TORONTO – Overall light duty vehicle sales for May moved down modestly, reflecting the ongoing challenges with vehicle supply arising from the March 11thdisaster in Japan. May’s sales were down 3.8% year-over-year to 149,034. For the AIAMC membership, sales were reflective of the Japanese supply challenges, with members’ sales falling 6.9% to 76,315 compared to last May.
For the first time in a number of months overall truck sales declined, down 1.4% in May to 79,632. The truck share of the overall market was 53.4% increasing slightly over April’s share (52.7%) and last May’s share (52.1%) being somewhat counterintuitive given sustained higher gasoline prices. For AIAMC members, truck sales were down 1.8% to 27,147. Trucks represented a 35.5% share of total AIAMC member sales, slightly higher than the 33.7% share of sales last May.
“May sales are at least partially reflective of the anomaly of supply issues for the AIAMC’s Japanese member companies arising from the March 11th natural disasters in Japan. Only one Japanese member, Subaru, posted a sales increase this month,” said David Adams, President of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada (AIAMC). “ Overall sales volumes are 20,000 units lower that the average May sales volumes for the last five years - which is somewhat disconcerting - but the impact of the Japanese crisis was not unexpected ” added Adams.
Nonetheless, there were some positive sales results arising from within the AIAMC membership. Ten companies reported sales growth in May with a number of members reporting record sales for May. AIAMC members’ market share for May was 51.2%, down from 52.9% in May 2010.
Highlights:
Audi – May sales of 1,411 up 15.1% from May 2010.
BMW – May sales of 3,366 up 17.6% from May 2010
Hyundai - Record May sales of 13,967 up 10.7% from May 2010.
Jaguar/Land Rover – May sales of 315 up 6.8% from May 2010 .
Kia – May sales of 6,928 up 20.9% from May 2010.
Mercedes-Benz – May sales of 3,554 up 14.3% from May 2010.
Porsche – Record May sales of 309 up 60% from May 2010.
Subaru – Record May sales of 2576 up 5.7% from May 2010.
VW – May sales of 5,776 up 25.9% from May 2010.
Volvo – April sales of 770 up 19.9% from May 2010.
