Toronto, Ontario — As the calendar winds down toward the close of 2022, the Automotive Industries Association of Canada (AIA) is looking on the past year with the release of the association’s Outlook Study 2022, now available to AIA members.
The association’s findings for the past year show that despite the aftermarket’s “strong recovery” in 2021, overall economic output is still below pre-pandemic levels, though AIA predicts that the sector will “fully recover” by the end of 2022.
When it comes to labour, AIA wrote in its executive summary that “employment has suffered from reduced demand in 2020, but has rebounded in 2021 and is the path to recoup all employment loss in 2022.”
As far as consumer-focused trends are concerned, light trucks continue to replace passenger cars in terms of driver demand, as the Canadian car parc itself continues to grow, despite rising costs spurred by the pandemic and inflation.
Inflation rates are projected to remain steady at the high levels recorded in 2021 “over the short to medium term,” according to AIA.
Speaking of the pandemic, AIA noted that kilometres driven have returned to pre-2020, but that the effects of recently heightened gas prices have not been fully accounted for and may eventually lead to a dip in non-essential travel.
The association is predicting exponential growth in the electric vehicle sector over the next few years. AIA says nearly half of total vehicle registrations in 2028 are projected to be electric vehicles.
AIA Canada president, Jean-François Champagne, and lead economist for Ernst and Young, Dr. Mauricio Zelaya, went over the report’s findings in a video posted to YouTube on Thursday.
