Canada Full Year 2020: Cadillac only gainer, Ford F-Series leads for 12th straight year, market down -19.7% to lowest since 2009

Cadillac (+4.2%) is the only year-on-year gainer in Canada in 2020.

Discover over 35 years of Canadian Historical Data here.

New light vehicle sales in Canada dive -19.7% year-on-year in 2020 to 1.560.840 units, the weakest result since 2009. The drop is equivalent to almost 400.000 lost sales vs. the 1.942.717 reached in 2019. According to local consultancy Desrosiers, this is the second largest percentage decline on record, in between the -23% drop of 1982 and the -17% fall of 1954. Desrosiers figures (that don’t include Tesla) indicate light trucks reached a record 81.8% market share in Q4 2020 vs. 77.5% over the same period in 2019. Over the Full Year, light trucks drop “only” -14.1% to 1.228.795 units and a record 79.9% share vs. 74.7% in 2019 and 70.9% in 2018. One year ago we predicted light trucks sales would account for 80% share in 2020 and that’s exactly what they did. In contrast, passenger cars continue to freefall at -36.3% to just 308.593 sales and 20.1% share vs. 25.3% in 2019 and 29.1% in 2018.

The four largest automakers in Canada all gain share this year. Ford Motor (-16.8%) is up from 14.8% share in 2019 to 15.3% this year, General Motors (-14.9%) is up from 13.2% to 14%, Toyota Motor (-19.3%) edges up from 12.2% to 12.3% and Hyundai-Kia (-11.9%) performs best, gaining one percentage point of share from 10.9% to 11.9%. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (-19.9%) matches the market but Nissan/Mitsubishi (-34.8%), the BMW Group (-29.9%), Honda Motor (-25.7%), Jaguar Land Rover (-25.1%) and the VW Group (-25.5%) all underperform.

The Ford F-Series is the #1 vehicle in Canada for the 12th year in a row.

Looking at the brands ranking, Ford (-16.8%) improves its share by 0.5 percentage point to 14.9% while Toyota (-19.4%) marches the market evolution and Honda (-25.5%) slides down to 8.1% share. Kia (-5.5%) posts the best hold in the Top 10, with GMC (-9.8%), Mazda (-13%) and Ram (-13.9%) also resisting well. Further down, Cadillac (+4.2%) posts the only gain in the entire Canadian market and delivers its best retail sales year in Canadian history, while Buick (-7.1%), Volvo (-9.3%) and Subaru (-9.4%) manage to keep their loss to the single digits.

Over in the models ranking, the Ford F-Series (-11.3%) clocks up a 55th consecutive year as the best-selling pickup in Canada and 12th straight year as the overall best-seller (no interruption since 2009), even managing to gain share with a somewhat limited drop. The F-Series extends its lead over the Ram Pickup (-13.5%) and remains the only vehicle to have sold over 100.000 annual units in Canada. The Toyota RAV4 (+4.2%) scores the only year-on-year gain in the Top 8 and cements its spot as the country’s favourite crossover. The Chevrolet Silverado (-1.3%) advances three spots on 2019 to land at #4, overtaking the GMC Sierra (-5.3%) itself up one to #5. The Honda Civic (-15.5%) remains the best-selling passenger car in Canada for the 23rd year running but drops two spots to #6. The Hyundai Kona (+22.9%) and Mazda CX-5 (+10.4%) impress with the only double-digit gains in the Top 10. The Kia Seltos (#19) is by far the most successful 2020 launch, distancing the Mazda CX-30 (#41), Buick Encore GX (#75) and Tesla Model Y (#79).

Previous month: Canada November 2020: New Covid restrictions hit market down -10.4%, Volvo, Kia survive

Previous year: Canada 2019: Ram (+13.8%) stands out, light trucks up to 80% share, market slips below 2m (-3.7%)

Two years ago: Canada 2018: Toyota resists, F-Series, Civic and RAV4 lead respective segments in first market drop since 2010

Full Q4 2020 Top 15 groups and Top 40 All-brands below.

Full Year 2020 Top 15 groups, Top 40 All-brands and Top 307 All-models vs. Full Year 2019 figures below.