After managing to eke out its first sales increase of the year in May, the US market was back to where it had spend every other month in 2019 – firmly, if not deeply in the red. This time, this meant a sales decline of 2.2% compared to June’19, perfectly in line with the 2.3% YTD sales decline. That said, many in the market remain optimistic sales will pick up later in the year, especially if interest rates are once again lowered, reducing the cost of auto financing.
Highlights:
- Mainstream brands saw their sales decline by 3.4%, slightly worse than the YTD average of 2.9%, while luxury brands saw their sales grow by a sturdy 6.9%, considerably better than their 2.2% YTD average
- Four out of the Top 10 brands registered positive sales growth in June, a fall on the six brands who registered positive growth in May
- Remarkably, the Top 6 brands all saw their sales fall, with the Top 3 registering sales declines roughly in line with their single-digit YTD sales declines
- The “slow but steady” experience of the Top 3 contrasts with the experience of brands ranked 4th through 6th: Honda (4th) and Jeep (6th) both had another bad month, pushing their YTD sales growth further into the red, while Nissan (5th) slid back into almost-20% sales decline after two months of promising sales increases
- As though mocking the brands immediately above it, Ram registered growth of over 45%, the highest month-on-month growth rate in its short history, and almost topping the June’19 sales figure of its sister brand Jeep in the process, and putting it within 200 cars of the YTD figure for 8th-place Hyundai
- Brands ranked 8th through 10th, Hyundai, Subaru and Kia, all managed to register positive sales growth, contributing to their mildly positive YTD sales figure for the first half of the year
- Compared to the relatively poor performance of the mainstream brands in the Top 10, mainstream brands outside the Top 10 had a reasonable month, either registering growth in the high single digits (GMC*, VW, and Buick*), or low double digits (Mitsubishi, with sales recovering from two months of serious sales declines)
- None of the remaining mainstream brands’ sales declines were particularly surprising, although the fact that Chrysler saw its sales fall by just 4.0% must count as a good month, given its sales decline of over a quarter so far this year
- Among the top luxury brands BMW and Mercedes-Benz both registered positive growth, with the former placing ahead thanks to its good 7.5% sales increase, but both barely stayed ahead of Tesla*, whose sales once again broke through the 25,000 level
- By contrast, both Lexus and Audi registered mild sales declines, while registered a mild sales increase
- Further down, Acura had another bad month, with the 16.4% sales decline almost erasing its YTD sales increase, while Infiniti, Lincoln and Land Rover all saw sales declines in the high single digits
- Genesis once again saw sales more than double on this month last year, although it fell 5 cars (!) short of outselling Jaguar this time around (although that’s hardly good news for the British brand, which after a remarkable growth earlier this year seems to be sliding into the red once again)
Brand ranking
| aRank | Brand | Jun’19a | Jun’18a | Changea | YTD Rank | 2019aa | 2018aa | Changea |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a1 | Ford | 209,922aa | 220,003aa |  -4.6% |
