Electric vehicle registrations plummeted nearly 30% in the last three months
Electric vehicles in Canada just hit a major speed bump, with new registrations plummeting by nearly 30 per cent in the last 12 months.
Electric vehicles in Canada just hit a major speed bump, with new registrations plummeting by nearly 30 per cent in the last 12 months.
Last week, Prime Minister Carney decided to hit pause on the Liberal government’s EV mandate, which would have required all new vehicle sales be zero-emission by 2035. Carney said the program will undergo a 60-day review but did not commit to scrapping it.
Statistics Canada reported Monday that 46,366 zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) were registered between April and June, a 29.5 per cent decrease compared with the same period last year.
Overall, ZEVs accounted for 8.6 per cent of all new motor vehicle registrations in the quarter, largely unchanged from 8.7 per cent in the first quarter.
This marks a steep drop from late 2024, when ZEVs made up more than 18 per cent of all new registrations. The report attributes the slowdown to the expiry or scaling back of provincial rebates.
Quebec saw the steepest decline, down 38.1 per cent, after its Roulez vert program resumed with reduced incentives.
British Columbia, which ended its Go Electric rebates in May, posted a 27.6 per cent decline, its fourth straight quarterly drop. Other provinces posted smaller declines, including Ontario (-18.6 per cent) and Saskatchewan (-11.3 per cent).
In contrast, hybrid vehicle registrations surged 60.7 per cent year-over-year, while sales of gasoline and diesel vehicles continued to rise, indicating a pivot away from fully electric vehicles.
Overall motor vehicle registrations climbed 5.9 per cent in the same period.
The figures highlight challenges for federal and provincial governments in meeting aggressive electric vehicle targets.
In response to the decision to pause the program, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre described the move as a “clumsy retreat.”
“Today he’s flip flopped after being a passionate advocate for banning gas powered vehicles, calling for them to be banned by 2030 in his book values, which, by the way, was much more aggressive than Trudeau plan to ban them by 2035,” Poilievre said on Friday.
This government has no intentions of permanently, putting EVS on the back burner this year suspension is just a political ploy. We all know electric vehicles are coming. It has to be spread out until we have the appropriate infrastructure to support it in my opinion, leave it to industry to do it. They’ll do it efficiently and make it financially viable.