We repeated it ad nauseam throughout the past year: the automotive industry has weathered a long and tumultuous storm, the tidal waves of which were mainly caused by a breakdown in the supply chain. Now is the time for the balance sheets.
Posted at 2:51 p.m.
Last year, 1,638,398 vehicles were sold in Canada, according to the firm DesRosiers Automotive. If the figure taken alone may seem high, it represents an increase of barely 6.6% when we draw a direct comparison with the abyssal year of 2020, greatly affected by production stoppages due to the pandemic.
As DesRosiers’ analysis points out, we are also very far from the record year of 2017, which ended with more than 2 million vehicles sold in the country. Eight months of 2021 have also seen their balance sheet written in red ink, including the month of December, which will have been the image of the year, with a decline of 4.5%.
Ford good first
In terms of sales volume, Ford was the big winner, with 243,447 vehicles sold in 2021, a stagnant figure (up 1.7%), according to data from DesRosiers. General Motors (GM) occupies the second step of the podium, with 217,475 units sold (-0.5%) and Toyota ends the year in third place with a balance sheet up by 16.8%, to 199,308 copies. The Japanese manufacturer thus passes Stellantis, which had concluded 2020 in third place behind GM and Ford.
In terms of growth, we must highlight the excellent performance of Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury brand, which saw its sales grow by 212.5%. Note that the arrival of the highly competitive GV70, a compact SUV, greatly benefited the brand’s growth.
Light trucks and the F-Series still on top
PHOTO PROVIDED BY FORD
The Ford F-150
The stranglehold of light trucks on the Canadian automotive market was once again confirmed in 2021. Of all the vehicles sold during the 12 months, 81.2% nestled in this somewhat catch-all category which basically encompasses everything that is slightly elevated.
Ford’s F-Series, with its 116,401 vehicles that have found buyers, remains the undisputed queen among the best-selling models, all categories combined. To put the numbers into perspective, more pickups in this family have been sold than Nissan and Mitsubishi models…combined. RAM pickup trucks take second place in the light truck charts, ahead of the Toyota RAV4.
Among cars, the Honda Civic takes first place with 43,556 units sold, ahead of the Toyota Corolla and the Hyundai Elantra, according to data from DesRosiers. This again confirms the market share losses of these categories, relegated to the background by ranges focused on SUVs.