Matthew Klippenstein, Contributor

Articles
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After generous tax credits expired in Canada’s largest province of Ontario, September, not April, turned out to be the coldest month for electric-car sales North of the Border. The tax credit...
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Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV vie for Canadian sales lead in August
Ahead of the final expiration of electric-car tax credits in Ontario, Canada, the Nissan Leaf posted its highest monthly sales total north of the border: 1,050 units. The number was more than double what Nissan sold in June and July, and still significantly more than its previous record of 906...
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Post-Peak: plug-in electric-car sales in Canada for July
Sales data for plug-in cars in Canada in June and July show the effect of large purchase incentives. In its first full month of availability in Canada in June, the Tesla Model 3 racked up 2,329 sales, shattering the country’s monthly record for electric-car sales and making it the 16th...
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Tesla dominated electric-car sales in Canada in June
Electric cars accounted for nearly 3 percent of all passenger vehicles sold in Canada in June, thanks to a surge of Tesla Model 3 deliveries. With the California-based automaker famously coy about country-by-country deliveries, June delivery data won’t be finalized until later this month...
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Tesla Model 3: 456 sales in May Canadian debut
Tesla started off Model 3 sales in Canada in May with a bang and sold 456 cars after a flurry of deliveries at the end of the month, according to vehicle registration data compiled by IHS Auto. Model 3 sales in Canada continued building through June. The evidence points to Tesla boosting Model 3...
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British Columbia opens first hydrogen filling station in Canada
Canada’s first retail hydrogen fueling station opened on Friday June 15 in Vancouver, part of a network of eight hydrogen stations expected in British Columbia in the next two years. By 2020, the program will add hydrogen dispensers at five retail stations in Metro Vancouver and one station...
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Last month, the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid set a new single-month sales record for plug-in electric vehicles in Canada and sold 589 units. One month later, that sales pace—plus one...
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Outlanders Inbound: Plug-in Electric Car Sales In Canada, March 2018
Altogether, Canadians bought 2,157 plug-in cars in Canada in April, 40 percent off March's pace of 3,563 sales, but 50 percent more than January, and a couple hundred more than February.
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Electric-car buyers want same things as all car buyers, research shows
Cheaper batteries alone won't get consumers to abandon their internal combustion cars for any type of electric car. Purchase incentives and charging boost plug-in hybrids. But what buyers really seem to want is fuel cells.
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, March 2018: Prius Prime rivals Volt
The Chevy Volt won its umpteenth monthly plug-in sales title in Canada last month, but soaring sales of other models were the big story in the Canuck electric vehicle market—which may have reached 1.75 percent of the market in March. The Volt tallied 555 March sales, Canada’s...
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Tesla sales: how much do rebates matter to buyers in Canada?
The government of Ontario amended its plug-in electric vehicle incentive program in March, eliminating incentives for vehicles with a recommended price of $75,000 or more. What effect will this have on demand for Tesla’s Model S and X? Two years ago, this site analyzed the impacts on...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Feb 2018: turning over new Leafs
Cumulative Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales surpassed 50,000 units in February, aided by the second-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf, which sold 179 units in its “rookie” month. Unfortunately for the world’s best-selling plug-in electric vehicle (and third-best in Canada), its...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada for Jan: Outlander has landed (plus 2017 analysis) Matthew Klippenstein
The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV helped the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle market to its first 1,000-unit January last month. The company sold 174 of its plug-in hybrid SUV in its first full month...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada for 2017: two Dec debuts before ZEV rules
Plug-in electric vehicles topped 1 percent of Canadian new-car sales in the second half of 2017, but will fall just short of that milestone for the full year. They’ll probably end around 0.95 percent when final registration data arrives, easily surpassing their 0.57-percent market share of...
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Canadian electric-car news: apartment charging, electric trucks, Electra Meccanica Solo
Of all the Canadian electric-car news that rounds out 2017, the Vancouver suburb of Richmond’s new requirement that 100 percent of apartments and condominiums be ready for plug-in vehicles may be the most significant. Access to charging in multi-unit residential buildings, or MURBs, has long...
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Awake at the wheel: Tesla is far from alone in electric trucks
This time, Elon Musk is not alone. In mid-December, Daimler delivered its first 14 Fuso eCanter electric delivery trucks to customers in Germany, a reminder that while Tesla caught car companies flat-footed in 2012, incumbent truck makers are already preparing their countermeasures. In...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Nov 2017: the vaulting Chevy Volt
A record 582 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids were sold in Canada last month, two months after Chevy delivered a then-record 483 Volts in September. The achievement is even more impressive considering Canadian car sales dropped by 15 percent between the two months, as the industry enters its slow...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Oct 2017: Chevy’s dominant duo
The dominant duo of the Chevy Volt and Bolt EV continued their winning ways in the Canadian market for new plug-in electric cars during October. Chevrolet sold 424 Volts to start the fourth quarter, down slightly from 483 in September. The vehicle’s 3,431 sales through October all but tied...
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Coming in mid-October, Canadian Thanksgiving roughly coincides with the return of ice hockey.
This year, the country’s plug-in electric vehicle fans have their own reasons for giving...
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Plug-in electric car sales In Canada, Sep 2017: 1 percent now, 99 percent to go
The market share of plug-in electric cars in Canada appears to have topped 1 percent for the first time ever last month. Final sales totals won’t be available until registration data arrives later this month. We estimate that just under 1,900 vehicles with plugs were sold last month, compared...
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Tesla's solar and battery project in Hawaii: we do the math
Tesla’s summer announcement of the world’s biggest battery-storage system in South Australia characteristically kept key details confidential. Fortunately, while mystery and mystique still shroud that project, more can be unearthed or inferred for Tesla's solar panel and battery...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Aug 2017: Chevy Volt's 50th win
The Chevrolet Volt won its 17th straight Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales title in August, which became its 50th overall. Much has changed since its September 2011 arrival in the home of the beaver—which, we note, is not just Oregon State University’s mascot, but Canada’s...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, July 2017: Golf season
The Volkswagen e-Golf launched in Canada in late June, tallying 39 sales before the month’s end, and followed that with 84 units in its first full month of availability. Aided by the e-Golf, the Toyota Prius Prime and the soon-to-arrive second-generation Nissan Leaf, plug-in electric vehicles...
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Canada electric-car news: EV Discovery Centre, more charging sites, ZEV mandates debated
As Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, the plug-in electric vehicle sector has charged forward, with developments on the national, provincial and even municipal levels. Here’s our take on six of the most salient stories. Federal ZEV committee On May 26, the Canadian government announced its...
Matthew Klippenstein