228,000 Rav4 trucks were made in Canada during 2014 |
Many within Canada believe the domestic car industry will be lost. Recently Toyota decided to move Corolla production to Mexico and replace it with a higher value vehicle. The fact that Toyota will continue manufacturing pacifies no one. What they don't get is that higher priced cars can be made in Western nations and be profitable. So has the Canadian car manufacturing been doing it tough?
Production peaked in 1999 with 3,059,000 units (cars 1,626,000) so 2014 being 2.4 million sounds poor. However, looking at the chart below shows that volume is still solid. Besides, trucks have been taking over. From 16.5% in 1965 to nearly 62% in 2014 shows the trend. The move is to higher ticket trucks. Green shows which is the larger and the switch from cars to trucks has been quite dramatically.
Year | Vehicle | Car | Truck | % Trk | |
1965 | 847,000 | 707,000 | 140,000 | 16.5% | |
1970 | 1,189,000 | 938,000 | 251,000 | 21.1% | |
1975 | 1,442,000 | 1,055,000 | 388,000 | 26.9% | |
1980 | 1,370,000 | 842,000 | 528,000 | 38.5% | |
1985 | 1,934,000 | 1,078,000 | 856,000 | 44.3% | |
1990 | 1,949,000 | 1,098,000 | 851,000 | 43.7% | |
1995 | 2,407,000 | 1,337,000 | 1,070,000 | 44.5% | |
2000 | 2,962,000 | 1,551,000 | 1,411,000 | 47.6% | |
2005 | 2,572,000 | 1,356,000 | 1,216,000 | 47.3% | |
2010 | 2,068,000 | 967,000 | 1,101,000 | 53.2% | |
2014 | 2,394,000 | 914,000 | 1,480,000 | 61.8% |
Summary: The doom and gloom of many in Canada seems excessively pessimistic. Manufacturers have to make vehicles where can do so cost effectively. The car is out and the truck is in for Canada.
No comments