle registrations in the province. Quebec had the most, comprising 12.7%. Registrations of new ZEVs more than doubled (+114.0%) in Ontario, and 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%).
