Canadian light vehicle production drops below 2 million units

DesRosiers Automotive Consultants is reporting that Canada’s vehicle manufacturing base retreated to below 2 million units in 2019, continuing a trend that has been under scrutiny for several years.

“While the 2009 situation was largely cyclical in nature the current decline appears more structural and the future outlook is one of further production losses,” the company’s newsletter stated recently.

With the General Motors Oshawa assembly plant officially closed, Canadian light vehicle production is set to lose approximately another 125,000 units in 2020.

DesRosiers also points out that assembly levels at the Ford Oakville plant and the FCA plant in Windsor are similarly uncertain. Ford cut production of the aging Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT late in 2019, the production of which accounted for nearly thirty thousand units last year.

The third shift at FCA’s Windsor plant is also in uncertain territory.  Originally scheduled to be eliminated in September 2019 the third shift has received a temporary reprieve until March 2020, but appears unlikely to continue through the year unless new product is allocated to Windsor.