- General Motors claims to be Canada’s best-selling EV maker.
- The auto giant overtook Tesla, which has ruled Canada’s EV sales charts for years.
- During Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, GM sold more electric cars than Tesla in Canada.
Tesla has lost its spot as the best-selling electric car brand in Canada, making way for General Motors to come in and take the crown.
The information went relatively under the radar and was spotted by GM Authority in an Instagram post from GM Canada, which claimed the company is now the country’s best-selling EV maker.
A GM spokesperson said that the claim is “based on Canadian vehicle registrations for the third quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025,” and that “the data shows GM as the number one EV seller in Canada over that period.”
In the last quarter of 2024, GM sold roughly 15,000 EVs in Canada, while the first quarter of this year saw sales of about 6,000 EVs, according to the company’s records. In Tesla’s case, the automaker doesn’t release sales numbers for individual countries every month.
That said, data from Quebec’s vehicle registration service (SAAQ), quoted by Global News, shows a severe drop in registrations for Tesla. In Canada’s largest market for EVs, Tesla went from 5,097 cars registered in Q4 2024 to just 524 in Q1 2025, a 90% decrease. Data for the whole country is not yet available.
Both companies saw their registration numbers go down at the beginning of this year because the Canadian government stopped its iZEV rebate program for battery-powered cars in February. At the same time, Quebec halted its regional incentive program during February and March.
It’s also worth noting that General Motors managed to overtake Tesla in Canada thanks to its extensive brand portfolio. The American automaker has three brands selling EVs in Canada, while Tesla is a single entity with just four models on offer, and only two of them are high-volume vehicles. However, this hasn’t stopped it from being the favorite choice among EV buyers in Canada in the past.
Now, though, Canadians aren’t particularly keen on getting behind the wheel of a new Tesla. That has a lot to do with Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, who said that “Canada is not a real country.” Combined with the U.S. and Canada’s ongoing tariff war, Canadians aren’t too enthusiastic about a company controlled by the President’s right-hand man. That’s bad news for Tesla and, apparently, good news for GM.
