Paul Martin commentary
It may not feel like it but there are fewer vehicles on Saskatchewan roads than there were a year ago.
The number of new vehicle registrations in the province dropped by a couple hundred when comparing year-over-year numbers for the first quarter of 2026. But there was also an interesting development that is worth noting: the number of electric or battery powered vehicles went up in that period.
To a degree, these figures track what we’re seeing in terms of overall new vehicle sales which have dropped when compared to last year but the broader picture shows a slight move towards zero-emission units. This may be attributable to Ottawa opening up the market to Chinese imports but, while the trend is clear, the numbers are still pretty small.
In Saskatchewan, registration numbers rose from 300 to 365 units. That’s a twenty-percent increase which is noticeable but relatively small in real terms as the overall registration total – including gas and diesel-powered units – was nearly 10,000 and hybrids which account for another 1,200.
