Important Facts

Facts about the automotive industry in Canada:

Auto manufacturing contributes over $18 billion to Canadian GDP.
Manufacturing sales of motor vehicles and parts were $62.1 billion in 2023, accounting for 7% of total sales ($862.8 billion).

Vehicles are the second largest Canadian export by value at $51 billion in 2023 of which 93% was exported to the U.S.
Auto is Ontario’s top export at 28.9% of all exports (2023).
In 2023, the North American trade bloc produced 16,166,628 vehicles (a 1.1% increase from 2022). The trade bloc represents approximately 17.3% of global production.
Given the highly integrated nature of the auto industry, parts and components may cross Canadian-U.S.-Mexican borders as many as 8 times before being installed in a final assembly.1
The Detroit-Windsor crossing represents the highest number of loaded truck container crossings annually. In 2023, there were over 2.5 million truck crossings on the Ambassador Bridge – a significant percentage of these would be auto manufacturing related.

Auto manufacturing accounts for 128,000 direct jobs in Canada. The majority of these jobs – at least 100,000 – are located in Ontario. The auto industry is responsible for over 550,000 direct and indirect jobs across Canada.
For every one auto assembly job, approximately ten other jobs are created in upstream and downstream activities²

1,537,111 vehicles were produced in Canada in 2023.
Canada is the 11th leading vehicle producer in the world.
Canada contributes approximately 10% of all vehicles produced in North America.
Canada is dependent on exporting outside of its own borders, with domestic consumption of just 7.7% of the vehicles it manufactures within its borders.

Canadian light and medium-duty vehicle registrations = 24,795,901.
There are 100 EV models available in Canada. (Ref. NRCan FCR Tool, 2024 MY Vehicles).

_{1. Wilson C.E., 2011}
_{2. Unifor, 2020; CAR study, 2015}

Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association