Canada's electric vehicle fleet reached 623,481 registered battery electric vehicles in 2025, accounting for 3.5% of all light-duty vehicles, while Waymo reported 82% fewer injury-causing crashes in its autonomous vehicles compared to human drivers.
- Canada had 623,481 registered battery electric vehicles and 251,520 plug-in hybrids in 2025, representing 3.5% of the country's 25.3 million registered vehicles, up from 2.8% in 2024
- In Q2 2026, Canadians registered 58,811 new zero-emission vehicles, the highest quarterly total since late 2024, surpassing Q1 2026 registrations of 43,113
- PowerCo's St. Thomas battery gigafactory production is now expected to begin in 2029, with EllisDon as the general contractor and approximately 1,300 workers at peak construction
- CAA tested 22 electric vehicles on a 230-kilometre trip, with all completing the journey without charging and using an average of 40% battery capacity
- Waymo reported 82% fewer injury-causing crashes and 95% fewer serious injury crashes in its autonomous vehicles across over 270 million miles of fully driverless operation
In this week's EV/AV report, new Canadian registration figures show a growing electric fleet, a St. Thomas battery plant gets a revised opening date, 22 EVs complete a CAA road test, and Waymo publishes another crash comparison.
Fleet figures
Canada had 623,481 registered battery electric vehicles and 251,520 plug-in hybrids in 2025, according to figures released Sept. 22 by Statistics Canada. Together, those zero-emission vehicles accounted for 3.5% of the country’s 25.3 million registered light-duty vehicles, up from 2.8% in 2024. Another 772,562 registered vehicles were conventional hybrids.
More recently, Canadians registered 58,811 new zero-emission vehicles in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 43,113 in the first quarter and 46,413 a year earlier. It was the highest quarterly total since the end of 2024. Those quarterly figures count new registrations; the 2025 figures describe vehicles already in the fleet.
A later start in St. Thomas
Battery production at the PowerCo gigafactory in St. Thomas, Ont., is now expected to begin in 2029. In a Sept. 24 announcement, PowerCo Canada executives named EllisDon as the general contractor and outlined the next construction phase, including the production building’s shell, utilities and other infrastructure. About 60 EllisDon workers were on site at the time of the announcement, with roughly 1,300 expected at peak construction.
“Partnering with EllisDon allows us to keep construction moving while ensuring we retain the flexibility to scale the facility in line with market demand and long-term industry evolution,” said Joel Karlsberg, PowerCo Canada’s chief procurement officer, in the announcement.
All Roads Lead to Vaughan
All 22 electric vehicles in CAA South Central Ontario’s Sept. 16 road test completed a 230-kilometre trip from Blue Mountain to Vaughan without stopping to charge. On average, the vehicles used 40% of their battery charge. Energy consumption ranged from 11.43 to 28.91 kWh per 100 kilometres.
A subsequent 15-minute charging session added an average of 110 kilometres of displayed range, with individual results from 58 to 178 kilometres. The average session cost $13.45, though prices ranged from $7.28 to $24.39 at the Tesla chargers used for the test. CAA noted that Tesla vehicles received preferred pricing.
“Drivers should also understand how their vehicle charges and recognize that the number of kilometres added during a stop can change depending on the vehicle and the charging conditions,” said Kaitlynn Furse, CAA South Central Ontario’s director of corporate communications, in the release.
Driverless miles
In a Sept. 24 update, Waymo published a comparison covering more than 270 million miles of fully autonomous driving through June 2026 in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.
The company’s analysis found 82% fewer injury-causing crashes involving its driverless vehicles than its human-driver benchmark, an estimated difference of 841 crashes.
For crashes involving serious injury or worse, the reported difference was 95%. The figures are Waymo’s comparison with a modelled benchmark for human driving in its operating areas, rather than counts from a matched fleet of human-driven vehicles.
