Washington: General Motors and Toyota saw rising new car sales in August, riding continued strong demand for SUVs and light trucks, while other carmakers sagged at summer’s end, according to industry figures released yesterday.
Fiat Chrysler and Nissan each saw double-digit declines compared with August of last year, while sales of Ford and Honda also fell.
After record 2016 sales and falling fuel prices, carmakers have struggled to maintain momentum this year.
Overall US vehicle sales retreated 1.9 per cent in August, according to figures from Autodata. Cars sales fell 8.5pc, offsetting the 2.4pc gain in light trucks.
Carmakers were expected to act aggressively to boost sales in the US Gulf Coast region, as it recovers from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.
“Toyota simply beat the snot out of its competitors in August with the compact RAV4 sport utility selling a dazzling 43,000 units,” Autotrader executive analyst Michelle Krebs said in comments released by Cox Automotive.
“It appears Toyota took those sales from Honda, Ford and Nissan.”
GM reported a 7.5pc increase over the same month of last year. Chevrolet’s crossover Traverse model soared 83pc, and the Equinox gained 67pc, while the Silverado LD crew cab pickup jumped 21pc.
The company also boasted of rising sales for its all-electric Chevy Bolt EV hatchback, which GM said had its “strongest sales ever” in the month. Deliveries remained comparatively low, however, at 2,052 cars.
Toyota sold 6.8pc more vehicles, largely due to a 28pc jump in SUVs, and a 21pc rise in
trucks. However, the popular Camry sedan also saw year-on-year gains of 12.7pc.
But amid falling petrol sales, the Prius hybrid suffered 26.4pc decline.
Italian-American car giant Fiat Chrysler reported an 11pc decline in US sales, led by falling fleet sales, part of what the company called a planned reduction in volume.
However, the company highlighted strong sales of Jeep and Dodge brands, with the Jeep Grand Cherokee having its best August since 2000.
“At Jeep, the growth in Compass, Renegade, and Grand Cherokee came at the expense of the Cherokee, which was down 50pc year-over-year,” said Rebecca Lindland, executive analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
Jeep is down 15pc so far in 2017, she added.
Ford saw a 15pc jump in sales of its F-Series pick-ups, but this was not enough to offset an 11.3pc slump in SUVs and an 8.6pc drop in cars.
Overall, Ford saw sales fall 2.1pc in August.
For Honda, the trends were reversed, with truck sales falling 8pc and car sales rising 4.2pc, leaving August’s overall figure for the Japanese carmaker down 2.4pc.
Nissan sales dropped 13pc but its cars segment fell faster than its light trucks.
Electric carmaker Tesla saw sales for the month fall 7.1pc.
Overall, European carmakers had a ho-hum sales month, collectively declining 1.2pc.
Volkswagen’s sales rose 9pc but the German giant’s US market share rose only 0.3 percentage points to 2.2pc, with 32,015 vehicles sold.
BMW and Mercedes, meanwhile, fell 7.7pc and 8.2pc, respectively.