Canadian shoppers of new vehicles who are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to consider buying an electric vehicle as their next car make up 28% of consumers surveyed in J.D. Power’s 2025 Canada Electric Vehicle Consideration (EVC) Study — a steady year-over-year figure, though it is down one percentage point from 2024.
Still, stability around consumer interest holds even as Canada’s Incentives for Zero Emissions Vehicles (iZEV) rebate program has been paused. However, J.D. Power says that stability also hides “significant shifts” in underlying market dynamics.
“Despite a great deal of volatility in the EV marketplace, overall consumer interest in EVs at a topline level is largely unchanged this year,” said J.D. Ney, Director of the Automotive Practice at J.D. Power Canada, in a statement. “What is noteworthy, though, is the reaction to the incentive landscape, and perhaps more importantly for manufacturers, the shift in consumer interest toward traditional brands.”
Based on J.D. Power’s report, 42% of new-vehicle shoppers — the ones that are likely to consider an EV — also say that pausing the $5,000 per vehicle incentive program would impact the likelihood that they will buy an EV. In Quebec, consumer consideration was down 8 percentage points, even as it rose 2 percentage points in the rest of Canada. Adding to the mix is a shakeup in the lineup of the most frequently considered EV brands.
“Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet are now the top five most-considered brands among new-vehicle shoppers who say they are ‘very likely’ or ‘somewhat likely’ to consider an EV,” said Ney in a statement. “Tesla, which had been among the top two EV brands considered in the study for the past four years, has fallen to eighth place among likely EV shoppers — down 16 percentage points year-over-year — while among all other brands combined the average gain is half a percentage point.”
J.D. Power’s annual study is meant as a benchmark to gauge EV shopper consideration. This year’s report was fielded in March-April 2025 and looked at responses from 3,979 new-vehicle shoppers.
