N. American-built vehicle sales in Canada remain stable

The majority of light vehicles sold in Canada are built in North American plants, with approximately a quarter of new vehicles sourced from overseas production facilities, according to new data from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

Over the decade spanning 2003 to 2012, the Toronto research firm said, the percentage of new vehicle sales derived from North American-assembled products stayed relative constant, declining mildly from 76.8 percent to 73.8 per cent last year.

“While Detroit-based vehicle companies have suffered significant market share erosion during this period, virtually all of the benefitting import brand OEMs now build mainline products in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico (indeed Mexico crossed the three million unit production threshold for the first time in 2012), keeping North American sourcing levels high,” the firm said in a new report. “With much of that added assembly capacity focused on C-segment vehicles in Mexico and D-segment vehicles in the U.S., overall Canadian market sourcing proportions have changed little over the past decade. Indeed, the growing popularity of European and Korean-assembled models has roughly balanced the increase in North American-built vehicles sold by import nameplate OEMs.”