The light truck segment continues to dominate the Canadian new vehicle market – commanding some 87% of all sales – but aftermarket players should take note of nuance within the segment.

For industry watchers monitoring activity in both Canada and the U.S., the dominance of the light truck segment in Canada is notably several percentage points higher than in the U.S., where light trucks are typically in the low 80% market share range.

The flipside of that reality is that there is little room for passenger car sales in Canada: only 12.8% share according to the latest data from a DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) research note.

Within the segments other details are shaping the future aftermarket fleet.

Canadian light vehicle sales remain below last year’s pace

“The high-volume segments were fairly subdued, showing only single digit percentage sales changes for 2026 so far,” commented Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC.

“This is in line with a market that has, despite significant geopolitical and economic disruptions, had a surprisingly stable year with a very welcome positive performance in Q3 and in September.”

Intermediate SUVs recorded the strongest year-to-date growth among the major vehicle segments, with sales up 3.2%, according to the latest data from DAC. Compact luxury SUVs also edged higher, gaining 0.3% compared with the same period last year.

The high-volume compact SUV segment, however, remained slightly in negative territory, with year-to-date sales down 0.6%. A strong third quarter, when sales climbed 7.0%, helped offset weaker results during the first half of the year.

Compact passenger cars also delivered a solid third-quarter performance, although not enough to push year-to-date sales into positive territory.

Subcompact SUVs faced the opposite trend, with a slower third quarter contributing to a 1.2% year-to-date decline.

Large pickups continued to trail last year’s results, with sales down 4.1% year-to-date. The segment’s third-quarter decline was considerably smaller, at 0.7%.

Among lower-volume categories, luxury passenger cars have posted particularly strong results so far this year. Small vans and intermediate luxury SUVs have also recorded solid growth.

Across the broader market, passenger car sales were down 1.3% year-to-date, while light truck sales declined 0.6%.

Light trucks nevertheless continued to dominate the Canadian market as noted, accounting for 87.2% of new vehicle sales, compared with 12.8% for passenger cars.

Overall, Canadian new light vehicle sales remained 0.7% below the level recorded during the same period last year.

Shifting trend in the future: More EU vehicles?

In a survey that was released in September 2025, a solid proportion of Canadians were interested in exploring EU sourced vehicles. While largely focused on EV options, 47% of those who participated in a recent survey conducted by Abacus Data and commissioned by Clean Energy Canada, indicated they’d like a market shift that brings European sensibilities with more compact and electric options. This compares to only 21% who wanted to see a market here more reflective of the U.S. market.

There are of course significant regulatory and market hurdles to expanding access for EU vehicles to the Canadian market, but there does appear to be an appetite for those options.

For aftermarket players though, such shifts would take years (if not decades) to appreciably shift the demand from the on-road vehicle parc.

This can be seen within the car parc of today, where passenger vehicles remain much more significant that what current sales would support, according to Statistics Canada 2024 figures.

• Multi-Purpose Vehicles (SUVs): 41.9%
• Passenger Cars: 35.0%
• Pickup Trucks: 16.8%
• Vans: 6.3%

The smart bet for aftermarket organizations is to ensure they are well equipped to address the light truck segment at large, and more specifically the compact SUV market where there is significent current volumes and growing.