New motor vehicle sales tick upward in May 2025
Released: Friday, July 18, 2025
Motor vehicles are big-ticket items. For most, getting a new car, van, or truck is the second most expensive item they’ll ever purchase, with the first being a home. This makes new motor vehicle sales an important metric that economists look at in addition to other data points to assess economic performance.
According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, there were 194,524 new passenger cars and trucks (minivans, sport-utility vehicles, light and heavy trucks, vans, and buses) sold in Canada in May 2025, up 5.0% from the same period the year prior. This marks the third consecutive year of sales increases for May. While new car sales are on the rise, sales volume is still below pre-pandemic levels.
Canadians love their trucks. Vehicles in this segment accounted for 87.4% of all motor vehicles sold in May. Sales of zero-emission vehicles reached 15,298 units, representing 7.8% of all new car sales that month. A total of 825,889 new motor vehicles were sold during the first five months of the year, up 36,927 units or 4.68% from 788,962 units recorded during the same period in the year prior.
Data for the above chart comes from Statistics Canada Table 20-10-0085-01 New motor vehicle sales, monthly
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