2011 Sales Recap

Total car and light truck sales as a whole went up  about 10% in 2011 compared to 2010, an increase of over a million extra sales compared to last year bringing the grand total to just shy of 12.8 million. While the industry posted higher sales on average, 2011 will certainly be remembered for the lost market share of traditional powerhouses Toyota and Honda along with their respective luxury divisions. Natural disasters in Japan and Thailand reduced inventory for both Honda and Toyota and thus hurting sales, but ever stronger competition played a role as well. In the end Lexus was the biggest loser as it sales shrunk by 13.4% while Honda and Acura saw loses of around 6%. Both manufacturers should easily top 2011 sales in 2012 but new products for both manufacturers will be vital to improve upon 2010 sales level. At the other end of the spectrum Jeep posted incredible sales improvements over the entire year on its way to a 44% improvement. Kia and Hyundai continued to gain market share with improvements of 36 and 20 per cent while Volkswagen posted a 26.3 per cent improvement thanks to its "Americanized" Jetta and Passat models.

2011 also marked the first full year of mainstream electric transportation available for sale as the all electric Nissan LEAF found 9,674 customers while the range extending Chevrolet Volt enticed 7,671 buyers. While the Volt sold less for the year it has been outselling the LEAF the last few months winning December 1,529 versus 954 for the LEAF. We'll see how far electric vehicles will increase their market share in 2012 with new arrivals such as the Ford Focus.

Taking advantage of retreating Lexus sales throughout the year Mercedes and BMW are both withholding their official sales figures in a bit of election style "too close to call" race for the number one luxury spot. Don't expect things to be Iowa close but stay tuned for updated results tomorrow once Mercedes and BMW both officially announce their figures.

October 2011 Sales Recap

Featuring best monthly sales since February, October was another month showing that the auto industry in America is in recovery mode. Leading the pack was Volkswagen with a tremendous 39.6% increase in sales thanks to its new American built Passat. October Passat sales were the best of any month since 2005. Posting a surprise improvement was Mazda with a 37.4% improvement over last October. Doing well again was Chrysler with a 28% improvement while Dodge had a 23.2% improvement, just ahead of Hyundai at 22.8%. Leading the luxury category was Bentley with a 35% improvement, albeit that's only 42 extra sales. Aside from Bentley Audi and Mercedes-Benz had great months as well with improvement of 25.8 and 23.4% respectively. On the other side of the spectrum Honda and Toyota and their respective luxury divisions continued their sale slides while all GM brands save Chevrolet saw their sales drop compared to a year ago.

October marked only the second time in its existence that the Chevy Volt (1,108) outsold the Nissan LEAF (849).

May 2011 Sales Recap

May 2011 delivered a mixed bag for the auto industry with some brands continuing their exceptional sales pace while others experienced heavy loses. Overall combined sales by all automakers fell nearly four percent compared to last year because of limited supply, higher gas prices and lower discounts. May was the first time this year the auto industry could not improve upon last year's sales. Japanese manufacturers carried the burden with the most significant supply limitation and thus experienced the largest drops in May with Toyota seeing a 32% drop and Lexus falling nearly 45%. Honda and Acura also saw sales drops of over 20% while Subaru and Infiniti posted double digit declines as well. Continued higher gas prices saw domestic manufacturers post modest gains for the month, powered by exceptional Jeep sales the Chrysler group did outsell Toyota to regain the number three sales rank in the country. Continuing their surging sales Hyundai and Kia combined to outsell Honda and Nissan thanks to improvements of 20.7 and 53.4% over the past year. Doing well also were luxury automakers with Bentley, Porsche, Jaguar, BMW and Audi experiencing significant sales improvements. Take a look at the chart below to see how all of the brands did in May.

A couple of days ago a Nissan Leaf commercial mocking the Chevy Volt debuted on You Tube, while the commercial probably had little effect on Leaf sales just yet (set to run on TV starting June 10) the Leaf did fine on its own posting its best sales yet of 1,142. While the Leaf is still selling relatively low numbers overall (lower than the Porsche Cayenne) it nearly doubled its April sales while Chevy sold only 481 Volts, slightly fewer than in April. All in all Chevy has sold 2,184 Volts in 2011 to Nissan's 2,167 Leafs.

March 2011 Sales Overview

While the overall sales pace slowed down slightly in March compared to February (13.1 million SAAR vs. 13.4 in February) numerous brands posted their strongest sales ever. Hyundai, Nissan and Kia all reported best monthly sales in history while Audi, Mercedes, and Porsche reported best March sales in recent history. Subaru recorded its second best month ever, powered by newly released models the Chrysler group saw best sales in three years while Volkswagen reported best sales in 7 years on a near two-fold increase in Jetta sales. March was also a special month for Ford (up 28.2%) as it outsold General Motors for the first time since February 2010. Among major manufacturers only Toyota posted a sales decline (-6.6) while its luxury division Lexus was nearly flat. On the luxury front Porsche, Land Rover, Audi, Infiniti, and BMW had double digit sales growth.

In the electric mobility front increased availability resulted in a sharp surge of Volt and Leaf sales. The Chevrolet Volt posted sales of 608 units while Nissan sold 298 Leafs.

For the time being it appears that neither high gas prices nor plant closures in Japan have affected US sales, stay tuned next month to see if the current trend continues.

February 2011 Sales Recap

With gas prices surging upwards the conventional thinking would have car sales falling, yet the complete opposite was true in February. As a whole the auto industry recorded a 27% improvement over February of 2010 and posted a 13.4 million sales pace for the year. The best performing brands all posted unheard of improvements of over 70% compared to last year. Fueled by an almost doubling of pickup sales the Ram sub-brand posted an 81% increase in sales. As a whole Dodge was up 22%. February was an exceptionally strong month for General Motors. Its luxury oriented Buick brand was up 73% while Cadillac up by 70%. Chevrolet was up 43% to lead the biggest sellers with Toyota right behind with a 41.8% improvement. Toyota's luxury division Lexus did not fair as well only managing a 0.2% improvement. Of the remaining mainstream brands only Lincoln and Chrysler posted declines for the month. It will be interesting to see how the sales trend progresses over the next few months and if the rising fuel prices take a toll on sales.

As before Kill With Fire will continue to monitor sales of electric vehicles, Chevrolet sold 281 Volts and Nissan delivered 67 Leafs to customers.