Electric vehicle registrations have tripled on P.E.I. since 2019

P.E.I. easily led the country in growth in new electric vehicle registrations from 2019 to 2021.

Registrations of electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles tripled on the Island during that time, growing from just 166 in 2019 to 494 in 2021, according to a report from Statistics Canada released this week.

Registrations in the first quarter of 2022 were double what they were in the first three months of 2019, going from 44 to 86 despite the lack of new vehicles for sale in Canada as a whole.

Nationally, registrations were up about 50 per cent both from 2019 to 2021, and comparing the first quarters of 2021 and 2022.

Statistics Canada reported 40,844 new electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle registrations in Canada in the first quarter of this year.

New Brunswick came the closest to matching P.E.I.'s growth. It almost doubled from 2019 to 2021, and was up 133 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to last.

Data from Nova Scotia, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador were not separated out in the report, but they did form part of the Canadian totals.

By comparison in P.E.I., statistics for the registration of other types of vehicles were as follows:

• 2019: Gas vehicle registrations totalled 6,832, and diesel 142.
• 2020: Gas vehicle registrations totalled 5,801, and diesel 192.
• 2021: Gas vehicle registrations totalled 7,434, and diesel 308.
• 2022 first quarter: Gas vehicle registrations totalled 876, and diesel 59.

The slump in gas and diesel vehicle registrations for the first quarter of 2022 came as gas prices in P.E.I. soared to above $2.10 a litre for regular, compared to a low of about $1.30 last year.