These three are continuing the trend established some months ago: Subaru strongly outperforming the market; Nissan somewhat ahead of it; and Suzuki trailing it substantially. All Subarus were up except the Tribeca, which is clearly in its fade out period. The Outback was up 133%.
Nissan showed the most balanced increase, with the same increase for both cars (+34%) and trucks (+34%). All the cars did well, with Versa up 44%, Sentra plus 38%, Altima up 23% and Maxima up 25%. The Cube is selling decently at about 2k units per month. Truck sales were also up fairly evenly, with Frontier (+60%) and Rogue (+38%) being two of the stronger models.
Suzuki’s models all swooned, and the story would be a disaster except for the Kizashi, which posted a rip roaring 406 units sold.
Looks like Honda will be stuck near the bottom of the market in April, under performing with a 12.5% rise. Honda Division was up 11.7%; Acura up 21.6%. The problem is with the cars: Honda’s were down 1.4%, while trucks saved their bacon with a 41% increase. The Fit eked out a 14% increase, but the Civic slipped 5%. Accord was up 9%. Pilot (+42%), CR-V (+37), Odyssey (+14%) and even the Ridgeline (+46%) kept the Honda from the red.
Acura cars were also weak, but the MDX and RDX both showed over 50% increases. The new ZDX sold 234 units. Read More >
Chrysler saw its sales increase 25 percent last month, for its best year-over-year performance in “almost five years,” according to the company. On the other hand, sales improved only 3 percent compared to last March’s results and only barely met Chrysler’s 95k minimum sales goal (at 95,703 units). Still, this is the best sales news the company has had since well before emerging from bankruptcy. For those who think Chrysler has a shot at survival, this is the first evidence in a long time that actually supports their optimism.
Nothing like igniting sales with the spark of incentives. Toyota appears to be pacing in line with most of the market, posting a 24.4% rise for April. The Toyota brand was up 24%; Lexus jumped 29%. Again reflecting a shift back to more utilities and trucks, cars were up a more modest 18%, light trucks 33%. Toyota cars were paced by the Prius and Corolla, both up 50%, while Camry had to get by with a 10% rise. Even the Avalon got a rise from its refresh, up 36%. On the downside, the Yaris tumbled by 53% and all three Scions were in the red again. In the truck sector, the Rav4 increased by 34% and the long-languishing Tundra showed sign of life with a 45% boost.And the new 4Runner ran with 204% climb. Detailed chart: Read More >
Ford continued its momentum in April, if perhaps not at quite the blistering pace as in the past few months. In a clear indication of how the market is returning to a more pre-recession composition, car sales were up only 10%, while utilities jumped 33% and trucks 38%. The F-Series had a very strong month, topping 40k units with a 42% rise. Ford also increased its ratio of retail to fleet sales, with retail sales up 32% and fleet a more modest 13%. Ford is also crowing about resale values being up 23% versus last year. In terms of brands, Ford was up 26%, Mercury 19%, and Lincoln 22%. Not exactly a knock-out month, but another strong showing. Details follow: Read More >
Hyundai and Kia kept up their winning ways last month, combining for a 24 percent sales increase. Most of the increase comes courtesy of the Hyundai brand, which rose 30 percent on strong sales of the new Tucson and Sonata (up 271 and 57 percent respectively) and Santa Fe (+59 percent). Kia’s volume was largely boosted by its new Sorento SUV, which sold 8,486 units, and a strong rise in Soul sales volume. Forte sold 5,807 units, but didn’t outperform last April’s 7,165 sales of its predecessor, the Spectra. Full numbers after the jump.
For yet another month, GM’s sales [full April sales report in XLS format here, press release here] managed to be both promising and disappointing, depending on how you cut them. GM’s “core brands” were up 20 percent cumulatively, with Cadillac and Buick leading the way with 35.7 percent and 36.4 percent increases respectively (Chevy up 17.4 percent, GMC up 18.4 percent). And though GM is especially eager to boost sales numbers at its two premium brands, thanks to their low baseline sales, the solid percentage gains resulted in surprisingly small volume improvements. The General’s overall volume was up only 6.5 percent compared to April 2009, a month when the just-canceled Pontiac outsold both Buick and Caddy.
