Fill‘er up or charge it: How Canadians fueled their motor vehicles in 2021

Over 26.2 million motor vehicles were registered to legally operate on Canadian roads in 2021, up approximately 480,000 vehicles from a year earlier. Over 9 in 10 of these motor vehicles (92%) were light-duty vehicles (under 4,535 kilograms) such as passenger cars, multi-purpose vehicles, light pickup trucks and vans. Starting with 2017 data, we began tracking how light and medium-duty motor vehicles were fueled.

Passenger cars account for just over one-third of motor vehicles on the road, the vast majority of which are powered by gasoline

Over one-third (36%) of motor vehicles registered in Canada in 2021 were passenger vehicles. The number of passenger vehicles registered declined for the fifth straight year, falling from 10.2 million in 2017 to 9.5 million in 2021.

The vast majority of passenger vehicles on the road in 2021 were powered by gasoline (95%), followed by hybrid electric (1.8%), zero-emission vehicles, which include battery and plug-in electric vehicles (1.8%) and diesel (1.3%).

Multi-purpose vehicles continue to grow in popularity

One-third of motor vehicles registered in Canada in 2021 were light-duty multi-purpose vehicles. Just over 2 million more multi-purpose vehicles were registered in 2021 (for a total of 8.8 million) compared with five years earlier.

Almost 97% of the multi-purpose vehicles registered were powered by gasoline, followed by hybrid electric (1.4%), diesel (1.2%) and zero-emission (0.8%) vehicles.

A pick up in light pickup truck registrations

The number of light-duty pickup trucks registered in Canada rose by approximately 259,000 from five years earlier to 4.1 million in 2021, accounting for 16% of all motor vehicles nationally.

Approximately 9 in 10 light-duty pickup trucks registered in Canada in 2021 ran on gasoline (90%), followed by diesel (10%).

Fewer vans on the road compared with five years earlier

Just over 1.7 million vans were registered in 2021—191,000 fewer compared with five years earlier.

Vans were most likely to be powered by gasoline (96%), followed by diesel (3%).

While hybrid electric vans accounted for 0.3% of registered vehicles, their share grew at the fastest pace from a year earlier, rising from 100 in 2020 to 5,162 in 2021. There were also almost one thousand more plug-in hybrid electric vans on the road in 2021 (4,005 in total) compared with a year earlier.

Electric vehicle registrations surging

While hybrid electric (303,000 vehicles), battery electric (153,000) and plug-in electric (96,000) light motor vehicles accounted for 2.3% of total light motor vehicle registrations nationally in 2021, their share of registrations is rising at a much faster pace than those for hydrocarbon-powered light vehicles.

In 2021, hybrid and plug-in electric motor vehicle registrations rose by nearly one-quarter year over year, while registrations of battery-operated vehicles rose by almost half. By way of comparison, gasoline- and diesel-powered light vehicle registrations both rose by 1%.

According to new motor vehicle registrations, growth in what is commonly referred to as ‘zero-emission vehicles’ has continued into 2022, with battery-operated and plug-in electric motor vehicles comprising 6.9% of all new vehicles registered during the second quarter of 2022.