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September 08, 2025NEW VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS, Q2 2025 Statistics Canada now reports Nova Scotia results for new motor vehicle registrations. Data are reported for all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta.
In Q2 2025, there were 16,469 new vehicles registered in Nova Scotia, up 11.8% from Q2 2024. Among fuel types, gasoline powered vehicles were the most common with 13,280 registrations - over 4 times the number of other fuel types registered (diesel, battery electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid). Among body types, multi-purpose vehicles (including sport-utility vehicles) were by far the most common in Q2 205 with 10,605 registrations.
Registrations were up the most for hybrid-fuelled vehicles (+72.5%) in Q2 2025 while battery electric (-22.5%) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (-4.8%) reported lower registrations than in Q2 2024. Among body types, registrations were up most for vans (+36.0% - though this started from a relatively low value). Only passenger cars (-5.5%) reported declining registrations in Nova Scotia from Q2 2024 to Q2 2025.
In Q2 2025, 80.6% of Nova Scotia's vehicle registrations were for gasoline-fuelled vehicles - the highest such share among provinces. Nationally, gasoline-fuelled vehicles were 74.8% of registrations in Q2 2025. British Columbia and Québec had the lowest shares of gasoline-fuelled vehicles among Q2 2025 registrations. Hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles were more commonly registered in British Columbia while Québec had the highest share of battery electric vehicles in its Q2 2025 registrations. Diesel vehicles were a larger share of registrations in Alberta.
Across Nova Scotia, gasoline-fuelled vehicles were the majority of registrations in all areas in Q2 2025. Gasoline-fuelled vehicle registrations were more prevalent in the Cape Breton regional municipality as well as in Halifax. Battery electric vehicles were more commonly registered in Kentville as well as outside the reported Census Metropolitan and Census Agglomeration areas. Diesel-fuelled vehicles were more commonly-registered in Truro as well as in rural areas outside Census Agglomerations and the Halifax Census Metropolitan Area.
Trends
Vehicle registrations exhibit seasonal patterns, with Q2 registrations rising for most engine and body types.
Although they are still the most commonly-registered fuel type in Nova Scotia, gasoline-fuelled vehicle registrations have declined and remain below levels from before 2020. However, there has been a small rise in Q2 registration of new gasoline-fuelled vehicles since 2022.
Hybrid electric vehicle registrations have risen sharply in the last two years - making them the second most common type vehicle propulsion registered in Nova Scotia in Q2 2025.
Diesel-fuelled vehicles have reported higher registrations in the last 4 quarters, but remain substantially less than the number of hybrid electric registrations.
Battery electric vehicle registrations accelerated sharply from 2021 to 2024, but declined (year-over-year) in the last quarter.
Plug in hybrid registrations have declined year-over-year in Q2 2025, but not as much as reported for battery electric vehicles.
Multi-purpose vehicles such as sport-utility vehicles remain by far the most commonly-registered new vehicles in Nova Scotia, particularly in the last year.
Pickup truck registrations were up in the last year.
Registration of new passenger cars remains substantially lower than it was prior to 2020.
Although registration of new vans declined sharply in 2022-2024, there has been an increase in Q2 2025.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 20-10-0025-01 New motor vehicle registrations, quarterly, by geographic level
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