Canada May 2020: Market fall reduces to -44.2% as dealerships reopen

Kia sales drop just -25.4% in Canada in May, partly thanks to the new Seltos.

Local consultancy DesRosiers Automotive estimates 113.224 new light vehicle found a home in Canada in May, which is a -44.2% year-on-year drop compared to the 202.800 it estimated a year ago for its selection of brands (which don’t include Tesla and smaller manufacturers). As we predicted last month, May sales fare better than April (-74.6%) and March (-48%) as car dealerships in Quebec and Ontario slowly reopened under strict health and safety guidelines from May 4 onwards. Given these two provinces account for 80% of the country’s market, this has definitely had an impact. DesRosiers’ seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) is 1.1 million for May vs. 1.93 million sold in 2019. The year-to-date volume is now down -38.6% to 490.775, and we at BSCB are now forecasting a 2020 Canadian volume down -28% to 1.38m units.

Toyota Tacoma sales are up 9.8% year-on-year in Canada in May. 

For the past year and a half, most carmakers have stopped reporting monthly U.S. and Canada sales, only doing so quarterly, and in these tumultuous circumstances it’s a very convenient way to avoid repeating bad news too often. Some brands still cling to some kind of transparency, among them Toyota Motor down -48.7% to 13.494 units, Hyundai-Kia down -39.5% to 13.442 and Honda Motor down -49.9% to 10.368. In the brands detail, Kia (-25.4%) fares best with Lexus (-37.6%), Volvo (-38.6%) and Mazda (-43.7%) also resisting relatively well, but Toyota (-52.7%), Acura (-50.9%), Genesis (-50%), Honda (-49.8%), Subaru (-49.4%) and Hyundai (-46.8%) all lose more ground than the market.

The Mazda CX-30 has started well in Canada.

Model-wise, among the 85 nameplates with official May sales, the Toyota Tacoma (+9.8%), Honda Pilot (+4.1%), Lexus GX (+60.9%), Toyota 86 (+50%) and Genesis G90 (+100%) are the only year-on-year gainers while the Lexus LC (-11.1%), Kia Sorento (-12.8%), Sportage (-15.2%), Lexus RC (-17.9%), Honda Passport (-18.2%), Kia Forte (-19%), Mazda MX-5 Miata (-19%), Honda Ridgeline (-21.4%), Toyota 4Runner (-23.2%) and Toyota C-HR (-25.2%) contain their losses. The Kia Seltos (1.185) is by far the most popular recent launch above the Mazda CX-30 (682), Hyundai Venue (549) and Palisade (380).

Previous month: Canada April 2020: Market down -74.6% to lowest monthly volume since 1951

One year ago: Canada May 2019: Toyota (+9.1%), Kia (+8.6%) and VW (+6.6%) swim against 15th market fall in a row

Full May 2020 data for selected 6 groups, 10 brands and 85 models below.