2020 new vehicle sales recap

Summitric · Jan 20, 2021

2020 Recap

Q4 finished overall with 392,162 units sold, down 5.1% from 413,402 units sold in Q4 2019
Passenger car sales continued the trend downwards, decreased 23.3% with 71,316 units sold, down from 92,956 units in 4 2019
Light trucks rose from 320,446 to 320,846 units sold for Q4
By the end of 2020, total new light vehicle sales decreased 19.7% down from 1.91 million to 1.54 million units sold
Passenger cars sales dropped significantly, down 36.3% from 484,687 to 308,593 units sold
Light trucks sales decreased 14.1%, from 1.43 million to 1.23 million units sold
Light truck sales accounted for nearly 80% of total new light vehicle sales in 2020, will passenger car sales approximately 20% - compared to 74.7% light trucks and 25.3% passenger cars, respectively, in the previous year

2020 Vehicle Brand Highlights

Genesis noted sales down 4.1% for the year
Kia performed similarly with total sales for the year down 5.5%
Volvo and Subaru, experienced single-digit losses for the year at 9.3% and 9.4%, respectively
Genesis recorded 96.5% sales growth in Q4 2020 compared to its overall year in sales
Volvo (+13.6%) and Kia (+12.3%) also saw sales growth in Q4 2020
Continuing the sales growth in Q4 2020 were Mazda (+7.6%), GM (+7.1%) Subaru (+6.0%) and FCA (+4.7%)
Q4 2020 sales decreases were recorded by Hyundai (-1.8%), Ford (-9.7%) and Honda (-9.9%)
Double-digit Q4 2020, sales decreases were notable by:
Porsche (-10.0%),
Land Rover (-10.5%),
Lexus (-13.6%),
Audi (-15.3%),
BMW (-17.4%),
Mercedes-Benz (-19.0%),
Acura (-21.8%),
Nissan (-31.8%),
VW (-27.7%),
Infiniti (-30.2%),
Mitsubishi (-32.9%),
Jaguar (-37.1%),
Maserati (-40.0%)

Canada Registrations by Model Year – 2019

Interesting to note there are still over 1.6 million light vehicles registered prior to 2000 model year
Vehicle owners are either keeping their vehicles more than 10 years while the pre-owned market is full of abundant choices for consumers

Average Age Passenger Car/Light Truck Comparison

Light trucks, on average through the years, have an average age of 9.2 years – possibly suggesting many light trucks are workhorses and replaced more frequently than passenger cars
The average age of passenger cars have seen a steady increase through the years starting in Q4 for 2012 – perhaps many households owning 2 vehicles, have kept one of the vehicles, the passenger car, while their second vehicle shifted to light trucks. While at the same time, the market shift towards light trucks have left a larger fleet of lower mileage passenger cars to be in service

2015 was the final year where passenger cars outnumbered light trucks at 50.3% vs 49.7%
2016 was the year when light trucks finally overtook passenger cars with 51.1% of the fleet versus 48.9% comprised of passenger cars
For 2019, this trend continued with 56.1% of the Canadian fleet occupied by light trucks and 43.9% occupied by passenger cars