Vehicle Registrations, 2021

Statistics Canada has just released a new series on motor vehicle registrations, featuring a breakdown of vehicle type by fuel. The following highlights are from the Daily release, available here.

The total number of road motor vehicles registered in Canada increased to 26.2 million in 2021, up 1.9% over 2020. At 24.1 million, light duty vehicles (LDVs) accounted for 9 out of every 10 motor vehicles registered in 2021, with passenger cars remaining the most common type. However, registrations of multi-purpose vehicles have experienced the most growth over the last five years.

Canadians' heightened focus on clean energy is reflected in registrations by type of fuel. While 94.9% of all registered LDVs remained motor gasoline in 2021, there were 303,073 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) as well as 152,685 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 95,896 plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) registered. All three of these categories grew sharply from 2020, with notable increases of 24.4% for PHEVs and 48.1% for BEVs.

While there were more electric vehicles being registered across the country, British Columbia and Quebec led the way, with PHEVs and BEVs accounting for roughly 2.0% of all registered light duty vehicles in 2021.

Data on vehicle registrations were taken from CODR table 23-10-0308.

Please visit the Light and medium duty vehicle registrations: Interactive Dashboard to interact with the data.

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