On Tuesday, U.S. carmakers reported September sales figures that surpassed analysts' expectations. U.S. auto sales for September surged 6.1% on a year-over-year basis to 1.52 million units, marking the best month so far in fiscal 2017. Following Hurricane Harvey, there was a huge replacement demand for flood-damaged vehicles, boosting sales for the month.
Performance of U.S. automakers
General Motors Co. (GM, Financial) witnessed 12% sales growth in September to 279,397 units. The sales gain was attributable to solid sales of Chevrolet (up 17% year over year), GMC (up 9%) and Cadillac (up 1%). In contrast, Buick sales declined 20%. Thrilling performance of crossovers and pickup trucks compensated for an 11% decline in passenger car sales. The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker will enter the fourth quarter with confidence after reporting solid numbers in September.
Ford Motor Co.’s (F, Financial) September sales totaled 222,248 vehicles, up 8.7% from the year-ago period. Fleet and retail sales climbed 25.1% and 4.4% respectively. F-Series pickup trucks experienced 21.4% sales improvement on a year-over-year basis with 82,302 trucks sold. The combined sales of Explorer, Sport and SportTrac SUVs spiked 10.8%. Trucks and SUVs constituted the core of the company’s sales with respective sales growth of 19.9% and 1.8%.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NVÂ (FCAU, Financial) was the only U.S. automaker to report sales decline for the month. Chrysler’s sales plummeted 10.1% to 192, 883 vehicles. The company’s most popular brand, Jeep, witnessed a 4% sales drop as compared with August 2016. Other brands did not fare well either. Chrysler, Fiat and Dodge suffered 16%, 24% and 30% sales declines during the month. Although the company’s new Jeep Compass continues to impress with high volume sales, it was not enough to offset the overall sales decline.
Performance of other automakers
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM, Financial) sold 226,632 vehicles in September, up nearly 15% year over year. The company benefited from impressive sales of Toyota brand (up approximately 17%) and Lexus brand (up 1.5%). The popular RAV4 SUV’s sales skyrocketed 44% to 42,395 units.
Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (NSANY, Financial) sold 139,932 vehicles in September, up 9.5% from the year-ago period. Sales of the company’s most popular model, the Rogue crossover, increased 47% year over year to 38,969 units. The company’s namesake brand climbed 9%. On the other hand, Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s (HMC, Financial) sales notched up 7% to 142,722 units.
Last word
Having witnessed a 3% sales decline in the first eight months of the year, a solid September gives the industry hope of finishing the year on a higher note after several months of year-over-year sales declines. Pickup trucks remained the highlight for the month as sales improved twice the rate of the industry. Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Autotrader, said:
“September was the month the U.S. auto industry had been hoping for. Vehicle sales surpassed forecasts, thanks to a strengthening economy, August sales disrupted by and replacement demand created by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and attractive model-year-end deals.”
According to Autodata Corp., the seasonally adjusted annualized rate stood at 18.57 million in September versus 17.72 million units from the same period last year. Much of September’s gain came from the replacement demand in the state of Texas. The impact of Hurricane Harvey is expected to continue until at least November. Stay tuned for October numbers.
Disclosure: I do not hold any positions in the stocks mentioned in this article.
