Zero emissions vehicles accounted for 8.8% of all new cars sold, the highest since January 2025.
Total ZEV sales for the month were still down 37% year-over-year.
A possible return of federal EV incentives causes some buyers to delay their purchase.
Sales data for August show the first time zero emission vehicles (ZEV) accounted for more than 8% of new vehicle sales in Canada since January.
According to Statistics Canada, 167,017 new vehicles found buyers in the country over the month of August, 14,657 of which were electric or plug-in hybrid models.
This makes for an 8.8% market share, the highest recorded since January 2025, when the $5,000 federal EV incentive was discontinued due to a lack of funds.
This 1.1% increase in market share over July could suggest a reversal of the downward trend of ZEV sales, but the bigger picture is still disappointing.
Indeed, zero-emission vehicles benefited from a market share close to 20% in late 2024, and August ZEV sales are still down 37% year-over-year.
By comparison, the Canadian market as a whole grew very slightly (0.5%) over the same period, which debunks the argument that EV sales are down because fewer cars are sold overall.
The main reason for this slump in EV and PHEV sales seems to be the end of the federal EV incentive, as this event coincides with the sharp decline in ZEV market share.
Perhaps harming EV and PHEV adoption even further over the last few months are comments by several cabinet ministers who claim the program will come back later this year, which causes potential buyers to delay their purchase to benefit from a potential return of incentives.
Most automakers chose to continue the $5,000 rebate on their own for a few months after the government incentive ended in order to help shift dealer inventory, and prices of some key models were reduced over their 2024 levels, but this doesn’t seem to have helped much.
Source: Automotive News Canada
