The recovery of the Canadian automotive industry from the first wave of COVID-19 has been “volatile and inconsistent” across the industry, but retail sales as a measure of performance can help shed light on the uneven nature of it all.
That is according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC), which recently shared data on year-to-date retail sales across a range of industries in the auto sector. The data indicates that everything from new vehicle and used vehicle sales to aftermarket performance and beyond has been impacted, unevenly, in different industry sectors and regions in Canada.
“Retail sales is one variable that provides a measure of performance across various segments of the industry,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner of DAC, “and the picture it presents sheds light on the uneven nature and timing of recovery.”
As an example, DAC compared two different patterns of retail sales, from gasoline stations and used car dealers. Sales for gas station sales decreased rapidly early in the pandemic, and have only partially recovered.
“Cut by nearly half in April and May, gas station sales were still down 17.2% in the month of July versus the same month in 2019 as the recovery in kilometres driven has been slow,” said DAC.
However, used car dealers were able to bounce back quickly following a “brutal” sales decline of 64.2% in April before shifting to a sales gain of 10.1% in July.
A somewhat similar recovery in retail sales occurred with automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores. They declined 27.9% in April, but quickly recovered with increases of 9.6% and 7.0% in June and July.
