Canada June LV Sales Still Hot

The frenzied buyer activity that overtook Canadian dealers in May cooled somewhat in June, but not enough to keep from toppling more sales records.

Light-vehicle deliveries reached a June record of 177,505 units, edging past the month’s prior peak of 175,219 vehicles set in 2014, despite a 2.7% decline in the average selling rate to 7,100 units on each of 25 selling days from year-ago’s 24-day average of 7,301.

That was enough to secure a second-quarter record of 563,635 deliveries, or 2.7% more than the 548,981 LVs sold in April-June 2014.

It also pushed first-half sales to an all-time high of 931,467 units, also 2.7% ahead of the 906,843 cars and light trucks sold in like 2014, setting the stage for another record year in 2015.

The June cool-down was felt most acutely in the car market, where deliveries totaling 68,148 units ranked last in the 30-year period since 1985.

On the other hand, buyers’ appetites for light trucks remained strong, with record-June sales of 109,357 vehicles, besting by 6.7% the prior benchmark of 98,435 units set in 2014.    

So far this year, FCA Canada remains in first place with a 1.2% increase over year-ago, to 147,192 units, although its market share fell slightly to 15.8% from 16.0%.

Second-place Ford, down 6.5% for the year, to 132,164 units, has seen its market share slip to 14.2% from 15.6% even as rival General Motors has increased its bite to 13.7 from 13.1% on the strength of a 7.2% LV sales gain to 127,225 units through June.

Likewise, fourth-place Toyota/Lexus Has increased sales 4.3% in the first six months, to 104,977 vehicles, with a modest market share gain to 11.3% from 11.1%.

Interestingly, electric car sales have remained strong, if low volume, with Tesla selling an estimated 862 of its luxury electric cars through June, more than double the 420 sold in like-2014, while Nissan Leaf deliveries are up 5.6% to 488 units from 462 in first-half 2014.

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