Automotive News Canada - January 2017 - V2 - 21

* JANUARY 2017

Asbestos ban raises questions about
millions of vehicles that already have it
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 1

Japan, Sweden and Britain.
"For years, Unifor has
been fighting for this ban as
a first step, and while we've
stopped future use, the government must continue to work to
address the damage that has
already been done," said Unifor
National President Jerry Dias.
By removing asbestos from
braking systems, the new legislation also addresses a health
risk to employees of more than
400 vehicle-recycling companies and dismantlers who han-

dle about 1.6 million end-of-life
vehicles a year in Canada.
Steve Fletcher, managing
director of ARC said, "For an
auto recycler there is no way to
know whether a brake pad contains asbestos or not."
When pads need to be
removed "there is inevitably going to be some release
of asbestos particulate into
the air." Fletcher added the
announcement is "a tremendous step forward. This policy change could not have come
soon enough."
Asbestos is by far the top

Brake-pad supplier ABS Friction does not use asbestos in its
products and has lobbied to end the use of the inexpensive
material citing health concerns. ( P H O T O : A B S F R I C T I O N )

The government must
continue to work to
address the damage that
[asbestos] has
already done.
JERRY DIAS

Unifor union national president

on-the-job killer in Canada,
accounting for almost 5,000
death claims since 1996, according to Statistics Canada. But
that doesn't reflect the true
scope of its effects; it may take
20 to 50 years after exposure to
materialize.
"We have seen the effect of
asbestos exposure first hand on
mechanics and auto trades people," said Joe Schmidt, Director
of Research and Development
and co-founder, ABS Friction.
As a Canadian manufacturer who has made asbestos-free
brake pads since its beginning
20 years ago, "it's time to put
this issue to bed."
In addition to banning asbestos, Jamieson is also urging the
government to ban chromium,
mercury, copper, cadmium, lead
and zinc for their toxic properties. - ANC

Ford prosperity hinged on F series
grew their share of the overall market to 66 per
cent, from 62 per cent a year earlier. A small pinch
of salt is in order, though. For sales-reporting
ignored its reclamation of the overall market leadpurposes "trucks" include many car-based utilership that it lost to FCA in 2015, emphasising
ities that bear little resemblance to conventioninstead that Ford was the top-selling brand for the
al notions of a truck. For fuel-economy-testing
eighth consecutive year.
purposes, the Mazda CX-3 and Infiniti QX30, for
But Ford was arguably a one-truck pony in
example, are classified as compact cars by the U.S.
2016. Its car sales fell 14 per cent;
Environmetal Protection Agency
its second-best seller, the Ford
(EPA) while the Nissan Juke and
Escape, dipped 2.2 per cent even
Mercedes-Benz GLA (directly
while the compact-utility-vehirelated to the QX30) are classicle segment it competes in grew
fied as station wagons. But they
six per cent. Bottom line, Ford
all figure in the truck column of
Canada's growth was almost
their respective makers' sales
entirely on the strength of the F
reports.
series. The pickup's 26,482-units
Another long-term trend
sales spike corresponded closely to
slowed dramatically in 2016:
the number of vehicles by which
Detroit's share of the market was
the company's total sales grew in
43.6 per cent, barely less than its
2016 (26,008).
43.9-per cent share in 2015. But
The F series surge also largeGM Canada edging up 1.5 per
ly propelled a 7.1-per-cent growth
cent while FCA fell 4.2 per cent
in sales of all large pickups, which
still wasn't enough to lift GM
CARLOS GOMES
surpassed compact cars (down
Canada out of third place.
Scotiabank senior
8.1 per cent) to become the secMercedes-Benz three-peateconomist and auto specialist
ond-largest vehicle segment in the
ed as the leading luxury brand
country; and as if to underline the
while Jaguar was pipped as the
effects of stable gas prices in 2016,
fastest-growing brand by Mercedes' Smart brand,
the most-improved segment of all (in percentage
largely on the strength of internal sales to M-B's
terms) was large mainstream-brand SUVs, up 50
Car2Go car-sharing program. Honda was the
per cent.
top-selling passenger-car brand.
Even so, large SUVs remain a small market.
At the halfway point of the year, cumulative
Conversely, compact utility vehicles are now
total Canadian sales were up 6.0 per cent, but five
entrenched as the biggest category of all, with a
losing months in the second half ate into that lead
6.1-per cent gain to 475,000 units. Other segments
and suggested that in the short term at least, the
that grew significantly faster than the overall
market may have peaked in 2016. "We're expectmarket included intermediate and luxury SUVs
ing 2017 to be the second-best year ever," said
and midsize pickups. Aside from compact cars,
Scotiabank's Gomes, "So we're expecting a slight
the steepest drops were posted by all the passendecline as we move into 2017.
ger-car categories except high-end sports and lux"We have started to see pricing accelerate a litury cars which effectively trod water (though
tle, due to the Canadian dollar being sluggish and
underperformed the market).
automakers passing on price increases."
'TRUCK' DOMINANCE GROWS
Gomes also cited changing demographics, as
With new truck nameplates debuting from
more boomers move into their 70s and out of the
Jaguar, Lamborghini and Bentley, light "trucks"
peak auto-buying years. - ANC
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 1

