A lot for that spring promoting season.

DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) says Canadian auto gross sales had been down an estimated 8.5 per cent in Might in contrast with a yr earlier as provide challenges persist.

The consultancy estimates automakers offered 140,725 new mild automobiles within the month, in keeping with gross sales for the earlier two months.

Month-to-month gross sales are estimates now that so many automakers have turned to quarterly reporting.

Might has traditionally been the highest gross sales month however provide challenges, linked partly to semiconductor chip shortages, proceed to restrict a rebound.

By comparability, in Might 2019 — the final Might earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 — there have been greater than 202,000 mild automobiles offered for the month.

DesRosiers says the seasonally adjusted annual charge of gross sales for Might got here in at 1.36 million models.

Andrew King, managing associate of DesRosiers, stated worryingly that the speed has continued to fall every month all year long from the 1.67 million in January, indicating that the market provide state of affairs seems to be getting worse.

SERIOUS SLUMPS

The overwhelming majority of automakers nonetheless reporting gross sales figures on a month-to-month foundation noticed their numbers plummet throughout Might. And issues may worsen earlier than they get higher.

Honda Canada’s whole gross sales, together with luxurious model Acura, had been down 30 per cent to 9,342. Hyundai model’s had been off 24 per cent to 9,724 whereas Kia’s fell 29 per cent to six,090.

Subaru gross sales dropped 25 per cent to 4,131

Toyota Canada managed to eke out a total-sales enhance, up 0.2 per cent to 23,106. That’s due to luxurious model Lexus growing its gross sales by eight per cent to 2,540. Toyota model gross sales had been down 0.7 per cent to twenty,566.

Provide constraints live on, as a result of of the worldwide microchip disaster, logistics bottlenecks and the battle in Ukraine, in accordance with DesRosiers and Scotiabank Economics.

Scotiabank on Might 31, issued a warning about rates of interest in its World Auto Report.

“Financing prices have gone up in current months, including to rising affordability challenges within the U.S. and Canada,” the monetary establishment stated. 

The most recent information from J.D. Energy reveals a pointy rise in new-vehicle transaction worth.

April new-vehicle worth inflation was 7.5 per cent yr over yr in Canada, and 13.2 per cent in the USA. Might information isn’t but out there. 

Scotiabank says “robust family steadiness sheets, together with substantial pent-up demand, ought to present a buffer for these challenges.”

Nonetheless, it had a warning.

“With supply-side components nonetheless limiting the restoration, the affect of upper possession prices on precise gross sales is prone to be felt when manufacturing catches up.”

Automakers additionally face hovering manufacturing prices, which is able to probably be handed on to shoppers, Scotiabank stated. 

“The producer worth development for motorized vehicle components has been accelerating in each the U.S. and Canada, reflecting rising uncooked materials costs and power prices,” Scotiabank stated.

The financial institution now forecasts annual gross sales of 15.5 million in Canada.

The Canadian Press and Greg Layson of Automotive Information Canada contributed to this report.