Automotive News Canada - January 2020 - v2 - 3

SECOND FRONT
Industry leaders
to tackle tech,
market challenges
at Toronto forum
SOME OF THE COUNTRY'S TOP
auto executives will address critical issues facing the industry
at the upcoming fourth annual
Automotive News
Canada Congress,
Feb. 13 at the
Metro Toronto
Convention
Centre.
The afternoon
event is open to
Don Walker
all industry professionals and features addresses
from Don Walker,
CEO of Magna
International;
Steve Milette,
president of
Nissan Canada;
Steve Milette
Matt Girgis,
managing director of Volvo Car
Canada; and Adam
Paterson, managing director of
Infiniti Canada.
The keynote
speaker is Jim
Matt Girgis
Morrison, head
of the Jeep brand
for FCA North
America.
The Canada
Congress will
also host a retail
panel as well as
Adam
a presentation
Paterson
by Louis-Yves
Cloutier, president of 360 Agency,
who will discuss
the trend toward
online car shopping.
John
Stackhouse,
senior vice-presJim
ident, Office of
Morrison
the CEO, RBC -
the exclusive lead sponsor of the
event - will also present.
Registration for the Canada
Congress is $645 per person, plus
HST. For the full agenda and to
register, visit canada.autonews.
com (under the header Events,
Webinars & Awards). - ANC

PHOTO: NISSAN CANADA

Expect slipping sales,
consolidation, labour
unrest - and politics
By JOHN IRWIN
TORONTO BUREAU

Nissan caters to Quebec
The province's desire
for value trims is a
big reason why the
manual transmission is
available, but J.D. Power
says those customers
are slowly going away
By STEPHANIE WALLCRAFT
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

IN A DEPARTURE FROM ITS U.S.
counterpart, Nissan Canada is
keeping the stickshift alive in the
entry-level trim of its next-generation
2020 Sentra.
Steve Milette, president of Nissan
Canada, said the Quebec market seeks
out manual transmissions as part of
a broader trend of buying up more
value trims than the rest of the country. Sales are sufficient enough to justify continuing to offer those trims, he
said.
"[The manual-transmission Sentra]
is predisposed to the Quebec market.
What's interesting in Quebec from a
market dynamic perspective is even
in a vehicle line like Qashqai where
you offer both [front- and all-wheel
drive], their predisposition is actually
on the front-wheel drive.
"Consumers are looking for value,
and they can get more car [and] higher trims for the same or lower price
point by choosing front-wheel drive,"
Milette said.
Nissan's sales figures bear out

those statements. The take rate for
the front-wheel-drive Qashqai crossover was 43.1 per cent in Quebec
through December 2019 as opposed to
35 per cent nationally; the split was
even higher in 2018 at 47.6 per cent in
Quebec versus 38.8 per
cent nationwide.
On the previous-generation 2019 Sentra,
the take rate for manual transmissions was
2.5 per cent over the
same period. Despite
Robert
this, Nissan Canada
Karwel:
spokeswoman Jennifer
ValueMcCarthy said that the
conscious
company sees signifibuyers are
cant potential for manbecoming
ual-transmission sales
less
in Quebec with the
common as
new generation of the
they move
Sentra.
into utility
"Quebec is a region
vehicles.
of particular focus for
FILE PHOTO
Nissan Canada, and
consumer behaviour there is something we factor into not only marketing initiatives, but also our product strategy. We still believe there is
demand for a manual transmission in
Sentra's segment."

VALUE OPTIONS DISAPPEARING
Robert Karwel, senior manager of
J.D. Power's Canadian automotive
practice, said that the broader sales
numbers confirm that a value-conscious buyer exists today in Quebec:
the average price for a vehicle

SEE J.D. POWER PAGE 6

LABOUR NEGOTIATIONS AND
changing political dynamics could
throw the industry for a loop in a year
that might otherwise look a lot like
2019.
Experts expect new-vehicle sales to
continue to slip as the Canadian economy flattens out, while dealers can
expect to see more of the consolidation
that has transformed retailing over the
past several years.
"We're all crossing our fingers
that [2020] is not as soft as [2019], but I
think it's going to be a little bit more
of the same," said Brian Murphy,
Canadian Black Book's vice-president
of research and analytics.
But this fall could bring some
drama to the year. Unifor will negotiate with the Detroit automakers after
all three planned job cuts at some of
their Canadian operations in 2019 and
2020. And the U.S. presidential election has the chance to yet again upend
trade policy, just as the 2016 election
did.
Here's what to expect:

SALES SLUMP
Economists expected the new-vehicle market to continue its decline in
Canada. Scotiabank estimated a roughly 0.5-per-cent drop in sales compared
with 2019, to about 1.915 million units.
"I think our baseline is that we
will continue to see a slow drop in
overall sales," said Rebekah Young,
Scotiabank director of fiscal and provincial economics.
A year-over-year decline in 2020
would be the third straight drop after
new-vehicle sales set a record of 2.04
million in 2017. Flattening economic
growth means that little upside exists
for the market, especially as rising
new-vehicle prices push some

SEE OUTLOOK PAGE 6

5,000 KILOMETRES OF STORIES

Volvo tears up lease
for young family's XC60

PHOTO: STEPHANIE WALLCRAFT

2020
OUTLOOK

The 2020 Sentra compact sedan will be available
with a manual transmission, largely due to
Quebec's appetite for base models.

TRANS-CANADA NEWS

Volvo Car Canada cancelled the debt
of the 10,000th new-vehicle customer
in Canada in 2019. From left, Olga
and baby Gabriel, Volvo Car Canada
sales director Adam Kostanowicz and
Jason. The family declined to provide
their surname.

01.20

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - VOLVO CAR
Canada sold more than 10,000 vehicles
in 2019, a milestone the brand hasn't
hit since 2005.
To mark the occasion, the company cancelled the payments on the
10,000th vehicle, leased by a young
family from King City, Ont., about
50 kilometres north of downtown
Toronto.
When they arrived to pick up
their Volvo XC60 R-Design at Volvo
of Mississauga on Dec. 19, they
were greeted by Volvo Car Canada

Director of Sales Adam Kostanowicz,
who proceeded to rip up the signed
agreement for the four-year lease.
- Stephanie Wallcraft

Taycan buyers benefit from
VW charging network

AJAX, ONT. - PORSCHE CARS
Canada said it has a deal with
Volkswagen-owned Electrify Canada
to include three years of free charging
for the Taycan, the automaker's first
production battery-electric vehicle.
Electrify Canada, founded in 2018
and based in Ajax, is an offshoot of
Electrify America and has partnered

Electrify Canada's charging network
will be available to Porsche Taycan
owners for three years, free of
charge. P H O T O : P O R S C H E

with Volkswagen Group Canada to
build direct-current, fast-charging
infrastructure across Canada to

SEE TRANS-CANADA PAGE 13

https://canada.autonews.com/ https://canada.autonews.com/

Automotive News Canada - January 2020 - v2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - January 2020 - v2