As the Beijing motor show draws to an end on Monday, the cars on display will be rolled on car carriers and shipped back home. All except for 40 luxury cars with a combined value of $22m. They have been snapped-up at the show, they will remain in China, and their makers can save the money for the long trip home. Read More >
Speaking of April sales, American automakers and industry watchers are expecting a jump of nearly Chinese proportions when April sales will be announced on Monday. Easy: We are comparing with an April of 2009, when everybody assumed we’ll never buy a car again. Read More >
With over 8,000 pre-orders already logged, Reuters reports that Nissan is well on its way to selling out its capacity-constrained, 25,000-unit first-year production run of Leaf EVs. Better yet, Nissan’s North America director of product planning and strategy Mark Perry says that, with those sales volumes, the Leaf will actually turn a profit for Nissan. He tells Reuters:
We are making money at the price that we announced. We priced the car to be affordable. We priced it for mass adoption
We knew Brilliance’s plan to export 158,000 sedans to Europe had taken a bit of a beating when the Chinese automaker’s European export partner folded back in November. Even before then, the ADAC’s now-infamous crash tests of Briliance’s BS6 and BS4 seemed likely to doom the brand’s early attempt at the European market. And now, according to Reuters, it’s official. Brilliance execs admit:
We have stopped exports to Europe. For now, we have no timetable for resuming the business
Anywhere there’s a gold rush, competitors have to worry about getting caught on the bust-end of a boom-bust cycle. With the growth of China’s car market projected to roll all the way to about 20m units annually, automakers hoping to cash in on booming sales have to wonder whether their investments in Chinese capacity will actually be used efficiently. And, as the European market is learning, government consumer incentives can also inflate projections, only to create a collapse in demand after they are phased out. These factors have combined to create a bit of a panic about the possibility of a Chinese-market oversupply, as financial analysts start reigning in automakers’ rampant Sino-optimism.
Fleet sales were up 47 percent in the first quarter of this year, driving sales at a number of automakers. Ford, in particular, is targeting fleet sales unapologetically by touting a recovery in resale values for the Blue Oval Brand. Ford’s Mark Fields tells the Freep:
We love fleets at Ford…Ford remains focused on our disciplined approach to daily rental, making sure we help keep growing residual values
At Chrysler, which suffers from some of the lowest resale values in the business thanks in part to a longtime addiction to fleet sales, the response seems a bit more… conflicted.
At this point about 19 percent… We’ll finalize that, but I’m not interested in going down from that
And according to the Detroit Free Press, GM actually achieved that goal in December, logging a 21 percent share based on Autodata findings. Unfortunately, things have been slip-sliding ever since. In February, GM’s share fell to 18.1 percent, and last month it fell even further, to 17.6 percent.
Unlike long-wheelbase luxury, the other major theme emerging from coverage of the Beijing Auto Show was hardly unique to the Chinese market. Electric vehicles and talk of automotive electrification have become a highlight of every auto show, with politicians joining executives to push EVs whether the show is in Detroit, Paris or Beijing. And yet, with a power grid that is said to be upwards of 80 percent coal-powered, China isn’t exactly the ideal candidate for an electric car offensive. China’s BYD F3DM was arguably the world’s first plug-in “on the market,” and yet the Shenzhen-based automaker only found 48 fleet sales last year, and still has yet to report a private sale. Conventional wisdom suggests that most Chinese buy at the lowest end of the market (if they’re lucky enough to afford it), while the “coastal elites” tend to spend their hard-earned profits on vehicles that convey prestige rather than eco-optimism. This is a model the global carmakers know how to work with… so why all the talk of EVs in China?
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