New light vehicles sales in July revealed some notable disparities between provinces while June showed a somewhat more balanced split, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC).
Last month, six provinces enjoyed sales increases and four experienced declines. British Columbia and Manitoba, for example, had an estimated sales increase of 14.3% and 13.7%, respectively. And Ontario was not far off with a 10.4% increase in sales. But there were also provinces with notable decreases, including Newfoundland (down 14.1%) and Saskatchewan (down an estimated 6.0%).
“The road to recovery for the new light vehicle sales market is proving to be a long and gradual one,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC, in a statement. “Nonetheless, July marks the ninth month of consecutive year-over-year growth despite the challenges the market continues to face.”
DAC described year-to-date sales performances as “evenly distributed,” since nearly all provinces experienced a single digit growth. As for total new light vehicle sales among reporting OEMs for July, the estimate came in at 140,942 units for July — up 8.0% from the same period a year earlier. Growth settled at 7.7% for the year so far.
