Canadian auto sales continue to soften in June

Five consecutive years of year-over-year sales increases came to an end in June

New-vehicle sales in Canada fell below last-year’s levels in June, for the fourth month in a row. At the same time, year-to-date sales fell below year-ago levels for the first time since March 2013, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC), bringing to end a five-year-plus period of continuous year-over-year sales growth.

June’s decline wasn’t a big one — as with the past three months, more of a leveling off than a sharp downturn. Sales of 200,156 vehicles were down just 1.6% from a year ago, making it the second-best June tally ever, almost 9% better than the five-year average for the month, according to David Adams, David Adams, president of the Global Automakers of Canada.

• Also: New-vehicle Sales in Canada, First Quarter of 2018
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Nevertheless, that slight weakening pulled total year-to-date sales of 1,036,677 down to 0.2% below last year’s record numbers at this time, curtailing five years of continuous expansion.

“The June results don’t rule out the possibility of another record year for auto sales in Canada, but there are some significant headwinds, not the least of which are the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and the possibility of 25% tariffs on vehicles imported into the United States from abroad,” said Adams. “Given the current economic and political uncertainty, these sales levels are quite strong.”

Reinforcing the current market strength, June’s SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Sales Rate) again exceeded 2-million, according to DAC, suggesting annual sales are still on track to approach last year’s record.

Light trucks, including crossovers and SUVS, continued their market dominance in June, with truck sales up 1.4% from a year ago, while passenger car sales fell, by 8.0%. Passenger car sales accounted for 29.8% of the market at the end of June, compared to 70.2% for trucks, crossovers and SUVs — a slight increase (0.2%) for cars from a month ago but a 2.9% decline from a year ago.

Ford maintains a slight sales edge

The race to be number-one in sales remains extremely tight, with Ford hanging on to that ranking for the month and regaining it for the year-to-date.

Ford sold 32,179 vehicles in June, down 4.8% from the same month a year ago, and its year-to-date sales are down 2.9% from last year.

Still they were enough to keep the Blue Oval ahead of General Motors on both counts, in spite of GM’s sales growth of 1.8%, to 27,638 in June and 3.0%, to 154,937 at the mid-year point.

FCA (formerly Chrysler) fell further behind in third place with June sales of 22,479 vehicles down 16.5% from the same month last year. Year-to-date sales of 134,811 were down 11.1%.

Year-to-date, at the halfway point, GM gained 0.4% in market share, to 14.9%, and Ford fell by the same amount to 15.0%, while FCA’s share dropped by 1.6% to 13.0. That FCA decline pulled the Detroit three’s collectively share down by 1.5%, to 43.0%.

Further down, in fourth-place, Toyota sold 20,833 units in June, a decline of 1.1% from last year. Year-to-date, however, its sales are up by 2.4%, boosting Toyota’s market share by 0.3% to 10.1%.

In fifth-place, Honda’s 17,006 June sales were down by 2.4% from a year ago, cutting year-to-date gains to 0.8%, although market share improved by 0.1%, to 8.8%.

Best of the rest

The tight fight between Hyundai and Nissan for sixth place favoured the Japanese brand in June, for both the month and year-to-date. Nissan’s June sales of 14,932 units were up 0.9% from last year, keeping cumulative sales ahead by 2.6% and driving market share up by 0.2% to 6.8%.

Hyundai was relegated to seventh place for the month, even though its 13,535 sales were up 5.3% from a year ago. The Korean brand is seventh for the year-to-date as well, with sales down 8.4% and a share decline of 0.5% to 5.9%.

After being displaced by Mazda last month, Kia regained eighth place for June, with a 2.3% sales increase. While that increase pushed year-to-date sales up to a 0.4% gain, and improved market share by a tenth to 3.6%, Kia remained in ninth overall at the mid-year point.

Mazda fell to ninth place for the month, in spite of a 7.8% sales gain, but held on to eighth in the year-to-date count with a 5.9% improvement and a 0.2% share increase to 3.7%.

Volkswagen continued its steady advance with sales up 3.1% in June and 16.8% from a year ago. Year-to-date, VW’s market share has increased by 0.5% to 3.2%.

Subaru has now consolidated its position in 11th place, ahead of Mercedes-Benz, while further down the luxury rankings, Audi and BMW remain in a tight race, with Audi currently ahead by fewer than 300 units.

Winners and losers

On a percentage basis, the biggest winners in March were Genesis (+175.0%), Volvo (+44.3%), (smart (+26.5%), Land Rover (+23.3%), Mitsubishi (+18.1%) and Infiniti (+16.3%).

The biggest losers, in percentage terms, were Maserati (-40.3%), FCA (-16.5%), and Jaguar (-15.6%).

Read the original article on Affaires Automobiles.ca