Quebec doesn’t just incentivize buyers; La Belle Province requires auto manufacturers to meet EV goals
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If it rides on four wheels and uses battery-electric power to generate forward progress in this country, the odds are high that it’s in Quebec. Over half the electric vehicles sold in Canada in 2024 – 52% in the first-half of the year – landed in Quebec driveways.
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Of course, Quebec is a large province. But its roughly 9 million residents generate only 25% of the Canadian auto industry’s sales volume, highlighting the dramatic oversampling of BEVs in La Belle Province.
What makes Quebec such a receptive region for electric vehicles? It’s not simply a difference in consumer tastes that caused first-half BEV market share in Quebec to surge to 19% while Saskatchewan’s BEV share hovered just above 1%. Rather, Quebec piles on incentives in order to lure car buyers into electric vehicles. In addition to rebates worth as much as $5,000 from the federal government, the Quebec government presently layers on another $7,000 for fully electric vehicles.
Quebec, however, doesn’t just incentivize buyers.
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Quebec’s electrification strategy also requires automakers to play ball by mandating a certain percentage (14% in 2024; 16% in 2025) of large automakers’ Quebec volume to be generated by zero-emission vehicles. Automakers earn credits based on the number of EVs sold. Failure to earn enough credits will force an automaker to buy credits from another automaker that has surplus credits or pay a fee to the provincial government. Either way, it costs an automaker when it’s not selling EVs in Quebec.
Yet after these strategies led Quebec to its current position as the No.1 electric vehicle province in Canada, Quebec announced in March that the government is backtracking from the incentivization aspect of its EV blueprint. On January 1, 2025, the $7,000 BEV rebate turns into a $4,000 rebate. On January 1, 2026, rebates will be cut by another 50%. On January 1, 2027, Quebec’s provincial rebates will be eliminated.
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Not surprisingly, Quebec’s EV volume has flown to new highs given the fact that rebate reductions were announced at a point in time when OEMs finally increased availability of a broader range of EVs. According to federal data that factors in every single vehicle that’s received a rebate since Natural Resources Canada began handing out discounts in 2019, Quebec electric vehicle sales jumped 80% in the seven-month period following the provincial government’s rebate reduction announcement – the rest of the country’s EV rebate-eligible sales actually decreased by half a percentage point.
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This isn’t just a consumer response to the future elimination of rebates – it’s also the result of OEMs responding to Quebec’s mandate structure and shipping more vehicles to the province that requires action.
That’s the lay of the land. Yet the most compelling data points can’t be found in the big electric picture – we want to know exactly what Quebecers are choosing to drive. Using the federal government’s rebate database, we’ve compiled a list of the most popular rebate-eligible battery-electric vehicles in the province that gobbles up EVs like they’re going out of style. Through the first 10 months of 2024, these are the 10 best-selling EVs in Quebec.
10. Chevrolet Blazer EV: 3,412
Of the rebate-eligible electric vehicles sold in Quebec so far this year, 16% are Chevrolets. That’s actually down from 19% market share last year when the Chevrolet Bolt was carrying the load. The Blazer is one of two Chevrolet EVs – both of which rank among top sellers – that weren’t available a year ago. During the period in which GM Canada delivered 3,412 Blazer EVs in Quebec, the rest of the country only acquired 1,427.
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9. Tesla Model 3: 3,852
As automakers adjust their pricing formulas and as the federal government gradually alters its eligibility standards, so too does the EV sales leaderboard change. A year ago, the Tesla Model 3 topped this list. Now at No.9, the Model 3 only accounts for 35% of the rebate-eligible Tesla volume in Quebec.
8. Kia EV6: 4,128
Bolstered by broader eligibility across the lineup this year, Kia EV6 rebate-eligible sales in Quebec jumped 256% in 2024. Kia also claims the 11th and 12th positions on this list with the Niro EV and EV9, respectively. The trio combined for 8,641 Quebec sales between January and October.
7. Toyota bZ4x: 4,185
Doubling its volume from 2023, the awkwardly named Toyota bZ4x generates 100% of the Toyota brand’s fully electric attention. That doesn’t mean the bZ4x is the only car to garner rebate attention. Toyota’s plug-in hybrid lineup – RAV4 and Prius – produced another 8,471 Quebec sales.
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Up 257% from Quebec’s 10-month tally in 2023, the Ford Mustang Mach-E is one of two rebate-eligible Ford EVs. The other, Ford’s F-150 Lightning, is not rebate-eligible across its entire lineup due to its elevated price point. 1,337 of the F-150 Lightnings sold in Quebec between January and June – Pro and XLT standard range models – received federal rebates.
5. Volkswagen ID.4: 5,674
Up 101% from 2023, Volkswagen’s 5,674 ID.4 sales in 2024’s first 10 months represents just under three-quarters of its national output. And 2025 is a big year for Volkswagen’s electric lineup as the ID.4 will be joined by the ID.Buzz, a futuristic reimagining of the traditional VW Bus. The ID. Buzz starts above $80,000, well above the threshold for government rebates.
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4. Hyundai Kona Electric: 6,299
The Kona may not top the national EV sales charts, but in Quebec the Kona is part of a Hyundai electric lineup that controls a significant chunk of the electric market. One out of every five rebate-eligible fully electric cars sold in Quebec this year are Hyundais, bolstered in no small part by an 89% year-over-year surge in Kona Electric sales.
3. Chevrolet Equinox EV: 6,913
No EV on this list of best sellers generates a greater portion of its Canadian sales in Quebec than this new-to-market Equinox EV. A whopping 84% of the Equinox’s electric volume is produced in Quebec. The Equinox is actually quite a bit more popular than its No.3 ranking suggests as GM didn’t begin delivering the SUV until the end of May. During the August-October period, Quebec generated 5,428 Equinox EV sales – that’s nearly double Tesla’s combined Model Y/Model 3 total from the same period.
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2. Hyundai Ioniq 5: 7,037
Very narrowly missing out on the top EV spot by a margin of only 106 vehicles, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 grew its Quebec volume by 236% compared with 2023’s first 10 months. Among top sellers, only the Mustang Mach-E and Kia EV6 – itself a cousin of the Ioniq 5 – grew at a faster clip.
1. Tesla Model Y: 7,143
Although the Model Y was Quebec’s top-selling electric vehicle in 2024’s first 10 months, it actually relies on Quebec for a smaller percentage of its Canadian output than any other vehicle on this list. Tesla’s sold 7,143 rebate-eligible Model Ys in Quebec; 15,589 in the rest of the country. In fact, even when excluding Quebec – by far the most voluminous EV province in the country – the Model Y has still sold more copies this year than any other EV has inclusive of Quebec.
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