Lack of an affordable EV is something that has received much press, and yes quite a few posts on this blog (source and source). But is it really a problem? Are cheap cars selling in general? Lets have a look at the top selling list in Canada and see what they go for. As we see, manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) in the top ten, is a far cry from the Dacia spring (source).
We begin by listing the top 10 sellers in 2024, at the time of this writing 2025 data is not quite available yet. Data mostly from clutch.ca (source), and the MRSP from the respective vendor website. Granted, MSRP is not the price you pay, no effort was made to locate actual vehicles for sale.
| Car | Sales | MSRP [CAD] |
| Ford F series | 133,857 | $53k – $112k |
| Toyota RAV 4 | 77,556 | $37k – $51k |
| GMC Sierra | 60,188 | $53k – $114k |
| Honda CRV | 55,363 | $40k – $54k |
| RAM 1500 | 55,070 | $56k – $110k |
| Chevy Silverado | 54,016 | $58k – $95k |
| Tesla Model Y | 39,718 | $65k – $75k |
| Nissan Rouge | 32,737 | $37k – $49k |
| Honda Civic | 31,77 | $31k – $41k |
| Ford Escape | 30,996 | $36k – $47k |
Well now, if we could have the Dacia spring and perhaps a 25k CAD MSRP (source), it would be quite out of place on this list, thats not to say it would not sell at least some units, its just to say that it is unlikely to become a best-seller. The only EV to make the list, the Tesla Model Y went for two to three times that amount.
The other thing to take away from this list is the sheer diversity of Canada’s vehicle market. In 2024, Canadians bought 1.9 M vehicles (source). Our top seller, at 133,857 units only represents 7% of the total, most of the models on our list sell half that, or 3-4 %. This suggests that the Candian market is very diverse, no single model is raking more than 10%. Compare that to smartphones where Apple has a 60% share (source).
Indeed, looking at new vehicles overall, the EVs were more expensive (source). But if the 40k-100k price range is well served by EVs, which looking at the table above of what is selling in Canada, seems to be the price range Canadians are currently paying for their vehicles.
Hence the claim that there is no affordability crisis with EVs, what is in the top ten sales list is not exactly cheap. Looking at the Nissan Versa 2024 sales numbers suggests as much, at 2,710 units, its a long ways away from the top ten (source) despite being one of the cheapest cars you can buy in Canada (source).
Electric car adventures 