10. Genesis: 5,749, up 26 per cent
Up two spots from a year ago, thanks primarily to the success of its Genesis GV60 and GV70 utility vehicles, Hyundai’s luxury offshoot now offers a six-model lineup. It’s a far cry from 2009, when Hyundai launched the Genesis sedan to serve as the brand’s flagship. Yet it’s the success of that model, more than 3,000 of which were sold annually in each of its first three years, that paved the way for the actual Genesis brand to climb the ranks 13 years later.
9. Lincoln: 7,616, up 1 per cent
Up one spot from 2021, Lincoln produced a modest increase of 84 units in 2022. (Given market conditions, that’s actually a meaningful improvement.) Lincoln no longer offers any passenger cars. The brand’s four SUVs generate progressively larger sales volume as vehicle dimensions shrink. That makes the Corsair Lincoln’s top seller. The Nautilus ranks second, the Aviator third, and the full-size Navigator SUV produces 15 per cent of Lincoln sales.
8. Porsche: 9,195, up 1 per cent
Porsche held steady in the eighth position thanks to another banner year for the company. Porsche broke its annual sales record, set in 2021, by 54 units. The 911’s 1,444 sales was an annual record for Porsche Canada, as well. Granted, sports cars are no longer Porsche’s bread and butter: the Macan and Cayenne SUVs generate two-thirds of Canada’s Porsche volume.
7. Volvo: 10,289, down 7 per cent
Led by a 6-per-cent uptick from its best-selling XC60, Volvo reached five digits for just the third time in the last 17 years. Besides the XC60 and its 3,587 sales, Volvo has just two other nameplates that produce significant volume: there were 2,833 XC40s sold in 2022 and 2,206 XC90s.
6. Acura: 11,412, down 30 per cent
In line with the 30-per-cent year-over-year decline from its parent Honda brand, Acura sales tumbled 30 per cent in 2022, a loss of 4,995 sales. Acura’s 11,412 sales represents a 44-per-cent drop from 2018 levels. Honda/Acura supply woes weren’t quite as bad by the end of the year — Q4 sales were down just 23 per cent, rather than 40 per cent as in Q3. The worst outcome revolved around Acura’s best seller, the RDX, which in 2021 essentially accounted for half of Canada’s Acura sales. 2022 volume tumbled 40 per cent to 4,786 units.
5. Cadillac: 15,215, up 15 per cent
Cadillac swapped places with Acura — a brand that outsold Cadillac by a 24-per-cent margin just one year ago — in 2022 primarily due to a dramatic increase in XT4 sales. While Acura’s small SUV, the RDX, plunged 40 per cent, Cadillac’s XT4 jumped 90 per cent to 4,179 units. It didn’t hurt that Cadillac’s Escalade flagship luxury SUV posted a 6-per-cent jump to 3,640 sales.
4. Lexus: 25,024, down 3 per cent
With a fourth-quarter 19-per-cent surge, Lexus managed to very nearly stay on par with the brand’s 2021 Canadian output. The brand’s 1,940 sales in the final month of the year was actually a December record. Two different Lexus utilities, the NX and RX, topped the 9,000-unit mark in 2022. Four out of every 10 Lexus vehicles sold in Canada in 2022 were hybrids.
3. BMW: 27,866, down 9 per cent
Nine years after topping Canada’s premium brand sales charts with 31,710 sales, BMW is now Canada’s third-best-selling premium brand, albeit not a distant third. BMW’s sales picture is very different now than it was a decade ago, however. In 2013, the 3 Series/4 Series family accounted for 41 per cent of the brand’s sales; four SUVs delivered 44 per cent. In 2022, seven SUVs bring in 70 per cent of BMW’s customers. The 3 Series/4 Series tandem that used to carry the load now account for one out of every five BMWs sold in Canada.
2. Mercedes-Benz: 28,490, down 9 per cent
Hold on a second: didn’t Mercedes-Benz Canada sell 34,317 vehicles in 2022? Yes, Mercedes-Benz did, but nearly 6,000 of those were commercial vans. Mercedes-Benz’s huge lineup of SUVs and cars topped Canada’s premium brand leaderboard for eight consecutive years before succumbing to a compatriot in 2022. The good news for Mercedes-Benz? Its best seller, the GLC, jumped 26 per cent to 8,661 units.
1. Audi: 29,137, up 1 percent
Between 2005 and 2010, Audi Canada doubled its annual sales. By 2015, 2010’s 14,333 Audis appeared paltry — Audi had jumped another 87 per cent. By 2018, Audi was up a further 38 per cent. In other words, we could see this coming. Audi’s victory over Mercedes-Benz was narrow at only 647 units, but it’s unlikely to mark the end of the brand’s growth. Incidentally, it was passenger car sales growth of 26 per cent that moved Audi ahead of 2021’s sales pace. The Q5 and Q3 remain the brand’s top sellers with 9,745 and 5,538 units, respectively.
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