Canada’s 10 best-selling luxury brands
SUVs and crossovers are proving to be money-makers for most premium automakers this year
This year has been challenging for automobile manufacturers operating in Canada. It’s not only because of consistent year-over-year declines, it’s also the degree to which those declines have been mitigated under the surface by rising fleet volume and inflated incentives.
Premium automakers, however, aren’t trending in the same direction. Bolstered by booming SUV and crossover volume, even in the upper echelons of the luxury sector, upmarket brands combined for improved sales in the first 10 months of 2018 — albeit a slight year-over-year uptick of one per cent.
The improvement stems from premium automakers’ ability to tap utility vehicle demand in the most unexpected of spaces. Take Porsche, for instance. Only two decades ago, it would’ve seemed profoundly out of sync with the luxury SUV segment. In 2018, even in a record year for its iconic 911, Porsche Canada derives twothirds of its volume from the Macan and Cayenne.
Audi, on the other hand, now markets Canada’s most popular premium brand utility vehicle, the Q5. At Lincoln, where the brand’s third iteration of the full-size Navigator lingered well past its best-before date, an all-new Navigator outsold the Lincoln passenger car division in October. Meanwhile, BMW now markets six different crossover nameplates and is about to begin deliveries of the X7, its biggest yet.
Many mainstream brands haven’t been so swift to react to the market’s rapid shift. Would Kia sales be sliding twice as fast as the industry as a whole in 2018 if the brand offered as many utility vehicle nameplates as BMW? Would Chrysler be so invisible if the brand’s only SUV, the Aspen, hadn’t died off in 2010? Volkswagen Canada is enjoying noteworthy success with its second-generation Tiguan and first Atlas, but why did Volkswagen’s SUV strategy not develop properly until 2017?
Premium auto brands jumped on the fast-moving bandwagon early on and haven’t looked back. This is part of the reason premium brands now own more than 11 per cent of the overall new vehicle market, up from nine per cent five years ago and seven a decade ago. Now, despite cratering passenger car volume, Canada’s premium sector is largely holding itself together despite 2018’s headwinds.
With sales figures from the Global Automakers of Canada, these are Canada’s 10 top-selling premium auto brands through the first 10 months of 2018. VOLVO: 7,865 UP 38 PER CENT
If the second-generation XC90 couldn’t get Volvo back to historically high Canadian sales levels on its own, help from smaller Volvo utility vehicles would certainly come to its aid. Volvo is on track for more than 9,000 sales in Canada this year, the brand’s best year since 2006. (Volvo sold 11,651 vehicles in 2005, its best year ever, but tumbled to 4,466 sales in 2014.) Of course, the brand would be better off if its cars, including the upcoming third-generation S60, could sell well, too. Volvo car sales are down 12 per cent in 2018 and account for only one-fifth of the brand’s volume. PORSCHE: 7,301 UP SEVEN PER CENT
Prior to the recession, even with the successful Cayenne propping the brand up, Porsche was a niche entity. Chances were, you didn’t see a Porsche on your morning commute. Only 1,987 Porsches were sold in all of Canada in 2007. Now Porsche averages nearly 2,200 sales in Canada each quarter. The Cayenne and best-selling Macan aren’t the only vehicles to thank; 2018 will also be the best year ever for Canadian sales of the 911, by far the longest-running model in Porsche’s lineup.
LAND ROVER: 8,567 UP 12 PER CENT
In an SUV-happy luxury arena, it doesn’t hurt to be an SUV-only brand. Land Rover, an Indian-owned British brand partnered with Jaguar, now markets a broad lineup that includes the Discovery and smaller Discovery Sport, the Range Rover Evoque and Velar, and the top-tier Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Those upmarket Range Rover models produce more than three-quarters of the brand’s volume while the more affordable Discovery models trudge along in relative obscurity.
CADILLAC: 10,223 DOWN 11 PER CENT
Cadillac’s Canadian sales momentum has stalled. The brand reported its best year ever in 2017, doubling its sales over the span of five years mainly on the strength of the XT5, but 2018 hasn’t been so kind to Cadillac, which now produces well over half of its volume in China. The launch of the small XT4 crossover will help in every market in which Cadillac competes. October was the XT4’s first month on sale in Canada, and with only 53 sales, it’s already more popular than any of Cadillac’s cars, sales of which are down by a quarter this year.
INFINITI: 10,609 DOWN 0.1 PER CENT
As Nissan reported its best October ever, Infiniti volume tumbled 17 per cent last month to a loss of 182 units. On the whole, however, Infiniti volume has remained on an even keel in 2018, despite declines reported by most models. Thank the brand’s biggest SUV, the QX80, which is up by more than a third, and the new QX50. After the first QX50 (formerly known as the EX35) was left to wallow in obscurity for far too long, the new QX50 is taking off. In fact, it was Infiniti’s best-seller in October, producing nearly four out of every 10 Infiniti sales in Canada.
ACURA: 17,096 UP THREE PER CENT
Acura may have lost much of the affordable performance-oriented excitement on which its reputation was built, but Honda’s upmarket brand remains very popular in Canada. Only now, instead of the Integra and TL, Acura makes hay with the MDX and RDX. Launched in third-gen form this year, the RDX is Acura’s top seller, rising 18 per cent to 7,672 sales so far this year. Among premium brand utility vehicles, only the Audi Q5 and Lexus RX sell more often.
LEXUS: 20,455 DOWN FOUR PER CENT
With rapid passenger car declines, including double-digit percentage losses for the GS, IS, LC, and RC, a modest rise in Lexus SUV/CUV volume is nowhere near sufficient to keep Lexus’s growth streak alive. Canadian Lexus volume increased from 2012 through 2017, but in 2018, Lexus’ volume declined by roughly 80 units per month. October was a big month for Lexus, especially for its utility vehicles. Both the NX and RX topped the 1,000-unit sale mark.
AUDI: 32,099 UP THREE PER CENT
In terms of trends, no high-volume premium brand can compete with Audi’s growth cycle over the past dozen years. Audi volume surged right through the recession, rising 57 per cent between 2005 and 2009. By 2014, Audi sales more than doubled that mid-recession peak. Audi is now on track in 2018 to sell more than 37,000 vehicles, an 80-per cent rise over the span of five years. Audi’s passenger car decline is modest and the Q5’s rapid growth — now accounting for nearly one-third of volume — is taking the brand to new heights.
BMW: 32,970 UP THREE PER CENT
Count ’em: X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6. And soon, the X7. Those are BMW’s utility vehicles, and while once hugely popular vehicles such as the 3 Series slide — it’s down 15 per cent this year — these crossovers more than make up the slack. The X3, now in its third generation, is BMW’s top seller, topping the 3 Series by a 28 per cent margin. Nearly six in 10 BMWs sold in Canada come from the X-model range.
MERCEDES-BENZ: 36,379 DOWN SIX PER CENT
Safely ensconced in the top spot, Mercedes-Benz has nevertheless struggled this year to match 2017’s heady pace. (Figures here don’t include Sprinter and Metris commercial vans.) Fast-falling sales of Mercedes-Benz’s entry-level models are largely to blame. The trio is down by nearly 1,500 units so far this year. Mercedes-Benz’s top seller is still C-Class cars, but its utility vehicles account for just over half of the brand’s volume.