The number of motor vehicles registered in Canada moved 4.2 per cent higher in 2024, when compared to the previous year’s registration data. Of the 91.6 per cent of light duty vehicles registered, electric vehicles (EVs) made up 5.2 per cent of the total, up from 3.9 per cent in 2023.
In 2024, there were 26.8 million road motor vehicles registered in Canada, thanks to rising new motor vehicle sales (up 9.5 per cent, year-over-year) and thanks in part to the implementation of automatic registration renewal in Ontario in July 2024. (Ontario accounted for 35.9 per cent of all light duty vehicle registrations in 2024. Across all provinces, only Newfoundland and Labrador registrations edged down one per cent during the year.)
“Registrations of medium-duty vehicles rose four per cent, year-over-year, with the most notable growth being among battery electric medium-duty vehicles, which multiplied more than 12-fold, reflecting the introduction of new battery electric models by several manufacturers,” Statistics Canada states in its note, Vehicle registrations, 2024. Registrations of heavy-duty vehicles rose 0.8 per cent. Class 8 vehicles (with a gross vehicle weight over 14,969 kilograms) made up 87.7 per cent of the heavy-duty fleet registered.
Among the light-duty vehicles registered, Statistics Canada notes that multi-purpose vehicle registrations (including those for sport utility vehicles and crossovers) rose 9.3 per cent. “This marked the third consecutive year that registrations of multi-purpose vehicles surpassed those of passenger cars,” they write. “Multi-purpose vehicles represented 29.8 per cent of light-duty vehicle registrations in 2017 and have since increased steadily, reaching 41.9 per cent in 2024. Over the same period, the share of passenger cars declined from 45 per cent to 35 per cent.” They add that 62.9 per cent of new vehicles registered were multi-purpose vehicles, compared with 42.1 per cent in 2017, “reflecting changing consumer preferences.”
Although gasoline-powered light duty vehicles accounted for 92.1 per cent of all registrations in 2024, this is down from 96 per cent in 2017. Overall EV registrations, meanwhile, rose 38.6 per cent from 2023, with battery electric vehicles (compared to plug-in hybrids), up 48.8 per cent, recording the strongest growth. (For comparison, as shown in the graphic below, all vehicles registered combined increased by 4.2 per cent in 2024.)
“Although zero-emission vehicle growth was strong in 2024, its momentum seems to be slowing in 2025, as some government rebate programs have been paused or reduced starting in January 2025,” they write. “Indeed, the number of zero-emission vehicle registrations fell year-over-year in the first two quarters of 2025, partly reflecting the impact of these program changes.”
