For the whole industry, the average projection was for a 17.5 million annualized selling rate for the month, adjusted for seasonal trends.
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Sales last month rose 3.6 per cent to an annual rate of 17.4 million.
GM’s joint venture partner, SAIC Motor, said in an exchange filing Thursday that its sales increased 6.9 percent year-on-year in April.
In fact, the shares for both General Motors and Ford have dropped by 1 percent, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plummeted to more than 2 percent.
Let’s get some of the details out in the open. Ford’s sales increased 3.6% to 229,739 light vehicles, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV volume rose 5.6% on the strength of the Jeep brand.
Ford and GM, like other auto makers in China, continue to benefit from surging demand for pricier crossovers and sport-utility vehicles and a new tax subsidy adopted previous year for smaller-engine vehicles. Ford’s gross stock of inventory rose from March’s 80 days’ supply level to 83 days’ supply at the end of April.
Ford saw Explorer sales rise 22 percent.
Not all fleet sales are bad business. On the brand side, the Jeep brand continues to set records with its best April sales ever.
According to the company, robust sales for F-150 elevated strong performance of F-series sales, which rose 13% to 70,774 trucks sold.
Overall, GM retail sales were up nine percent over the past 12 months, more than double the industry’s four percent gain. Elantra sales were down 44 percent while the Sonata was off 15 percent. In March Ford sold 73,884 F-Series trucks, following a February sales total of 60,697. Retail sales also grew 3 percent, driving the company’s best April retail results since 2006. It was FCA US LLC’s best April since 2005.
Auto sales have been boosted by a number of factors: low gas prices, more jobs and loose lending standards, among them.
Analysts expect USA sales of new cars and trucks to be up 4 percent over last April when companies are done reporting figures on Tuesday.
The average transaction price of Ford brand jumped by $1,500 compared to past year, and is twice more than the industry-average increase of $700.
Nissan Group sales climbed 13 percent in the month as mainstream Nissan brand sold 14 percent more vehicles (113,429) than a year ago, and Infiniti sales rose 4.5 percent to 10,432.
Automakers typically have at least one surprising piece of data, and Ford’s April didn’t disappoint. Lincoln brand SUV sales jumped by 53% in the recently ended month to a total of 6,985 units delivered, mainly driven by 94% sales hike in Lincoln MKX. The Street had expected the automaker to report a sales jump of 4.3% in April. Sales of the Chevrolet Volt extended range plug-in electric auto, more than doubled to 1,983.
According to Wards Auto, which provides data used by the United States government for economic analysis, annualized sales were 17.32 million vehicles.
The industry specialist said that “2016 is on track to shatter last year’s full-year record of 17.5 million sales”.
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Ultimately, this was just another solid month of sales from Detroit’s second-largest automaker, which should come as no surprise since Ford just posted its most profitable quarter ever.
