April was the first month of General Motors’ new quarterly reporting schedule, so everyone is estimating sales for GM. Accordingly, we’ve added The General to the ‘Other’ pool on the monthly chart.
April’s total reported and estimated light vehicle deliveries came in at nearly 1.36m cars and light trucks, down roughly 4.8% from April 2017. The seasonally adjusted annualised rate (SAAR) came in at 17.17m, an improvement over last year and the second best rate this year.
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Jeep was not only the big story for Fiat Chrysler, it was one of the big stories of the past month. After a year in the doldrums, the brand has bounced back quite nicely: sales for the first four months of 2018 were 20.9% ahead of last year.
The iconic Wrangler SUV set a new all-time monthly record of 29,776 sales last month. While we don’t know how many Chevrolet Equinoxes, a top-selling crossover, left dealer lots last month, we do know the Wrangler outsold every utility reported except the Toyota RAV4.
Jeep’s resurgence is especially important right now as FCA is having production troubles with the new Ram pickup, a crucial model in the US market.
Ford got stung by slack fleet sales, a factor the company blamed on timing. A small gain in commercial fleet sales was erased by slower rental fleet and government deliveries.
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By GlobalDataFord’s dependence on the F-series pickup is growing. In April, the top-selling pickup accounted for 35.9% of its total turnover and 37.4% of brand sales. In the meantime, almost every one of its utility models is in the red four months into the year.
With the recent announcement of an exit from the mass market sedan business, one might be forgiven for wondering whether anyone in Dearborn has a real plan. Electrification and autonomy are fine for the future and make for great videos but they aren’t bringing customers to dealer lots.
The three major players among the Japanese automakers all took hits in April but none got hit as hard as Nissan. Nissan brand sales took the brunt, falling 29.1% as deliveries of its bread and butter car lines plunged 31.6% and sales of the Rogue [X-Trail] crossover fell 14.8%. Brand volume fell by more than 32,000 vehicles compared to April 2017.
The Koreans were still stuck in a downward trend. Combined sales of Genesis, Hyundai and Kia came up 8.3% short of matching their previous year’s numbers and they were down to less than 8% of the total new vehicle market.
The European automakers fared best of the major groups with everyone except Maserati in the black.
A nice bump in deliveries of the Mini Countryman added to BMW’s April gain. Jaguar sales were off but Land Rover turnover rose 23.7% to a best ever April and lifted the combined brands into positive territory.
The Volkswagen brand paced the group’s results last month even as Porsche reported a record sales month besting the mark set last November by 15 deliveries. Audi and Subaru each logged another of their long string of sales gains.
Volvo sales rose 17% on sales of the new XC40 and a continued solid performance from the XC60.
The soft landing continues but there are some yellow flags ahead. Petrol prices continue to rise and the predictions call for summer pump prices to be the highest since 2014. Prices would still be well short of the records set a few years back and shouldn’t make a significant difference in total light vehicle volume. However, if they persist, we might see a larger shift, not back to cars, but to smaller crossovers and other utilities.
See also: Nissan’s US April plunge shocks analysts – report
* indicates a sales record.
**Volkswagen Group figures include Audi, Bentley, Porsche and Volkswagen brands
Other includes estimated sales for Aston-Martin, Ferrari, General Motors, Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren, Rolls-Royce and Tesla
