Canada Full Year 2022: Market at lowest in 13 years, Toyota Corolla topples Honda Civic to #1 car

The Toyota Corolla ends 24 years of domination by the Honda Civic in the car charts.

Discover close to 40 years of Canadian Historical Data here.

New light vehicle sales in Canada are hit -8.9% year-on-year in 2022 to just 1,514,465 units as the microchip crisis and associated stock woes continue to wear down the market. This is the weakest annual volume in 13 years: since 2009 (1,461,675 sales) when dealership activity was disrupted by the Great Recession. We are now very far from the 2 million units the market reached back in 2017. According to Desrosiers Automotive whose figures are slightly lower due to the exclusion of certain brands like Tesla, light trucks are down -6.2% to 1,248,355 units and a record 83.9% share vs. 81.2% a year ago and passenger cars sink -22% to 240,290 and 16.1% share vs. 18.8% in 2021.

Ford Motor (-1.3%) retains the group leadership with a moderate decline while General Motors (+4.8%) is actually up to reclaim the 2nd spot off Toyota Motor (-11.1%) falling faster than the market. Hyundai-Kia (-11.3%) posts a similar drop at #4 whereas Stellantis (+4.8%) scores the same year-on-year gain as GM. Honda Canada (-30%) sinks like in the U.S. and Nissan/Mitsubishi (-19.3%) is also in trouble. The VW Group (-13.1%) is above the market fall while the BMW Group (-9.3%) is below.

Brand-wise, Ford (-1.4%) easily retains the top spot, widening the gap with #2 Toyota (-12.1%) from 36,600 sales in 2021 to 57,500 this year. Chevrolet (+5.2%) is up two spots on a year ago, leapfrogging past Hyundai (-11.1%) and Honda (-30%). GMC (+8.8%) and Ram (+5.8%) also climb up the ladder, up one spot to #6 and two to #7 respectively, taking advantage of poor results by Nissan (-23.3%) and Kia (-13.8%). Jeep (+0.5%) edges up to land inside the Top 10 at #10. Below, Chrysler (+70.7%), Genesis (+25.8%), Cadillac (+14.6%), Tesla (+1.8%), Audi (+1.2%), Lincoln (+1.1%) and Porsche (+0.6%) post year-on-year gains.

The Ford F-Series (-1.4%) limits its fall to remain the best-selling vehicle in the country, and this for the 14th year in a row (no interruption since 2009). It is also the best-selling pickup in the country for the 57th consecutive year. The podium is unchanged on 2021 with the Ram Pickup (+3.1%) in 2nd place and the Toyota RAV4 (-9.7%) at #3. The Chevrolet Silverado (+3.1%) overtakes its twin the GMC Sierra (-2.7%) to rank #4 overall. At #6 we have a momentous development: despite a steep fall the Toyota Corolla (-17.3%) becomes the best-selling car in Canada for the first time, ending a whopping 24 consecutive years of domination by the Honda Civic (-31.8%) which was #1 since 1998. The Honda CR-V (-37%) is also hit hard but manages to lose just one spot to #7. The Hyundai Kona (-21%) stays at #9 while the Hyundai Elantra (-6.7%) closes out the Top 10. The Jeep Wrangler (+19.8%) sports the biggest gain in the Top 20 and ends the year at #11.

Previous year: Canada 2021: Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan help lift market up 6.6%, Ford F-Series #1 for 13th straight year

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

Full Year 2022 Top 15 groups, Top 44 all brands and Top 327 all models vs. Full Year 2021 figures below.

Full December 2022 Top 15 groups, Top 44 all brands and Top 283 all models below.