Based on stronger than expected early indications, J.D. Power agrees with Edmunds and also predicts a strong January. Based on 11 days of sales, J.D. Power thinks 2011 will be a much better year. Power up-revised its forecast for total light-vehicle sales in 2011 to 13.0 million units (from 12.8 million units). Read More >
One of the questions that came up in yesterday’s post, The Truth About The Ten Best-Selling Sedans Of 2010, was how to interpret a high percentage of fleet sales. After all, “fleet sales” could describe a huge variety of sales to diverse buyers at widely varying price (and profit) points. Rental fleet sales are widely seen as being far worse than other types of sales, which is why the resale value trackers at Automotive Lease Guide keep such a close eye on what they call “Rental Fleet Penetration.” In its latest newsletter, ALG notes
ALG tracks several key metrics that impact residual values and brand health. Of these metrics, rental fleet penetration (RFP), which ALG measures as the total number of vehicles sold into rental fleet channels divided by total sales, has been found to have an impact on both residual performance and perception of quality… As a general rule, ALG recommends RFP levels below 10% for Mainstream brands and <5% for Luxury brands to avoid any negative impact from rental fleet sales on residual performance.
“About 13.8 million vehicles were sold in 2010 in China compared with 11.6 million in the United States.”
The Detroit News
Yesterday, we had a short seminar on Chinese new car statistics. Apparently, it was needed. Too bad the Detroit News, Motor City’s hometown newspaper, skipped class. Message to the DetN: It’s 18 million vehicles. 18,264,700 to be exact.
So where do the 13.8 come from? We know: In 2010, Chinese passenger car sales reached 13.76 million. However, that number excludes “commercial vehicles.” Common mistake. But shouldn’t happen to a Detroit paper.
Dear DetN: If you don’t count the Chinese “commercial vehicles”, then you can’t count the U.S. “trucks” either. You really don’t want to do that.
Despite rising gasoline prices, January shapes up to be a very strong month for car sales. Edmunds.com Chief Executive Jeremy Anwyl told Dow Jones Newswire that the seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) for the month was looking “very strong” at 12.8 million vehicles as of last week, and was higher than December. That is a surprise: January sales typically are lower than December sales. Read More >
Last year, the ten best-selling sedans in America made up some 40% of all passenger cars sold in 2010. Those models, in order of volume, were:
Rank Nameplate Sales 1 Camry 327804 2 Accord 282530 3 Corolla 266882 4 Civic 260218 5 Altima 229263 6 Fusion 219219 7 Malibu 198770 8 Sonata 196623 9 Focus 172421 10 Impala 172078
But volume isn’t everything, is it? Let’s look at how many of those vehicles were bought by fleet buyers rather than “regular” consumers.
If you want to get ahead in the car business, this is required reading. If you just like cars and don’t give a hoot about who makes them where and why, then you may skip this. Read More >
All Chinese drive bicycles, make that cheap QQs. No, all Chinese drive big Buicks, I mean, all Chinese are chauffeured around in A6s and Mercedes S-Class.
All wrong. So, what do Chinese really drive? Read More >
Mitsubishi is set to release a “mid-term” global business plan in the coming weeks, and the company says it will use that opportunity to resolve the lingering questions about its Normal, Illinois plant. Automotive News [sub] reports that four midsize (PS) platform vehicles currently built their will give way to a “new family of vehicles” based on the firm’s compact (GS) platform that currently underpins the Lancer, Outlander and Outlander Sport. The only problem: Mitsu’s midsizers will have to struggle along until April 2013, by which time the model changeover will be complete. Mitsubishi Motors North America has dismissed the report as “speculation,” but frankly, wouldn’t you be more surprised to see a new “family” of compact Mitsus in less than two years? Meanwhile, breakeven at the 240k unit capacity Normal plant has already been lowered to 70k units, but only about 27k vehicles were built there last year. With less than ten percent of Mitsubishi’s global sales volume coming from the US, maybe it would be better if Mitsu simply called it a game… but instead the firm is “planning” to quadruple sales volume. And hey, why not?
It’s official: China’s Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) announced that in 2010, Chinese bought 18,061,900 vehicles, an increase of 32.37 percent over 2009. Automobile production rose to 18,264,700 units, an increase of 32.44 percent.
As predicted several times, China handily broke the world record of annual sales, established by the U.S.A. way back in 2000 with sales of 17.4 million units. Read More >
James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, sees U.S. auto sales bouncing “back to normal” by year’s end. “Normal” being “a rate of 15 million to 16 million vehicles.” Bloomberg painted a nice Chart of the Day, which seems to support that gutsy theory. Read More >
2010 was the best year ever for the auto industry in Brazil! Controversy as to the exact numbers aside (see comments here). The difference in numbers is due to whether or not you count trucks and other “heavy” commercial vehicles (like buses). Taking into consideration just cars, Bertel’s initial numbers were correct. Brazil grew in 2010 10% and not 11% (just cars, “light” trucks and vans). 361,197 vehicles is the official tally for December 2010 for a grand total of 3,515,120 (consolidating Brazil as the world’s fourth largest car market – in sales) on the year. That’s a whopping 30 percent better than December of last year. Reason to celebrate an extraordinary finish for a very good year considering all the difficulties, right? Well, well-known Brazilian car journo, Joel Leite, writing for Brazilian web giant UOL crashes the party. Read More >
A few days ago, we mentioned that Volkswagen might have something to say about GM’s press release which claimed that in 2010, “Shanghai GM became China’s first passenger car maker to sell 1 million vehicles annually.”
Today, Volkswagen said something, without even mentioning GM. Read More >
For the first time in recorded history, Audi sold more than a million cars per year. In 2010, Audi sold 1.092 million cars worldwide. In the year before, it was 949.700, and that’s a plus of 15 percent, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler told reporters on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Stadler was a keynote speaker there, and delivered the stump speech of cars which will be part of the Internet and will be communicating with other cars and central databanks, whether you like it or not. But back to cars: Read More >
Last year, Saab sold 31,696 vehicles in markets around the world. For some contrast, that’s less volume than the Mazda6, Ford Flex or Acura TSX sold in the US alone last year. But don’t worry folks, according to Saab-Spyker boss Victor Muller [via Automotive News [sub]], everything is going to be just fine. As it turns out, Saab has a very specific problem with an easy cure.
One of the largest challenges in 2010 was to restock our dealers around the world to normal levels again, especially in a market like the United States, where you need dealer stock in order to be able to sell cars. For instance, when we acquired the company, there were a mere 500 cars left on the ground in the United States. Normal inventory levels in this market should be at 6,000-7,000 units. In 2009, Saab Automobile sold 39,800 cars, but built only 21,000. As a result, inventory levels were depleted by almost 19,000 units. In 2010, we only filled the pipeline with less than 4,000 units. All in all, with all the accomplishments made so far, I am very confident that the foundations for delivering on our business plan are in place.
New car sales around the world are mostly rebounding – except in the markets where they had been artificially stimulated last year. This list will be continuously updated as new data becomes available. Read More >
Recent Comments