Driving By Numbers: These 10 vehicles launched mid-pandemic are selling well

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“Terrible timing,” we said nearly one year ago while gauging the early sales performance of newly launched vehicles that arrived during the early phase of COVID-19 lockdowns. “What happens when you launch a new vehicle just as a pandemic strikes?” the headline read.

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The latter stages of 2020’s second quarter, however, provided little basis for proper study. Nearly a year later, it’s a question more deserving of a response, and that we’re more prepared to answer.

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Driving By Numbers: These 10 vehicles launched mid-pandemic are selling well Back to video

Rewind to the end of 2020’s first quarter and the onset of severe public health lockdowns that threatened the auto industry in ways not experienced in generations. Assembly plants stalled, showrooms went dark, jobs were lost by the tens of thousands, and forecasts called for an utter collapse of auto sales in Canada. Those forecasts were correct. At first. According to Statistics Canada, auto sales in April 2020 fell 75 per cent, including a 79-per-cent drop in Ontario and an 85-per-cent decrease in Quebec.

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Yet right around this very point, there were automakers whose normal product launch cycles continued apace. Just prior to, during, and immediately following the initial COVID-19 response, all-new models – not just generational changeovers, but first-ever models – were arriving on dealer lots, often in very small numbers.

The timing appeared terrible. Marketing budgets were limited and largely devoted to “here for you” messaging common to major multinationals in the spring of 2020. The actual scope for selling was narrow given the depth of restrictions in some of Canada’s largest markets. And consumer attention was believed to be elsewhere, transfixed on daily updates from politicians with unkempt hair and loosened ties.

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Then, with little advanced notice, the market began to shift back. Oh, it wasn’t normal, not at first. But by July 2020, Canadian auto sales were only slightly off 2019’s summer pace. September sales actually increased compared to the prior-year period. By the first quarter of 2021, auto sales were off to a very strong start , better in fact than what the industry managed in the first quarter of 2015, which at the time was a record-setting year.

How? Demand for trucks kept climbing. The appetite for high-end SUVs and niche sports cars found renewed strength. And in many cases, all-new nameplates shot out of the gate at a furious pace.

One year later, how are these pandemic auto babies coping in a market chock full of heady competition and burdened by severe inventory complications?

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Rather well.

Kia Seltos: 3,452, up 1,254 percent

Here’s one way to measure success: despite landing in almost perfect conjunction with COVID-19 lockdowns, the Seltos ended 2020 as Kia Canada’s best-selling model, with 13,271 units. In the first quarter of 2021, the Seltos’ 3,452 sales come despite limited stock. It now produces more than one-fifth of Kia’s sales and ranks fourth in the subcompact crossover segment.

Mazda CX-30: 2,409, up 64 percent

With little chance to ramp-up before lockdowns locked showroom doors, the Mazda CX-30’s early pace was predictably slow. Only 1,466 CX-30s were sold in 2020’s first quarter. By the end of the year, Mazda had sold over 9,000 CX-30s. Mazda’s tweener-sized crossover – it slots between the CX-3 and CX-5 – now battles the Mazda 3 for second-place status at Mazda. In the first quarter of 2021, the 3 outsold the CX-30 by an average of only 83 units per month.

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Hyundai Venue: 2,021, up 40 percent

While the Kona steals much of the limelight, the Venue adds meaningful volume to a Hyundai utility vehicle portfolio that now includes five models . The Venue is the entry-level model, a front-wheel-drive-only challenger for the Nissan Kicks and Kia Soul that’s intended to replace much of the lost sales from the Accent’s disappearance. Hyundai sold 8,706 Venues in 2020 after a very late 2019 arrival. Q1 Venue sales in 2021 are growing more than twice as fast as the industry at large.

Buick Encore GX: 1,726, up 921 percent

Now that SUVs and crossovers account for the portion of auto sales previously attributed to cars, the lion’s share of new vehicles introduced are utility vehicles of one sort or another, as well. But how does the industry find room for ever more crossovers? By squeezing vehicles like the Buick Encore GX in between the slightly smaller Encore and slightly larger Envision. It works. The Encore GX is now Buick’s best seller – by a long shot – with more than half the brand’s sales in the first-quarter of 2021.

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Mercedes-Benz GLB: 781, up 125 percent

How does Mercedes-Benz make room for yet another crossover in amongst the midsize GLE, small GLC, and smallest GLA? Mercedes-Benz builds a small GLB with a third row of seating that no competitor offers. The GLB didn’t light the sales charts on fire in 2020, and what it did achieve last year came largely at the expense of the GLA. To kick off 2021, however, GLB sales shot up to 781 units while GLA sales took off nearly as high, as well.

Land Rover Defender: 676

In with a chance of becoming Land Rover’s best-selling model, the reborn Defender now accounts for nearly one-quarter of the brand’s sales. In fact, with 676 Defenders sold in the first-quarter of 2020, the boxiest of Land Rovers actually outsells the entire Jaguar brand by a 31-percent margin. The new Defender arrived in the second quarter of 2020 and by year’s end had mustered 828 sales.

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Cadillac CT4 & CT5: 495, up 456 percent

It’s easy to be fooled by a 456-per-cent increase until one realizes that Cadillac’s latest cars were only just getting going at this time last year. This is an increasingly challenging segment, and these cars are tasked with replacing the ATS and CTS that, despite top-notch on-road dynamics, couldn’t capture the public’s attention in the least.

The 495 CT4s and CT5s sold in 2021’s first quarter (297 CT5s; 198 CT4s) compares with 532 Acura TLXs, over 1,300 sales of Mercedes-Benz’s three smallest sedans, 898 copies of the BMW 3 Series, and 466 Lexus IS sales. The market is veering away from this segment, but while Lincoln has checked out of the car arena, Cadillac isn’t giving up yet.

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Cadillac XT6: 456, up 92 percent

By the end of 2020, the Detroit luxury SUV battle was on. In the final three months of last year, Lincoln sold 495 Aviators to the 396 copies of the XT6 sold by Cadillac. In early 2021, those numbers have basically flipped. The XT6 isn’t where Cadillac produces the bulk of its volume — the smaller XT5 and entry-level XT4 crossovers produce 60 per cent of Cadillac sales, and the Escalade outsells the XT6, as well. But the XT6 provides a vital step between the full-size Escalade and two-row XT5 in a market that’s eating up luxury SUVs.

Lincoln Aviator: 360, up 2 percent

Arguably among the most handsome SUVs released in the last few years, the Lincoln Aviator is nevertheless struggling to capture a large number of buyers in early 2021. No doubt hindered by the same inventory crisis as the Ford Explorer with which it shares a platform – Explorer sales actually dipped 4 percent in Q1 – the Aviator is following up a 2020 in which it missed out on becoming the No. 1 Lincoln by only 82 units. Some 1,941 Aviators were sold in Canada last year.

Porsche Taycan: 168, up 740 percent

One would imagine that a $119,000 to $218,000 electric Porsche wouldn’t provide much insight into the success of newly launched models during a pandemic. Yet the success of the Taycan brings attention to the latest round of success for high-end models in general. Porsche sold 844 Taycans in 2020, more than the Boxster, Cayman, and Panamera combined. In 2021’s first quarter, Taycan sales totaled 168, equal to one out of every 10 Porsches sold. For perspective, Audi sold 124 A3s in Q1, Toyota sold 44 Supras, and Maserati sold 144 vehicles in total.