It seems that no matter what the automotive press says negative about Tesla and no matter what kind of defiant Tweet Elon Musk posts, nothing seems to be slowing down the Texas-based electric vehicle maker. Indeed, in addition to having smashed another global sales record in 2022, Tesla remains very popular with Quebec motorists. As proof, it sold more than Model 3 that of Honda-Civic in the province.
This information comes to us from the media Automedia. According to its most recent statistics for sales of new vehicles in Quebec in 2022, we understand that 7,673 Tesla Model 3s were sold on our territory. This is almost double compared to the 2021 model year, which amounted to 4,142 copies sold.
Things get even more interesting, however, when you compare that number to those of the Honda Civic, historically the best-selling car in Canada for more than two decades. In Quebec, the popular Japanese compact only sold 7,238 copies, a considerable drop from the 9,877 Civics sold in 2021.
In fact, the Tesla Model 3 beat out other popular affordable models like the Hyundai Elantra (5,942 units), Nissan Sentra (3,084 units), and Mazda3 (2,741 units). Only the Toyota Corolla (10,000 units) fared better.
A much more expensive car to buy
All this is even more fascinating when you consider that during the year 2022, the Tesla Model 3 cost significantly more than a Civic or an Elantra. In fact, it was a car that sold for nearly double the price. Note that during this year, the Model 3 was not eligible for the two government rebates for electric vehicles.
It is obvious that supply problems have a lot to do with it. We understand that giants like Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Mazda have not been able to deliver the expected number of vehicles. Remember that at the end of 2022, more than 4 million new vehicles were missing worldwide. However, Tesla has also been the victim of the same pitfalls, which explains why it has not met its expected growth of 50% in 2022.
We can therefore conclude that Quebecers appreciate Tesla models, but especially electric vehicles in general. We also note very good sales performances for other popular electric models, such as the Hyundai IONIQ 5 (2,725 units) and the Chevrolet Bolt EUV (2,240 units).