We have started to see
pricing accelerate a little,
due to the Canadian
dollar being sluggish and
automakers passing on the
price increases.

The Honda Civic retained its crown as the top-selling car,
but as a dose of perspective, the Nissan Rogue compact
utility vehicle (pictured) sold more. ( P H O T O : N I S S A N )

Despite record 2016,
December sales
were generally down
Trucks and more
trucks, but Civic
is the top-selling car
19 years in row while
CUV segment
makes big gains
By JEREMY SINEK
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

AUTO SALES CLOSED OUT
2016 with a modest dip in
December, but the decline
wasn't enough to keep the
Canadian market from setting a new sales record. The
final count of 1.95 million cars
and light trucks represented a modest yet meaningful
increase of 2.6 per cent over
the previous record of 1.90 million achieved in 2015.
Ford of Canada was one
of the few automakers that
grew its sales in December.
Its 0.7-per-cent uptick sealed a
9.3-per-cent gain for the year
and made it the country's
top-selling auto company.
As a company, Ford was
still outsold by FCA in 2015,
even after FCA's numbers
were adjusted to correct for
previous irregularities in sales
reporting.
So, no surprise that the
Ford F series repeated as the
country's top-selling nameplate, but still remarkable was
the sheer scale of its superior-

2016 MOVERS
& SHAKERS
(Compared to 2015)

* VW car sales: +43%
* Nissan car sales: +42%
* Ford Edge sales
more than double
* Cadillac Escalade sales
more than triple as did
Chevrolet Spark sales
* Kia: +17%
* Hyundai: -12%
* FCA cars: -39%

FULL OF SURPRISES
* Chevrolet Cruze outsells
Toyota Corolla
* Subaru annual sales top
50,000 for first time
* Nissan Rogue outsells
Honda Civic

ity. Resoundingly refuting any
concerns over its aluminum
construction, the pickup's
sales grew by a staggering 22
per cent in 2016. Its final count
of 145,409 means that one in
every 13 vehicles sold in 2016
was an F series, and that in a
market comprising almost 250
distinct nameplates.
Still, Ford's success
couldn't keep Detroit from
losing ground in December.
Combined Ford, GM and FCA
sales slid 5.7 per cent while offshore-based automakers effectively held steady (up 0.1 per
cent). FCA reported a 11-per
cent slide in December (not
including Maserati) while
GM ended with a 2.6-per-cent
decline. Over the full year,
however, Detroit's market
share fell only modestly, to
43.6 per cent from 44.0 per
cent.
A more striking trend
was the swing to light trucks,
which topped 70 per cent of
the market in December and
ended the year with a 66 per
cent share, up from 62 in 2015.
Gainers in December
included all the Europeans
except Volkswagen Canada,
as well as Kia, Honda Canada,
Subaru, Mitsubishi and
Toyota Canada.
Nissan Canada, Mazda and
Hyundai went backward for
the month.

CIVIC LEAD CONTINUES
While the Ford F series
stood alone as Canada's
top-selling nameplate overall, the Honda Civic notched
its 19th consecutive year as
Canada's top-selling passenger car. Its total of 64,552 sales
gave it a comfortable lead
over its closest challenger,
the Hyundai Elantra (48,875).
Meanwhile, compact utility
vehicles continue to move up
the top-sellers chart with the
Toyota RAV4 displacing the
Ford Escape as the segment's
top seller (though both were
outsold by the surging Nissan
Rogue in December). On a fullyear basis, the Honda CR-V
makes it three CUVs among
the top-10 nameplates.
A surprising winner in 2016
was the Dodge Grand Caravan,
which advanced its sales by
10 per cent for the year and
moved to fifth from eighth in
the top 10. - ANC

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - January 2017 - V2