Toyota, Nissan See Big Gains in U.S. in April
Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., Asia’s two biggest automakers, said Tuesday that U.S. sales of cars and trucks increased more than 25% last month, but General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said their sales declined.
Toyota sold 210,466 vehicles last month, up 26% from a year earlier, while Nissan sold 91,621 cars and trucks, a 32% gain. And Honda, fifth in the U.S., raised sales 18% to 135,597 on gains from Accord and Civic cars, the Tokyo-based company’s top-selling models.
By comparison, GM, the world’s largest automaker, said sales of cars and trucks fell 3.9% to 385,939, and Ford’s sales dropped 1.5% to 281,292. DaimlerChrysler sold 225,351 vehicles, up 8.7%.
Gains by Toyota and Nissan were projected to lift U.S. April auto sales to an annual rate of 17 million cars and trucks from 16.6 million a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts and economists. GM and Ford continue to lose market share to the Asian automakers.
“Ford and GM haven’t been able to gain momentum this year, and Chrysler is doing well with new products,” Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with Global Insight in Boston, said in an interview. “We expect the Asian automakers to continue to gain market share overall, taking advantage of Ford and GM’s decline.”
Toyota’s gains were led by higher sales of hybrid Prius cars, which almost tripled to a record 11,345. The cars combine an electric motor with a gasoline engine.
Nissan’s sales were lifted by its new Infiniti M luxury sedan, introduced two months ago, and higher sales of light trucks, said Jed Connelly, Nissan’s North American senior president.
GM’s total sales included an increase of 12% for cars and a decline of 14% for light trucks.
Ford said sales of the mid-size Explorer sport utility vehicle fell 15%, and its large Expedition declined 20%. Sales of the small Escape SUV, which is more fuel-efficient, fell 15%.
The decline in SUV sales offset gains of full-size pickup trucks and some car models. Ford recorded a 1.7% gain in sales of F-Series pickups, the highest-selling line of vehicles in the U.S. The automaker sold 71,367 F-Series trucks last month.
The company also had a 26% gain for Mustang sports cars to 19,559, the highest April sales of the model since 1980.
Chrysler sales rose 3.7% last year as nine new models, including its 300 sedan and the Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle, contributed to the first annual market-share gain in five years.
Further sales declines for Ford and GM would put more pressure on the automakers to reduce costs, cut production and take other steps to avoid losses. Falling U.S. sales led to a first-quarter loss at GM and a 38% decline in profit at Ford.
Shares of each company have decreased more than 33% this year.
Toyota, the world’s second-biggest automaker, is benefiting from the demand for hybrids, Scion small cars and redesigned Avalon sedans and Tacoma pickups.
The company also received a boost from Lexus, the bestselling luxury brand in the U.S. A new Lexus GS sedan went on sale in February, and deliveries of the Lexus RX 400h, a hybrid sport utility vehicle, began April 18.
“They’ve gone into this year with a tremendous amount of momentum, and that continues,” said Jim Sanfilippo, executive vice president of Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc. in Warren, Mich.
