August was another month of strong U.S. sales for a variety of automakers.
Chrysler Group LLC posted gains again this month raising their sales by another 20 percent, driven by high demand for the Ram pickup and Jeep lineup. Demand for both increased by 33 and 49 percent, respectively. The Chrysler brand saw a four percent sales increase. Dodge saw a six percent decrease and Fiat a 20 percent decrease. Despite those declines, this was the group’s best August sales since 2002 and marks the 53rd consecutive month that company sales have increased year over year.
Nissan Group of North America saw a double-digit gain of 11.5 percent, bolstered by increased demand for Nissan-brand vehicles, including the Rogue, Versa and Sentra, leading to an overall 15 percent increase for the namesake brand. However, Nissan’s luxury brand, Infiniti, saw sales fall by 23 percent.
Toyota Motor Corp. sales unexpectedly jumped 6.3 percent after an initial estimate of a 3.3 percent decline, selling over 246,000 vehicles of its Toyota, Lexus, and Scion models in August.
Ford Motor Co. also saw an unexpected jump in sales by 0.4 percent versus the expected 1.2 percent decline. It was the best August for Ford in eight years, mainly led by strong sales of the Fusion and Escape models.
Honda Motor Co. initially expected to post declines also increased its sales by 0.4 percent, mainly due to its record-setting Accord sales of 51,075 units. However, sales fell by nine percent for its luxury brand, Acura.
BMW Group saw a sales increase of 11 percent this month. Fellow German automaker Daimler AG saw sales increase by 12 percent, led by an 11 percent increase in sales of its Mercedes-Benz line and an impressive 22 percent increase in sales of its Smart USA brand.
General Motors saw volume drop by one percent.
Volkswagen Group continued its slump with the Volkswagen brand slipping by 13 percent. However, its luxury brand Audi saw sales increase by 22 percent. The Audi A3 had its best monthly U.S sales tally in company history, selling 17,101 vehicles.
Korean automaker Hyundai saw sales increase by six percent. Kia rose by five percent and Subaru climbed 22 percent.
Mazda increased sales by 11 percent, and Mitsubishi saw sales rise by 29 percent.
Jaguar Land Rover saw its combined sales fall by 15 percent. Jaguar had a particularly bad month with sales decreasing by 31 percent, versus just nine percent for Land Rover.
Overall, the industry recorded its best August in over a decade with vehicle sales topping 1.5 million units. Analysts expect total car sales for the year to reach 16.3 million, the highest number since 2006.
Stay tuned to Tier10lab for the latest in automotive industry news and insights
