August marks yet another strong month of sales for the auto industry.
The biggest movers of August were once again Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., shifting 46 percent and 60 percent, respectively, over its sales performance last year. Following a similar trend to the past number of months, the move is fundamentally attributed to the severely depressed inventory last year from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
In particular, Toyota posted its highest quarterly profit figures in four years, prompting the company to raise its full-year production forecast to a lofty 10.05 million vehicles. Toyota sold 188,520 vehicles in the U.S. market for August, a great improvement over 129,483 last year. Honda sold 131,321 vehicles in August.
Benefiting from a globalized manufacturing network, Nissan recovered from Asia's natural disasters quickly and continues its steady and modest growth. Nissan's U.S. sales rose 8 percent in August to 98,515 vehicles while its Infiniti luxury brand enjoyed a 24 percent boost over the same month.
Growth wasn't limited to Japan as our domestic companies enjoyed solid sales numbers as well. General Motors, Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler Group all proudly reported double-digit sales gains for august.
One of the strongest sales months for the Big Three all year, GM's U.S. numbers rose 10 percent, Chrysler's number rose 14 percent, and Ford's numbers rose 13 percent.
Leading GM's growth was its Buick brand, which improved by 12 percent over the August last year. Following closely behind are Chevrolet and Cadillac, which both managed 11 percent gains. However, growth at GMC was a more modest 3.7 percent.
Just last week, Ford boasted record sales from its Focus compact, which stands to challenge Toyota Corolla for the title of 'best-selling car in the world.' Ford sold 19,053 Focus models in August, a 35 percent jump over the year before. In total, Ford's U.S. sales number rose 13 percent to 196,749 vehicles in August
Chrysler Group continues its remarkable month-over-month double digit growth by posting a 14 percent sales rise to 148,472 vehicles sold in August, its best result since 2007. The Chrysler nameplate rose by 25 percent, reflecting a respectable 10 percent rise in Chrysler 200 sales and a significant 65 percent increase in Chrysler 300 sales. Owner Fiat posted a 34 percent rise in U.S. sales as well.
Sales have been great for European automakers as well. Volkswagen's revised North American-focused lineup has greatly improved its 2012 sales performance. The Volkswagen nameplate sold 41,011 vehicles, up 63 percent from last year. Volkswagen owned Audi sold 11,527, up 13 percent from last year.
Even Sweden's big player Volvo saw great success in august. Volvo is up 21 percent year over year and its popular S60 sedan has sold 2,038 examples, a nice 32 percent increase over last year.
We do not have sales numbers from other major automakers including BMW and Mercedes-Benz at this time. Stay tuned as we reveal the numbers later in the week. Given the increases across the board, expect record breaking sales numbers from BMW and Benz as well.
[Source: WSJ, LeftLaneNews]
