Automakers and their Canadian dealers in 2021 grappled with COVID-19 restrictions, an inventory shortage and weather disasters on the West Coast but still sold 1.66 million new vehicles, a seven-percent increase over the year before.
So what’s next?
“In some ways, 2022 is looking a lot like 2021,” Rebekah Young of Scotiabank Economics told Automotive News Canada. “We have many of the same challenges on the table.
“We were already into the inventory shortages and material shortages at the beginning of 2021,” said Young, the bank’s director of fiscal and provincial economics. “The pandemic, sadly, is still on the table with yet another wave.”
Shahin Alizadeh, CEO of Downtown Auto Group in Toronto, is bracing for a bumpy start to 2022.
“I think it will be a similar type of an environment to 2021. We’re starting the year with challenges, with more COVID closures, more health issues hovering over the economy.”