UPDATE 1-Canada auto sales fall 7.2% in June
(Adds sales numbers of other auto makers)
By Arundhati Sarkar
July 2 (Reuters) - Auto sales in Canada fell 7.2% in June from a year earlier, hit by a drop in passenger car sales, according to industry data released on Wednesday, marking a decline for the sixteenth straight month.
The country's auto sales plunged to 185,741 units in June from 200,156 units sold a year earlier, according to a report released by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, a market research firm that tracks the sector.
Majority of auto makers in Canada reported a fall in passenger car sales, pointing to a shift in customer demand for bigger and more SUVs. Sales of passenger cars dropped about 21.3% in June, while light truck sales fell marginally.
According to the DesRosiers, although nearly all high volume brands reported sales setbacks for the month, sales for Ford Motor, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler Canada , were down 4.5% overall with the three brands jointly performing better than the rest of the manufacturers in Canada.
General Motors, which reports sales on a quarterly basis, said https://media.gm.ca/media/ca/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/ca/en/2019/Jul/0703_GM-Canada-builds-on-light-duty-pick-up.html total sales for the second quarter fell 13.7% to 77,643 units.
Toyota Canada, the Canadian distributor of Toyota Motor Corp and Lexus vehicles, however sold http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20190703:nCNWrcY8Ga 22,769 vehicles in June, down 2.2% from the year-ago period.
"Looking at the glass half full, if sales for the remainder of 2019 track along current levels, we will still have one of the better sales years ever in Canada," David Adams, president of industry association Global Automakers of Canada, said in a separate report.
Among major auto firms, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV reported a 4% fall in total June auto sales in Canada.
The company, which is one of the top carmakers in the country, sold 21,566 vehicles in June, with its Chrysler brand reporting a 30% fall in sales.
Sales in the United States, however, rose nearly 2% to 206,083, driven by a 56% jump in Ram sales. (Reporting by Shanti S Nair and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
