April US light vehicle sales required a careful look: due to three fewer selling days this year, a modest 2.3% volume increase became a more respectable 15.1% increase in daily sales rate (DSR). Either way, the US market racked up its 20th consecutive month of year over year growth.
April’s 1.181m sales translated into a seasonally adjusted annualised rate (SAAR) of 14.42m units, up 1.25m over April 2011 and about 50,000 over March 2012.
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Chrysler led the Detroit automakers with a 35.5% sales increase. The company also increased its market share from 10.1% to 11.9% last month. Car sales were the driving force; 35.1% of pentastar April sales were passenger cars.
Cars were also a big part of General Motors’ April report; this time it was an 8% drop that left the general with an 8.2% volume deficit and just a 3.2% gain in DSR. Every GM division, save GMC, reported shortfalls in April. On the ‘green’ front, the Chevy Volt brought in 1,462 sales, bringing its year to date (YTD) total to 5,377, giving it the easy lead in electric vehicles.
Flagging car sales were also the culprit at Ford. Based on DSR, Ford was up 6.8% but volume fell 5.1% as Fiesta volume fell 43.9%.
The Detroit automakers gave up about 1.5 points of market share mostly to Toyota with the rest going to Volkswagen. Honda was not quite the factor some had expected; shortages of the Fit [Jazz] and CR-V not only led to a small volume deficit, they led to a half-point loss of market share. However, bolstered by fresh marketing and beefed-up incentives, the Accord was back in its traditional position near the top of the best sellers list for April.
Honda was able to reclaim fifth place in the rankings by outselling Nissan whose volume fell primarily due to trimmed incentives and a drop in Altima sales as the company prepares for the redesigned model. Sales of the Leaf electric fell to 370 in April.
Subaru reported record April sales while Mazda YTD sales were up 22.7% adjusted for DSR. Sales fell at Suzuki and Mitsubishi, which reported the largest shortfall of any automaker other than Saab.
Hyundai and Kia reported new April sales records. Kia’s string of consecutive records has reached 20.
Volkswagen finished the month with the largest increase of any major manufacturer. Audi wasn’t far behind with another new monthly sales record. Mercedes has taken the lead in the upscale segment as the German automakers claimed the largest increase in market share in April.
Despite concerns about rising petrol prices, sales of small cars declined in April. The hot vehicles last month were mid-size sedans and small utilities. Prices at the pump are slowly decreasing so it will be interesting to see how this factor plays into consumer vehicle selections.
One thing is clear: February’s 15.18m SAAR was more of a blip than a trend. Industry watchers are reining in their optimism and looking at a 14m to 14.5m sale year in 2012.
