Canada Sees Any-Month LV Sales Record
Executive Summary
Despite a near all-time low in April car sales, Canadian new light-vehicle deliveries reached an any-month record in April, wiping out the prior benchmark set in May 2015.
Canadian consumers took home 1.9% fewer light vehicles daily in April than they did a year earlier, 7,401 vs. 7,546. But with 27 selling days this year compared with just 25 a year ago, April’s volume reached an any-month record of 199,847 units.
That was 11,193 more LVs than were sold in April 2015 and bested by 1.1% the prior all-time peak of 197,709 set in May a year ago, again thanks to an additional selling day.
The record-breaking performance was paced by April’s 127,503 light-truck deliveries, also the highest for any month in history, surpassing the 114,554 units delivered in May 2015 as well as the 113,042 units sold a month earlier, which was the second-best monthly tally on record.
On the other hand buyers continued shunning cars.
Although 13.2% better than March’s 61,536 units, the 72,344 cars sold in April were 15.0% below the 78,821 units delivered in the same month a year earlier.
While light trucks were at the top of the sales charts, cars ranked only fourth from the bottom for April in the last 31 years and posed no threat to the all-time April high of 120,924 posted in 1987.
After edging past Fiat Chrysler to claim top spot in March, Ford slipped back to second place in April, although FCA, Ford and Toyota were the only high-volume automakers outpacing both the prior month and year-ago in April.
The only others to accomplish a similar feat were low-volume Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Tesla and Volvo.
LV sales in the first four months of the year totaled 601,401 units, 8.1% more than the 556,445 cars and light trucks sold in like-2015 with all but eight brands besting their year-earlier performances.
