Carmakers make gains in Canada
These vehicle manufacturers are slowly but surely making more sales than ever in our market
“The status quo,” George Carlin said, “sucks.” But in the automotive industry, upending the status quo is a feat accomplished only in fits and starts, with two steps forward and one step back, by haltingly changing generational mindsets.
North American truck consumers overwhelmingly choose full-size, Detroit-brand pickups. Despite a recent uptick in mid-size truck availability, full-size trucks still account for 90 per cent of Canadian truck sales. Moreover, as we approach nearly two decades of Japan’s U.S.-built foray into the fullsize truck market, 95 per cent of Canadian truck buyers choose a Ford, Ram, GMC, or Chevrolet instead of a Toyota or Nissan.
Similarly, the Honda Civic has been Canada’s best-selling car for 20 consecutive years, and 2018 will almost certainly make it 21. Challengers such as the Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3, and Hyundai Elantra have all made their intentions known, but none have proven capable of altering the status quo.
In an expanding Canadian auto market that now produces around 167,000 total sales per month — an all-time record high — the growing industry typically relies on the same automakers for roughly the same portion of sales, month after month. Major shifts are typically little more than blips, followed by a return to the mean. Gaining just one-tenth of one percentage point of market share requires selling some 170 extra vehicles in a given month. Those 170 extra sales must be stolen from another automaker that doesn’t want to give them up.
It becomes obvious, then, that the sudden procurement of, for example, an extra five per cent of Canadian market share is impossible. Even for a hot automaker, a market share increase of even one per cent is tough to come by when struggling automakers are maintaining competitiveness by increasing incentives, adding extra tech and luring customers with longer-term loans.
There are nevertheless a number of automobile brands that are increasing their share of the Canadian market, not in leaps and bounds but rather slowly and surely. We’ve assembled a group the 10 auto brands that have produced the greatest year-overyear increases in their Canadian market share through the first five months of 2018. Keep in mind that 0.1 per cent is equal to 837 cars sold.
10 HONDA: 8.8%
Honda’s record Canadian sales performance in 2017 has been bettered by a record-setting pace in early 2018, including a best-ever performance in May with 19,794 sales. Honda currently owns 8.8 per cent of the Canadian market, up from 8.7 per cent a year ago. Honda sales reached 73,827 in the first five months of 2018, a modest two per cent year-over-year uptick. The Civic and CR-V form seven-tenths of Honda Canada’s volume.
9 SUBARU: 2.7%
Not since 2011 has Subaru Canada failed to report an annual year-over-year sales increase. The brand has doubled its sales since then, and tripled its sales in the past decade. Subaru had just 1.2 per cent of the Canadian market in 2008, but that figure grew from 2.6 per cent in 2017’s first five months to 2.7 per cent so far this year, thanks to a six per cent improvement, to 22,528 sales. The key benefactor is the second-generation Crosstrek, sales of which more than doubled so far this year. It’s now Subaru’s bestseller.
8 MAZDA: 3.7%
There’s no denying Mazda isn’t all the way back, at least not yet. Mazda Canada generated 5.2 per cent of Canadian auto sales in 2008, but only 3.7 per cent in 2018. Mazda is, however, consistently putting up improved total sales figures, thanks mainly to the success of its three-member CX lineup, especially the CX-5. Those models collected 59 per cent of Mazda’s 31,103 sales (up five per cent) in the first five months of 2018, pulling Mazda’s market share up from 3.5 per cent a year ago.
7 MITSUBISHI: 1.3%
As Mitsubishi quickly makes its way toward becoming an SUV brand, new vehicles such as the Eclipse Cross and Outlander plug-in hybrid helped the brand create an 18 per cent surge to 10,836 total vehicle sales in 2018’s first five months. That’s 1.3 per cent of the overall market, up from 1.1 per cent a year ago. Mitsubishi remains a very small part of the mainstream auto sphere, but the brand is still on track for its fourth record annual sales result in the past six years.
6 NISSAN: 6.7%
Rewind a decade and Nissan held less than five per cent of the Canadian market, attracting around 6,300 buyers per month. Yet in 2018, Nissan is projected to sell in the first seven months of the year as many vehicles as the brand sold in all of 2008. In 2018’s first five months, Nissan’s three per cent rise to 55,679 sales produced 6.7 per cent of the market’s sales, up from 6.5 per cent a year ago. Propelling Nissan are two small crossovers, the Rogue and Qashqai, which together bring in nearly half of all Canadian Nissan buyers.
5 AUDI: 1.9%
Currently in position as Canada’s second-highest-volume premium auto brand, Audi increased its market share by two-tenths of a percentage point to 1.9 per cent in early 2018. Strongly on Audi’s side is the Q5, Canada’s top-selling luxury utility vehicle. The Q5 brought in onethird of Audi’s 16,251 sales in 2018’s first five months.
4 TOYOTA: 10%
Japan’s powerhouse is a global force and a consistently high-volume automaker in Canada. Separate from its Lexus outlet, which has seen a marginal sales decline in 2018, Toyota sales grew three per cent to 83,726 over the course of 2018’s first five months. That’s equal to 10 per cent of the market, up from 9.7 per cent a year ago. Toyota’s gains continue to come from SUVs, crossovers, and pickup trucks. The Tacoma, Tundra, RAV4, and their “light truck” siblings reported an eight per cent uptick in the January-May period, more than enough to offset a passenger-car sales decline. Cars, including the Corolla and Camry, now account for fewer than 40 per cent of Toyota’s Canadian output.
3 VOLKSWAGEN: 3.0%
Up from 2.6 per cent in early 2017, Volkswagen currently generates three per cent of Canadian auto sales. That leap forward comes as a result of an expanding SUV/crossover lineup. Sales at Volkswagen have risen to 26,294 so far this year, a 21 per cent year-overyear gain, thanks to the new Atlas and the reborn Tiguan.. At this time last year, utility vehicles accounted for fewer than one in five Volkswagen Canada sales; they now make up 40 per cent of their Canadian volume.
2 CHEVROLET: 9.0%
The highest-volume brand at General Motors currently produces nine per cent of all Canadian auto sales, up from 8.5 per cent a year ago. Chevrolet has produced such gains — rising seven per cent, year over year, to 75,401 sales so far this year — on the strength of pickup trucks, SUVs, and cars. That car strength is a rare feat in the current automotive era, but Chevrolet’s Bolt, Impala, Spark, and Volt have helped it buck the industry trend.
1 JEEP: 4.3%
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ high-volume Jeep brand, the automaker’s bright future hope, reached record Canadian sales levels in 2016 but then suffered a sharp 15 per cent decline in 2017. Disaster was not waiting in the wings, as 2018 has welcomed a new Wrangler into the fold. The Wrangler is now by far Jeep’s most popular model in Canada, and the brand’s market share has improved significantly as a result. Through the first five months of 2018, Jeep sales are up 25 per cent to 35,678, equal to 4.3 per cent of the market. Jeep had only 3.4 per cent of the Canadian market at this stage of 2017.