Larger Canadian provinces saw weakness in August, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. They described the month as weak in terms of new light vehicle sales and said the market overall was down from its 2024 comparable.
British Columbia experienced the largest sales decrease for the month, down 10.0% compared to August 2024 — though the province remained positive in terms of year-to-date sales — but just. Manitoba was down 5.4%, and Quebec and Alberta saw a decrease of 4.5% and 4.4% for the month, respectively.
New Brunswick noted a 2.8% sales decrease, while the rest of the Atlantic region experienced some slight sales growth. And Saskatchewan was up 3.6%. Year-to-date, DAC said the Prairie and Atlantic regions were ahead of the overall market.
“The challenges facing the automotive sector — and broader economic issues — manifested in a relatively slow sales month in August,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC, in a statement. “While not exactly evenly spread, all of the provinces saw their August performances fall below their year-to-date targets.”
Total new light vehicle sales in Canada reached an overall and estimated 160,000 units sold for August 2025. That’s down 2.9% from the approximately 165,000 units sold in August 2024. So far this year, new light vehicle sales remained 4.6% above the same period in 2024.
