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Japanese automakers saw their vehicle sales increase by almost 2% in 2018, marking a year of record sales, while production in Canada was cut by more than 7%.
According to statistics released Monday by the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers’ Association of Canada (JAMA Canada), just over 733,000 Japanese-branded light vehicles were sold in Canada in 2018. This was the fifth consecutive year of sales. record for Japanese automakers in Canada, bringing their market share up to nearly 37 percent. At the same time, several Japanese automakers posted record sales in Canada last year, including Toyota, Subaru, Nissan and Mitsubishi.
“Despite the challenges in the automotive sector in North America, much of which can be attributed to the uncertainty surrounding global trade, Japanese automakers based in Canada remain resilient,” said the president of JAMA and Toyota Canada , Larry Hutchinson, in a statement.
“While Canada remains heavily dependent on trade in a strong, rules-based global trading system, it is also important to the members of JAMA Canada that our success continues to be a Canadian story. “
According to JAMA, seven out of ten Japanese-brand vehicles sold in Canada were made in North America, at a time when production appears to be falling.
After two years that saw the production of more than one million vehicles in Canada, Japanese automakers saw production drop 7.1% to 930,140 units in 2018. JAMA said the overall drop was due lower demand for sedans and Toyota’s transition to building the next one. RAV4 generation at Woodstock. Honda was the only manufacturer to increase production in 2018.
Despite the drop in production, Japanese brands saw their manufacturing market share in Canada increase to 46.5 percent, due to lower vehicle production in Canada as a whole.
Overall vehicle sales in Canada fell 2.6%, from 2,039 million in 2017 to 1.985 million last year, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.
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