By CRM staff
Toronto — November 7, 2018 — In this week’s market update: Vehicle sales slide for seventh straight month, two automotive market forecasting firms join forces, and Copart expands in Europe.
Auto sales dip
The decline in Canadian light vehicle sales that began in March continued into October. The industry sold 161,125 units in October 2018, down 1.9 percent compared with the same period in 2017.
Global Automakers of Canada (GAC), an industry group representing a select group of auto manufacturers who are based outside of Canada and the United States, reports that overall all year-to-date sales fell for a third straight month based on sustained reduced monthly sales totals. Year-to-date sales through October were down 1.6 percent to 1,727,035 units.
“We’ve seen interest rates rise and, despite a rather significant increase in consumer confidence as measured by the Conference Board of Canada, that confidence does not seem to have extended to big ticket items like vehicles that are more sensitive to interest rate increases,” said David Adams, president, GAC.
GM sold the most vehicles in October taking the sales crown from Ford, however Ford retains the overall sales lead on a year-to-date basis. The Ford F-Series pick-up truck also remains Canada’s best-selling vehicle through October, while the Honda Civic retains that distinction for passenger cars, according to GAC.
“Members of Global Automakers of Canada continued the year-long trend of posting better-than-market sales results once again in October,” Adams commented. In October, members’ sales of 101,688 were better than market for the tenth straight month and rose 2.6 percent for the month.
The overall market was still better than the five-year average for October markets.
Light trucks continue to gain market share from passenger cars. They comprised 72 percent of the market in October compared to 70 percent in 2017.
Ford Motor Company of Canada sales increased two percent in October. Ford F-Series pickups and Ford commercial vehicles achieved their best October sales on record.
“We’ve committed to a strategy focusing on trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles, and we’re starting to see that strategy pay off,” said Mark Buzzell, president and CEO, Ford Canada.
Similarly, FCA Canada reports strong Ram truck sales in October. The Ram brand reported sales of 6,677 vehicles for the month, an increase of 10 percent compared with the previous year. The light-duty Ram 1500 was the driver with 5,329 sales, up 10 per cent.
At Toyota Canada multiple models set sales records in October. The company’s Lexus division reported best sales month in history, with 2,916 units sold (up 11.6 percent). The Toyota division reported a new October record, with a total of 18,756 units (up 9.9 percent) compared to 2017. Strong sales were led by a best month ever for Canadian-made RAV4 with 5,607 units sold (up 20.7 percent).
Hybrid sales for Toyota continue to climb, as strong consumer demand for electrified vehicles continued to grow in 2018. Outpacing overall growth, hybrid vehicle sales set a new October monthly record with 2,242 units sold (up 24.6 percent). Hybrid vehicles represented 19 percent of the company’s total sales in October.
Copart expands in Germany
Copart, a global online vehicle auction company, has opened several new locations in Germany in recent weeks, reaching a total of five. Location openings near Hannover, Leipzig and Mannheim in Germany, were followed by a new facility located at Fürth, near Nürnberg, in Bavaria, and then one in Brandenburg, near Berlin.
“With our national and international buyers asking for more locations from which they can buy used and salvage vehicles in Germany, we are proud to open this facility near Nürnberg,” said Alain Van Munster, managing director, Copart Germany.
“We are committed to transforming the experience in Germany for salvage vehicle buyers and policy-holders alike,” said Nigel Paget, CEO – Europe & the Middle East. With facilities in the U.K., Ireland, Spain and Finland, Copart is extending a strong platform in Western Europe.
Two minds are better than one
Wards Intelligence and LMC Automotive plan to join their business intelligence and global automotive forecasting capabilities to better serve the automotive market.
The alliance leverages the strengths of both brands by uniting Wards Intelligence’s comprehensive automotive business insights, analysis and consulting with LMC’s independent, unbiased global automotive forecasts of vehicle sales, production, powertrain and electrification.
“We’re very pleased to be joining forces with LMC, a company with truly global perspective and a shared customer-first culture,” said John Sousanis, managing director of Wards Intelligence.
“Working with Wards Intelligence makes perfect strategic sense,” said Jeff Schuster, president, Americas Operations and Global Vehicle Forecasts at LMC Automotive. “It will enable two of the industry’s top analytics companies to leverage each other’s core expertise in the automotive sector to strengthen real-time analysis of current and future trends in a very dynamic automotive industry.”