a1 | 1,180,539aa | 1,221,445aa | -3.3% |
| a2 | Toyota | 179,305aa | 185,851aa | -3.5% |
a2 | 1,016,373aa | 1,054,309aa | -3.6% |
| a3 | Chevrolet* | 166,004aa | 178,314aa | -6.9% |
a3 | 935,445aa | 1,015,804aa | -7.9% |
a4 ( 1) |
Honda | 123,753aa | 132,031aa | -6.3% |
a4 | 703,228aa | 715,171aa | -1.7% |
| a5 (1) |
Nissan | 113,665aa | 134,398aa | -15.4% |
a5 | 653,978aa | 708,525aa | -7.7% |
| a6 | Jeep | 76,826aa | 86,989aa | -11.7% |
a6 | 456,281aa | 495,022aa | -7.8% |
| a7 (3) |
Ram | 75,227aa | 51,729aa | 45.4% |
a9 (2) |
333,168aa | 260,341aa | 28.0% |
| a8 (1) |
Hyundai | 64,202aa | 63,256aa | 1.5% |
a8 (1) |
333,328aa | 327,786aa | 1.7% |
| a9 (1) |
Subaru | 61,511aa | 59,841aa | 2.8% |
a7 (1) |
339,525aa | 322,860aa | 5.2% |
| b10 (1) |
Kia | 56,801aa | 56,571aa | 0.4% |
b10 (1) |
304,844aa | 293,563aa | 3.8% |
| b11 | GMC* | 51,739aa | 48,420aa | 6.9% |
b11 (1) |
277,277aa | 269,799aa | 2.8% |
| b12 | Dodge | 38,561aa | 46,387aa | -16.9% |
b12 | 228,099aa | 250,933aa | -9.1% |
| b13 (2) |
VW | 31,725aa | 28,941aa | 9.6% |
b13 (1) |
184,608aa | 172,898aa | 6.8% |
| b14 (1) |
BMW | 31,627aa | 29,407aa | 7.5% |
b15 (1) |
156,440aa | 153,386aa | 2.0% |
| b15 (1) |
Mercedes-Benz | 29,201aa | 28,999aa | 0.7% |
b14 (1) |
163,421aa | 175,758aa | -7.0% |
| b16 (7) |
Tesla** | 25,700aa | 11,202aa | 129.4% |
b20 (8) |
84,575aa | 44,177aa | 91.4% |
| b17 | Lexus | 23,047aa | 23,750aa | -3.0% |
b17 | 135,735aa | 135,000aa | 0.5% |
| b18 (2) |
Mazda | 22,828aa | 26,893aa | -15.1% |
b16 (1) |
138,555aa | 163,924aa | -15.5% |
| b19 (1) |
Audi | 19,409aa | 19,471aa | -0.3% |
b19 | 101,440aa | 107,942aa | -6.0% |
| b20 (1) |
Buick* | 18,885aa | 17,485aa | 8.0% |
b18 | 107,237aa | 110,730aa | -3.2% |
| b21 (1) |
Cadillac* | 13,528aa | 12,757aa | 6.0% |
b21 | 75,660aa | 77,576aa | -2.5% |
| b22 (1) |
Chrysler | 12,941aa | 13,484aa | -4.0% |
b24 (4) |
64,422aa | 88,630aa | -27.3% |
| b23 (1) |
Mitsubishi | 12,317aa | 11,149aa | 10.5% |
b23 (1) |
71,097aa | 67,327aa | 5.6% |
| b24 (4) |
Acura | 12,148aa | 14,532aa | -16.4% |
b22 | 73,767aa | 72,653aa | 1.5% |
| b25 (1) |
Volvo | 9,934aa | 9,868aa | 0.7% |
b27 (1) |
50,120aa | 47,622aa | 5.2% |
| b26 (1) |
Infiniti | 9,839aa | 10,698aa | -8.0% |
b25 (2) |
63,058aa | 72,170aa | -12.6% |
| b27 | Lincoln | 8,769aa | 9,534aa | -8.0% |
b26 (1) |
50,915aa | 50,269aa | 1.3% |
| b28 | Land Rover | 6,593aa | 6,982aa | -5.6% |
b28 (1) |
46,123aa | 44,779aa | 3.0% |
| b29 | Porsche | 5,205aa | 4,892aa | 6.4% |
b29 | 30,257aa | 29,421aa | 2.8% |
| b30 | Mini | 3,235aa | 4,146aa | -22.0% |
b30 | 17,583aa | 22,636aa | -22.3% |
| b31 | Jaguar | 1,892aa | 2,353aa | -19.6% |
b31 | 16,282aa | 14,787aa | 10.1% |
| b32 (3) |
Genesis | 1,887aa | 796aa | 137.1% |
b32 (2) |
10,007aa | 7,262aa | 37.8% |
| b33 (1) |
Alfa Romeo | 1,595aa | 2,249aa | -29.1% |
b33 (1) |
9,037aa | 12,265aa | -26.3% |
| b34 (1) |
Fiat | 933aa | 1,426aa | -34.6% |
b35 (2) |
5,103aa | 8,285aa | -38.4% |
| b35 (1) |
Maserati* | 925aa | 950aa | -2.6% |
b34 (1) |
5,550aa | 5,563aa | -0.2% |
| b36 (2) |
Lamborghini* | 232aa | 125aa | 85.6% |
b36 (1) |
1,392aa | 750aa | 85.6% |
| b37 (2) |
McLaren* | 180aa | 116aa | 55.2% |
b37 (1) |
1,206aa | 680aa | 77.4% |
| b38 (2) |
Bentley* | 169aa | 165aa | 2.4% |
b38 (2) |
1,014aa | 982aa | 3.3% |
| b39 (1) |
Rolls-Royce* | 110aa | 108aa | 1.9% |
b39 (1) |
660aa | 647aa | 2.0% |
| b40 (3) |
Smart | 74aa | 126aa | -41.3% |
b40 (1) |
496aa | 650aa | -23.7% |
* Estimate