New light car sales figures for the US
Toyota Land Cruiser
American car makers are still losing ground to Japanese and European automakers on their own turf. Recent numbers have shown an increase of 9% in the demand for light vehicles in the US, but the automakers that benefited from this increase were Honda, Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Jaguar Land Rover.
Those companies have shown an increase in their unit sales of up to 45% in the case of Honda, 28% for Volkswagen, 26% for Toyota, while Nissan and Subaru both had a 16% increase and Jaguar Land Rover a 14% increase.
This is in contrast with the Detroit-based carmakers that have seen decreasing sales, General Motors by six percent and Ford by four percent.
As we mentioned at the start, the overall US market rose in July by nine percent, however it was off the pace of the first half of the year when the market rose by 15 percent when compared with the same period in 2011.
However it should be noted that the Chrysler Group – also from Detroit – bucked the trend with its 28th consecutive month of growth in July. Their sales increased by 13 percent thanks to the gains from the Chrysler, Fiat and Ram brands.
The reasons behind this increase in sales is chalked up to pent-up demand, new models, low interest rates and easing credit terms which worked in conjunction with the fact that many consumers are looking to replace their older and less fuel-efficient models.
Quite a few automakers face tough decisions this summer considering the mixed bag of economic signals that they are receiving both from the American as well as from the European financial markets; many see it as something of a turning point for the industry; with the industry facing increased pressure to add more incentives to their models.
