The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association published its first data report: an annual profile of Canada’s franchised new-car dealerships. The CADA Data Report 2022, as it is known, is now available on the association’s website and is expected to publish annually.
The report breaks down into several categories, including Total New Light-Vehicle Dealerships, Dealership Financial Trends, New Vehicle Department, Used Vehicle Department, Service and Parts Department, and Employment Data. It provides in-depth details about each category.
It also breaks down the data, for example by province, OEM brand, and even the average total sales per dealership in 2022 — which was $57,527,455. This is a 20.60% increase from 2021. Details like the share of total dealership gross are also provided: 21.90% for used vehicles, 37.20% for new vehicles, 20.60% for service, 14.90% for parts, and 5.40% for the body shop.
CADA described 2022 as a tumultuous year for Canadian auto dealers. “With the affordability crisis and the underlying rise in inflation, the Bank of Canada had to engage in quantitative tightening, which resulted in the major increase, over the year, of interest rates.” The effects, they said, are clear: the average interest rate in new vehicle departments increased — from 3.30% in 2021 to 5.58% in 2022. That same year, 1,638,398 new vehicles were sold across the country through the 3,430 automobile dealerships in Canada.
“Spending trends have also been modified with the average amount financed and average loan term length increasing steadily since the start of the pandemic and the general rise in costs of living,” said CADA. Furthermore, dealerships wrote an average of 8,238 repair orders, and the total amount for service and parts sales was $30.6 billion.
There was also notable growth in the zero-emission and battery-electric vehicle market. When compared to 2020, ZEV new vehicle registrations almost doubled — from 3.5% to 8.70%. British Columbia (7,508 new registrants) and Québec (9,784 new registrants) are, unsurprisingly given their approach, showing positive results on that front. Provincial market penetration at the time was 15.9% and 10%, respectively. In comparison, Ontario (with 9,720 registrants) had 6.3% of the market share.
CADA said its report is “the ideal tool to track this (national) transformation of our industry over the years.”
More information about the report is available here.
