
Nissan North America encountered technical problems and wasn’t able to report November sales last Friday. We now know the nature of the problem: they were still counting deliveries.
Nissan not only set a new November record as a company, both the Nissan and Infiniti brands set their own records. According to estimates from ALG, Nissan accomplished this while trimming incentives.
In addition to setting records, Nissan also pulled US light vehicle sales out of the red and into the black. Prior to the release of Nissan’s November tally, the US total was down about 0.1% compared to November 2016. With Nissan’s 18.1% jump, total deliveries were up by 1.4% to almost 1.4m and the seasonally adjusted annualised sales rate was a respectable 17.53m units, down about 178,000 vehicles from last November.
Nissan wasn’t alone in setting a new record: Porsche enjoyed all-time high 5,555-unit sales last month. American Honda set a new November sales record on a new benchmark set by Honda brand light trucks. Subaru narrowly made it to six consecutive years of year over year monthly records This was the 83rd consecutive monthly sales record for Audi. If they can make it one more month, VW’s largest upscale brand will hit seven consecutive years without a stumble.
Ford reported a sales increase, thanks to robust crossover and SUVs turnover and higher fleet sales. Ford’s utilities posted their best numbers in 16 years and commercial vans had their best November since 1984. About one in four Ford vehicles sold in November went to rental, commercial and government fleets.
FCA had another down month. The story is the same: the company is cutting back on sales to daily rental fleets, which is good, but is hampered by legacy product sell downs, which hurt. The discontinued Jeep Patriot was the key to FCA’s 3.7% miss. Factoring out the Patriot, FCA’s total would show a 1.5% gain. Deliveries of continuing products rose 4.9%.
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By GlobalDataThe strike by General Motors workers at the Ingersoll, Ontario plant that builds the popular Chevrolet Equinox was just one of the problems the General faced last month. Sales were down at all four divisions.
Toyota came up 3% short in November as both brands missed their marks. Adding insult to injury, the Honda Civic is still on track to be the best selling car in the US, ending the Camry’s long run. Toyota can take solace in knowing that the RAV4 will likely be the top performer among non pickups.
Lexus is now third in the premium segment and it looks like Mercedes-Benz will be the winner this year. The runner up spot is still up for grabs with BMW and Lexus running fairly closely.
Hyundai’s reliance on passenger cars continues to weigh on its numbers and Kia is still struggling. The Korean automakers give up 100 basis points of market share in November.
The European brands did well in December. Sales were up almost across the board with the exception of Maserati. Jaguar’s slip was handled by Land Rover and shortfalls at Bentley and Volkswagen brand were more than covered by Audi and Porsche.
While sales were up last month and average transaction prices were forecast to rise to a record US$33,600 (GBP25,117), the cost of getting those sales rose, too. Incentives were predicted to average about $3,692 (GBP2,759) per vehicle sold at retail. Incentive spending was down from October but 4.6% higher than a year ago. Incentives are now accounting for more than 11% of the transaction price and some large automakers are running higher. Kia’s incentives were estimated to be as high as 16.7% of the transaction price.
The car companies should see one more year of 17m+ sales. Another record is a stretch but that kind of turnover volume is still exceptional. 2018 may see deliveries drop down into the 16m range, which is still very solid and a far cry from the days of 2009 and 2010.
* indicates a sales record.
**Volkswagen Group figures include Audi, Bentley, Porsche and Volkswagen brands
Other includes estimated sales for Aston-Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren, Rolls-Royce and Tesla
Source: Manufacturer’s reported sales