Continued strong consumer spending and an extra selling day netted a new Canadian light-vehicle November sales record of 133,395 units.
At an average daily rate of 4,941 units on each of 27 selling days, deliveries were 2.4% better than prior year’s 4,826-unit daily pace on volume of 129,814. But while they could not match the 4,993-unit rate achieved in 2001, on then-record November sales of 129,814 LVs, one more selling day this year led the industry to its new peak.
As in nine of the previous 10 months, February being the exception, it was record light-truck demand that gave the industry its November sales pop. The record 77,269 light trucks sold also marked the fourth year in a row of record-November deliveries, outperforming prior-year’s 71,760 units by 3.7%.
At 2,079 daily, car sales totaling 56,126 units eked out a 0.6% November increase on 53,735 year-ago, when they traveled off dealer lots at a 2,067-unit daily rate.
Among the Detroit Three, only Chrysler boasted an LV sales gain of 8.8% to 19,071 from 16,880 in November last year, including a 9.4% increase in car deliveries coupled with an 8.7% jump in light trucks.
Industry leader Ford boasted a 2.2% car sales increase, but a 5.5% decline in light trucks held the auto maker to an LV total of 19,188 units for the month, compared with 19,191 a year ago, allowing it to retain market leadership by a scant 117 units over archrival Chrysler.
Sales of Asian-brand LVs rose 3.6% in November compared with the prior year, to 63,257 units from 58,795, thanks to strong gains by most Japanese makes. However, South Korean brands Hyundai and Kia fell short of their prior-year performances by 4.7% and 7.2%, respectively.
European makes scored a 4.6% gain on year-ago, to 14,397 from 13,257. Segment leader Volkswagen reported increased volume for both its VW and Audi brands, but not enough to boost the daily average above those of November 2012. As a result, VW’s November selling pace was 3.1% lower than that of the prior year, while Audi was down 3.1%.
LV deliveries in the first 11 months reached 1,626,507 units, up 4.0% from 1,563,521 in like-2012 with most brands participating in the gain.
Meanwhile reports from Canada indicated that Chevy’s Volt was again the leading plug-in electric car in November with 133 units compared with an estimated 60 of the second-place Tesla Model S cars and 30 Nissan Leafs.
