Ontario produces more vehicles than any other jurisdiction in North America.
It's true.
Five of the world's biggest automakers - General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, Honda, and Toyota - all have assembly plants in the province which combine to build more than 20 different vehicle lines. There are plants in Windsor, Brampton, Oakville, Oshawa, Alliston, Woodstock, Cambridge, and Ingersoll that assemble some of North America's most popular vehicles.
While there are plenty of questions regarding the future of some of these plants, based on the sales numbers it appears as though Canadians like buying vehicles that were assembled right here at home.
Through the first seven months of 2014, two of the five most-sold vehicles in Canada this year, the Honda Civic and Dodge Grand Caravan, are also built here.
The top five selling Canadian-built vehicles in Canada are:
5. Toyota Rav 4 - built in Woodstock, Ont.
Through July, year-to-date sales of the Rav4 are down 1.1 per cent to 19,195. Still, the RAV4 is Canada’s third-best-selling utility vehicle and Toyota Canada’s second-best-selling model overall ahead of the Camry but behind the Corolla. Slightly more than 18 per cent of the Toyota brand vehicles sold in Canada are RAV4s. Sales are down this year after a start that couldn’t quite match the pent-up-demand pace of early 2013, but July RAV4 volume jumped 12 per cent from last year.
4. Honda CR-V - built in Alliston, Ont.
Year-to-date sales of the CR-V are up slightly to 19,980 vehicles sold. The CR-V ranks as Canada’s second-best-selling SUV or crossover behind only the Ford Escape. 2013 was the fourth consecutive year of CR-V sales growth in Canada as CR-V sales rose higher than ever had before. Although only slightly ahead of that pace, CR-V sales are expected to reach record levels in 2014, as well. Currently the CR-V is Canada's 12th most popular vehicle overall
3. Toyota Corolla - built in Cambridge, Ont.
Year-to-date sales of the Corolla are up 16.5 per cent to 29,946. Rarely does a vehicle come along that’s capable of disturbing the Honda Civic’s perch atop the passenger car leaderboard. Yet in April of this year, for one month, the Toyota Corolla was Canada’s top-selling passenger car, 939 units ahead of that month’s second-ranked car, the Hyundai Elantra. It’s unlikely that Toyota Canada will sell 60,000 Corollas in 2014 – they last neared that total with 56,736 in 2008 – but the Corolla is on pace for a third consecutive year of growth, and topping the 50,000 mark for the first time since 2009 is a very realistic goal.
2. Dodge Grand Caravan - built in Windsor, Ont.
Sales of Canada's most popular minvan are up 11.5 per cent to 32,364 so far in 2014, making it the country's second most popular made in Canada vehicle (It’s also Canada’s fifth-best-selling vehicle overall.) However, the longtime family favourite is reportedly not long for this world. FCA, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, does not want their own products competing against one another, which, in this case means, the Grand Caravan departs the minivan landscape in favour of the Chrysler Town & Country.
1. Honda Civic - built in Alliston, Ont.
Famous for being Canada’s best-selling passenger car in each of the last 16 years, the Civic is almost assured of ending 2014 as Canada’s best-selling car yet again. Year-to-date Civic sales are up 9.0 per cent comapred to last year with 37,745 units sold. In fact, more than four out of every ten Hondas sold in Canada are Civics. The only vehicle lines which sell more often than the Civic are Ford’s vast F-Series range and the Ram truck lineup.
For a complete look at the sales of all Canadian built vehicles visit Autofocus.ca.
