Even without the Labour Day weekend, which went to August sales this year, September offered further proof the US light vehicle market remains robust.
Industry sales were up 9.4% year on year to 1,245,786 units, translating to a seasonally adjusted annualised rate of 16.43m cars and light trucks. That’s over 1m sales ahead of September 2013 but down 1.1m from August’s torrid pace.
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Light trucks claimed 53.4% of total sales, significantly more than the 50.1% share last September. Crossovers are still the major factor in the growth but sales of American-brand full-size trucks, such as the Ram pickup and Chevrolet Suburban, also outpaced industry growth by a comfortable margin.
In spite of a shortfall at Ford, the Detroit automakers had a good month. Sales of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors vehicles rose 11.3% and market share rose 0.8 points to a 46% share.
The big new is General Motors’ September 19.4% surge, the highest growth of any of the major automakers. The jump was driven primarily by light truck volumes, up 28%, accompanied by a 30% jump in fleet sales, including a 46% increase in commercial van sales. With the sell-down of inventories of Ford’s bestselling Econoline [replaced by the Transit], GM’s Express and Savanna are the last traditional American-style full-size vans on the market.
GM’s full-size pickups and large SUVs turned in impressive numbers: Silverado sales rose 54.4% and the average gain for GM’s Suburban, Tahoe and Yukon was 37.4%. The bean counters at the Renaissance Center are no doubt celebrating as these are among GM’s most profit-laden products.
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By GlobalDataGM’s new mid-size Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon mid-size pickups made their debut in September. The new trucks are nice, drive well and are very feature-competitive with existing offerings in this segment but it remains to be seen whether there’s room in the segment for more players or if the new GM trucks can drive expansion in the market.
Chrysler posted its 54th consecutive month of sales growth by delivering more light vehicles than Toyota and taking the third spot in the rankings for the month. Chrysler truck sales rose 29.7%, accounting for 76.8% of total sales, the highest September percentage in at least 15 years. Jeep was again the big winner, followed by Ram. Chrysler brand sales increased thanks to double-digit improvements from the 200 sedan and the Town & Country minivan.
Ford was one of the few automakers to miss its mark. Soft car sales and transitions from the old F-series to the new pickups and from the bestselling E-Series van to the new Transit bore much of the blame, as did weak sales of continuing Lincoln models.
With the nearly simultaneous changes to the F-series, which accounts for roughly 30% of Ford’s sales, the shift to the Euro-styled Transit and the dropping of the V8 from the Expedition, Ford is rolling the dice as if it was in Las Vegas instead of Dearborn.
Nissan North America enjoyed another good month with both cars and light trucks contributing to the 18.5% increase.
Mercedes-Benz came storming back in September, easily taking the top spot in the premium segment while setting a new September sales record. BMW was the month’s runner-up with Lexus dropping back to third.
Other records were set by Audi, Maserati and Subaru.
Several industry watchers have raised their full-year forecasts to 16.4m sales or better which is in line with the current trends. Should the fourth quarter follow the trends of the past four years, 5% growth or 16.4m to 16.45m deliveries looks to be a fair estimate.
| Manufacturer | SEP 14 | SEP 13 | Volume Change | Daily Sales Rate Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrysler Group | 169890 | 143017 | 18.8% | 13.8% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 179518 | 184452 | -2.7% | -6.7% |
| General Motors Co. | 223437 | 187195 | 19.4% | 14.4% |
| Detroit Total | 572845 | 514664 | 11.3% | 6.7% |
| American Honda | 118223 | 105563 | 12% | 7.3% |
| Mazda North America | 23890 | 22464 | 6.3% | 1.9% |
| Mitsubishi | 5558 | 4001 | 38.9% | 33.1% |
| Nissan North America | 102955 | 86868 | 18.5% | 13.6% |
| Subaru* | 41517 | 31755 | 30.7% | 25.3% |
| American Suzuki | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A |
| Toyota Motor Sales* | 167279 | 164457 | 1.7% | -2.5% |
| Japan Total | 459422 | 415108 | 10.7% | 6.1% |
| Hyundai | 56010 | 55102 | 1.6% | -2.6% |
| Kia | 40628 | 38003 | 6.9% | 2.5% |
| Korea Total | 96638 | 93105 | 3.8% | -0.5% |
| BMW North America | 29805 | 28874 | 3.2% | -1.1% |
| Daimler AG* | 30271 | 27476 | 10.2% | 5.6% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 4248 | 4700 | -9.6% | -13.4% |
| Maserati North America* | 1318 | 379 | 247.8% | 233.3% |
| Volkswagen Group** | 44815 | 48389 | -7.4% | -11.2% |
| Volvo Cars North America | 4667 | 4188 | 11.4% | 6.8% |
| Other (est.) | 1757 | 1495 | 17.5% | 12.6% |
| Europe Total | 116881 | 115501 | 1.2% | -3% |
| Total Light Vehicles | 1245786 | 1138378 | 9.4% | 4.9% |
| Manufacturer | Market Share SEP 14 | Market Share SEP 13 | Calendar Year-To-Date 2014 | Calendar Year-To-Date 2013 | Volume Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrysler Group | 13.6% | 12.6% | 1556059 | 1357003 | 14.7% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 14.4% | 16.2% | 1877715 | 1887672 | -0.5% |
| General Motors Co. | 17.9% | 16.4% | 2207888 | 2117459 | 4.3% |
| Detroit Total | 46% | 45.2% | 5641662 | 5362134 | 5.2% |
| American Honda | 9.5% | 9.3% | 1160605 | 1159012 | 0.1% |
| Mazda North America | 1.9% | 2% | 240953 | 220490 | 9.3% |
| Mitsubishi | 0.4% | 0.4% | 58365 | 44981 | 29.8% |
| Nissan North America | 8.3% | 7.6% | 1063272 | 941116 | 13% |
| Subaru* | 3.3% | 2.8% | 375485 | 313407 | 19.8% |
| American Suzuki | 0% | 0% | 0 | 5946 | -100% |
| Toyota Motor Sales* | 13.4% | 14.4% | 1794788 | 1698179 | 5.7% |
| Japan Total | 36.9% | 36.5% | 4693468 | 4383131 | 7.1% |
| Hyundai | 4.5% | 4.8% | 557458 | 548218 | 1.7% |
| Kia | 3.3% | 3.3% | 445017 | 416383 | 6.9% |
| Korea Total | 7.8% | 8.2% | 1002475 | 964601 | 3.9% |
| BMW North America | 2.4% | 2.5% | 275779 | 262200 | 5.2% |
| Daimler AG* | 2.4% | 2.4% | 259076 | 236953 | 9.3% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 0.3% | 0.4% | 50254 | 47806 | 5.1% |
| Maserati North America* | 0.1% | 0% | 9125 | 2241 | 307.2% |
| Volkswagen Group** | 3.6% | 4.3% | 439740 | 463168 | -5.1% |
| Volvo Cars North America | 0.4% | 0.4% | 43851 | 48193 | -9% |
| Other (est.) | 0.1% | 0.1% | 21425 | 19910 | 7.6% |
| Europe Total | 9.4% | 10.1% | 1099250 | 1080471 | 1.7% |
| Total Light Vehicles | 100% | 100% | 12436855 | 11790337 | 5.5% |
