Canada August 2021: Market off -11.4%, Lexus (+27.8%), Subaru (+10.9%) swim upstream

The Lexus NX is up 45.4% year-on-year in August.

New light vehicle sales in Canada are estimated to skid -11.4% year-on-year in August to 146.925 according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, and off -19.2% on August 2019. The year-to-date tally is now up 18.9% to 1.160.029. We at BSCB forecast a Full Year 2021 tally up 8% to 1.68 million units. The seasonally adjusted annualised rate of sales is down to 1.62 million this month, the second lowest of 2021.

Group-wise, all major manufacturers still reporting monthly are down but less than the market: Toyota Motor is off -1.4%, Hyundai-Kia down -6.7% and Honda Motor down -4.3%. Looking at brands reporting, Mazda (-3.2%), Toyota (-4.4%), Honda (-5.3%) and Kia (-5%) all contain their losses while Hyundai (-11.1%) matches the market. Subaru (+10.9%) is the only mainstream brand to show a year-on-year increase and lodges a record August volume at 5.853 sales. All remaining reporting brands are up: Lexus (+27.8%) surges ahead to a sixth consecutive month of record sales, Acura and Volvo are both up 5.6% and Genesis soars 415.7% thanks to the arrival of its two new SUVs.

Looking at models with available August data, the Honda CR-V (+11.3%) overtakes the Toyota RAV4 (-31.2%) to lead the SUV charts while the Toyota Corolla (+12%) passes the Honda Civic (-10.9%) to become the best-selling passenger car in the country. The Toyota Highlander (+19.8%) and Subaru Crosstrek (+86.5%) also show great health near the top of the ranking whereas the Hyundai Kona (-28.5%) is in difficulty and the Hyundai Tucson (-0.8%), Mazda CX-5 (-2.1%) and Hyundai Elantra (-8.6%) limit their fall to the single digits. Further down, the Hyundai Santa Fe (+23.4%), Mazda CX-30 (+46.7%), Toyota 4Runner (+97.8%), Toyota C-HR (+84%), Lexus NX (+45.4%), Kia Niro (+93.6%) and Hyundai Sonata (+80.8%) stand out.

Previous month: Canada July 2021: Toyota, Lexus ignore market back in negative (-5.7%)

One year ago: Canada August 2020: Volvo, Kia, Subaru defy market down -8.9%

Full August 2021 data for selected groups, brands and models below.