Unprecedented leap in the popularity of SUVs and other “light trucks” in Quebec

“Light trucks”, including sport utility vehicles (SUVs), experienced an unprecedented leap in popularity in Quebec last year, according to the most recent data available. More than 140,000 of these vehicles have been added to the roads of the province. The Legault government is banking on the electrification of these trucks to reduce their growing weight in the province’s greenhouse gas emissions report.

According to data just updated by the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ), the increase in 2020 in the number of “light trucks” in circulation in the province was the strongest ever recorded. No less than 140,203 new vehicles in this category, which includes the very popular SUVs, were added to the province’s vehicle fleet between the years 2019 and 2020. The total, in 2020, thus amounted to 2,199,562, or growth of 170% in a decade.

This record annual increase followed another increase among the highest recorded in the available data, ie since 2000. Between 2018 and 2019, 114,268 “light trucks” were added, while their number exceeded the two million mark. in the province.

As for the average growth recorded during the five years from 2015 to 2020, it amounted to more than 110,000 new light trucks per year, for a total of more than half a million in five years. This growth in vehicles deemed to consume more energy is also occurring against a backdrop of a decline in passenger vehicles in the “automobile” category over the past 10 years.

Popular everywhere

The increase in the popularity of light trucks and other SUVs was observed in all administrative regions of Quebec in 2020, according to data from the ISQ. While their number is growing in various more rural regions where there are large territories, such as Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean, Abitibi-Témiscamingue or Gaspésie – Îles-de-la-Madeleine, very urban regions are not are not left out.

In Montreal, the number of light trucks increased by 17,155 vehicles between 2019 and 2020, reaching a total of 314,309. The increase has been continuous for several years, so much so that their number has increased by 180% in 10 years in the metropolis. While the number of light trucks jumped by 140,224 passenger vehicles in a decade, that of the “automobile” category fell by 66,049 vehicles.

In the Capitale-Nationale region, the number of light trucks grew by 12,897 vehicles between 2019 and 2020, while their number has practically doubled in a decade. The same type of growth, over a period of 10 years, was observed in Laval.

Road transport alone represents more than 35% of the province’s GHG emissions report, according to the most recent data published by the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC), namely those between 1990 and 2018, emissions from light trucks also increased by 146.8%, while their number on our roads increased by 268%, according to government data.

Electrify SUVs

Does the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, consider that the popularity of this type of vehicle represents a risk for reaching Quebec’s climate targets? “Our goal is to electrify the entire road transport sector. SUVs are therefore obviously in our sights. We have ambitious targets to electrify our transport and a credible plan to achieve them, ”the minister’s office replied on Friday in an email to To have to.

Holder of the Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, Pierre Olivier Pineau, for his part, is categorical: “The popularity of light trucks is one of the main risks compromising the achievement of GHG reduction targets. Not only are these funds spent to accentuate the problem of pollution and congestion, but they crystallize our housing habits, which tend more and more towards urban sprawl, and make the profitability of public transport more difficult. . “

With these 140,203 new light trucks on the roads, he adds, “Quebecers have invested billions in the problem in 2020, as they have done more and more in recent years. These vehicles are a guarantee of the sale of petroleum products for the years to come, which make it practically illusory to achieve a 40% reduction in the sale of petroleum products by 2030 ”, ie the objective of the energy policy.

According to him, the electrification of vehicles like SUVs is not the solution, contrary to what Minister Benoit Charette says. This would improve the balance of GHG emissions, but their use also sends the message that urban sprawl is “acceptable”. “While we should regroup, we physically move away from each other. And that takes us even further away from our climate objectives, ”underlines Mr. Pineau.

To reduce the attractiveness of gas-guzzling vehicles, he believes that the ban on advertising could be “interesting”, but above all he urges the government to impose “additional fees on purchase and registration”, as well as ” a kilometer tax which would apply to all vehicles, but which would penalize larger vehicles more ”.

Reduce advertising?

Policy analyst specializing in sustainable mobility at Équiterre, Andréanne Brazeau, for her part, believes that the electrification of transport is, as a general rule, “a solution among other elements” in the range of solutions to be implemented to reduce the environmental impact of the transport sector. In the case of the most polluting personal vehicles, it also stresses the need for additional pricing to reduce the attractiveness of vehicles such as SUVs.

Équiterre is also part of a coalition of environmental groups calling for a tightening of the rules governing automobile advertising, which reserves a large place for vehicles that consume the most energy, despite the context of the climate crisis. This ubiquity in advertising “fuels demand for SUVs,” argues Mr.me Brazeau.

Earlier this year, Minister Charette closed the door on further regulating SUV advertising. “The plan for implementing the Green Economy Plan, which essentially covers the next five years, does not provide for measures at this level. At the moment, that is not part of the package of measures that we are going to implement, ”he argued last April. “Will the thinking change over the next few years? It is always possible, but it is not an element that is currently considered in our implementation plan. “

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