New Vehicle Sales in Canada Sink to a 13-Year Low
New light-duty vehicle sales in Canada fell in each of the first three quarters of 2022, and the story was the same in the fourth quarter. As a result, much like the month of June, sales totals for the whole year were the worst since 2009.
According to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, automakers in Canada managed to sell only 1.49 million new vehicles in all of 2022, a drop of 9.1 percent from the previous year. Rising prices and supply chain disruptions are mostly to blame, of course.
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Things were a bit better during the month of December with an estimated increase of 5.5 percent, DesRosiers says. Keep in mind that this is just an approximation since the majority of car companies don’t post monthly sales figures.
Ford Still No. 1
Despite being down 1.3 percent, Ford remained the best-selling brand in Canada for the 14th consecutive year, with 240,325 units sold, while its F-150 was the overall best-selling vehicle for the 13th year in a row.
General Motors and Toyota round out the top three with 228,003 units (+5 percent) and 200,204 units (-11 percent), respectively. As for Stellantis, formerly known as FCA, we’re talking about 169,179 units sold (+5 percent).
A New Champ
Excluding pickups, the Toyota RAV4 was once again the best-selling vehicle in Canada last year with 55,921 units sold. It seems like “Cablegate” had little effect on shoppers. More notably, the Corolla sold 33,096 units to become the best-selling car in the country, ending the Honda Civic’s remarkable 24-year reign.
When it comes to electric vehicles, it’s worth noting that the Chevrolet Bolt EV (including the Bolt EUV) had its best year ever with 6,372 units sold. And that’s despite coming off a massive recall to replace potentially defective high-voltage batteries.
Meanwhile, the Jeep Wrangler 4xe was Canada’s best-selling plug-in hybrid in 2022.