Audi Canada has signed a long-term agreement to provide Sirius as a factory-installed option to "virtually" all Audi vehicles sold in Canada.

Starting in early 2007, the following Audi vehicles will available with Sirius in Canada: the Audi A3; the A4 sedan, Avant and Cabriolet; the S4 sedan, Avant and Cabriolet; the RS4, the A6 sedan and A6 Avant; the S6; the Audi Q7; the Audi A8, A8 L, and the S8 and A8 L W12; and the upcoming TT Coupe and Roadster.

Audi Canada's factory-installed Sirius Satellite Radio receivers will be made available with a 3-month free trial subscription.

Here's some incredible news for Sirius Canada: Ford of Canada has announced that they will make Sirius Satellite Radio a factory-standard feature in "virtually" all Fords sold in Canada, by the end of 2007.

Sirius will be available as a standard feature in the following Ford of Canada models: Ford Five Hundred, Focus, Fusion, Mustang, Edge, Escape, Expedition, Expedition Max, Explorer, Explorer Sport Trac, Freestyle, Ranger, F-150, F-250, F-350, Lincoln Mark LT, MKX, MKZ, Navigator and Navigator L. 

That's a total of 20 vehicle lines. Absolutely great news, and hopefully a sign of things to come for the U.S. 

General Motors has said that they plan to build more than 1.8 million vehicles with XM Satellite Radio factory-installed in 2007. In August, GM said that they will reduce the price of the XM option from $325 to $199. GM currently has over 50 models featuring XM, and has sold over 4 million XM-equipped vehicles.

Last week Honda announced that they will build 650,000 XM factory-equipped vehicles in 2007. I would expect that these sort of announcements from automanufacturers will be more frequent in the weeks to come.

XM Canada has apparently inked a deal with Hyundai Canada to install receivers on two of their models. UPDATE: The two models with XM Canada factory-installed are the 2007 Hyundai Sonata and the 2007 Hyundai Azera. More models will be announced soon.

John Bitrove told the Globe and Mail that XM Canada will have an 80% share (which is an estimate 300,000 to 500,000 units) of the factory-installed satellite radio market for new cars in 2007. Sirius Canada says it sells about 70% of the receivers sold through retail.

[The Globe and Mail]