June was a strong month for domestic and most import auto sales, but with the Japanese industry still hobbled by the March earthquake, the “Detroit Three” led with a 50.2 percent majority of light vehicle sales making this their first time to do so since August 2009.
General Motors reported a 16-percent year-over-year increase in retail sales, finishing the first half of 2011 having sold 192,056 more units than in June 2010 and allowing it to net an 11-percent overall sales increase.
GM’s June retail sales were up 4 percent overall compared to May, with the biggest boost coming from the Chevy Volt’s ICE cousin, the Cruze, which out-distanced the previous Cobalt it replaced by 153 percent, and beat the usual sales leader, the Toyota Camry, as top seller.
The Volt, with the Detroit-Hamtramck plant still closed for upgrades, sold 561 units, for a year-to-date total of 2,745 units.
With the Volt’s assembly plant closed, dealers reported 561 units sold in June.
Not that we are sure it is really a race, but the car most media compare the Volt to, the Nissan LEAF, sold 1,708 units in June, giving it a total of 3,875 for the year.
Both manufacturers have said they will each sell 10,000 units this, the inaugural year for these electric cars. Despite headlines saying the LEAF is winning, we see no reason that either company will not achieve its conservative goal.
Market snapshot
(Numbers based on press releases by respective manufacturers.)
As mentioned, General Motors’ sales were buoyed by an overall rising market in June for domestic and most foreign-based manufacturers.
For year-over-year June sales, Ford was up by 14 percent, and Chrysler Group LLC was up by 30 percent, which, now partnered with Fiat, said this was its best sales performance since 2007.
As for major import brands, Audi USA was up by 16.9 percent in June, and recorded its best all-time sales of any quarter in the brand’s history. BMW Group was up by 12.8 percent, Hyundai USA by 16 percent for the month.
Mercedes-Benz USA reported its best June on record with sales at 18.8 percent, Mazda USA was up by 5.8 percent, and Nissan North America by 11.4 percent.
Notable June winners aside from Chrysler, were Volkswagen of America, up 35 percent, and reported as the company’s best June and best first-half year since June 2002, and Kia USA trumping all at 41.2 percent reported year-over-year sales for June. The company said this was the best quarter in Kia’s history.
Suffering in the aftermath of the March disaster in Japan were Toyota Motor Sales, down 24.1 percent (alternately reported by the Detroit News as -21.1 percent) in June, and American Honda, down 24.5 percent (alternately reported by Autodata at -21.3 percent).
In all, it was a strong month for automobile sales, except for those automakers most affected by the natural disaster in Japan.
GM’s strengths
GM reported also a 15-percent overall increase for full-size pickup sales in June compared to May. Retail pickup sales were up 20 percent over May.
Despite increases in not-as-efficient light trucks, the big news for GM was robust sales for crossovers and automobiles, particularly Chevrolet brand.
Among crossovers, the 32 MPG highway-rated GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox compact crossovers saw a combined retail sales increase of 78 percent during the month. Overall GM passenger car and crossover retail sales also rose substantially, up 33 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
Among Chevrolet cars, the Malibu continued to do well, as did its new fuel sipper, the Cruze. Both were among the top 10 best-selling in the industry in May, when the Cruze was also the best-selling compact car in the United States.
“Chevrolet has always been known for building great trucks,” said Alan Batey, U.S. vice president, Chevrolet Sales and Service. “Today, we are in the middle of transforming the brand with a strong lineup of cars that match the appeal of our trucks and crossovers.
Sales to commercial accounts rose 31 percent – the 15th consecutive month of commercial sales gains. Fleet deliveries accounted for 27 percent of GM’s total sales for the month.
Month-end GM dealer inventory in the U.S was about 605,000 units, up about 21,000 units compared to May and about 168,000 units higher than June 2010.
GM’s stock price closed up 0.22 (0.72 percent) on Friday July, 1.
Another Winner
June was also a good month for GM-Volt forum member flmark, who won our create-a-caption contest. As readers know, the caption was in response to Nissan’s LEAF advertisement for the pictured Chevrolet Volt owner. Nissan portrayed the Volt owner as sort of a loser, but Nissan has been reported as misrepresenting the true picture.
Winning caption: “Dear Chevy Volt Owners, Please be courteous and buy a gallon of gas a couple times a year if you desire to continue to use our facilities to clean your windshields. Thank you, The Management.” – flmark
This contest offered a Chevrolet Volt die-cast for the caption winning the most reader votes.
I believe flmark has my e-mail address, and he will need to contact me with a shipping address for his prize.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated – and Happy Independence Day!
Our GM-Volt contest winner will be sent a sealed box and car like this.
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Sources (Note all automakers’ mentioned are linked.) Also, GM, Detroit News, GM.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 4th, 2011 at 5:55 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
+8
Jul 4th, 2011 (6:11 am)I love the new die cast model. Unlike my other one which looks like the concept. I wonder where I can get one. Oh well flmark it is surely not as nice as the real Volt #1506 I drive to work every day. Happy 4th to all my firends on GM-Volt.com.
Thank You to all of our boys in uniform as they place themselves in harms way to insure the flow of petroleum to all who are still using so much of it.
To all the vets on our nations birthday, I am so glad you made it home alive.
Take Care,
TED
+1
Jul 4th, 2011 (7:46 am)Where can one buy a die cast Volt like in the picture? How much?
Happy Independance Day to all!
+2
Jul 4th, 2011 (8:18 am)Compared with the sales figures for the EV-1, the Volt is a smashing success with its year-to-date total of 2,745 units. Here are the EV-1 production numbers from Wikipedia.
Production 1996-1999 (1,117 units)
1997 Model Year: 660 Gen I units
1999 Model Year: 457 Gen II units
Congratulations to flmark for winning the contest. May everyone enjoy a safe and happy 4th of July!
+2
Jul 4th, 2011 (8:33 am)At Chevymall.com:
http://www.chevymall.com/Volt-2011-Die-Cast-118-Scale/productinfo/JS128/
Item Number: JS128 – Unit Price: $59.95 + shipping.
Read about it at the forum:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?6608-Volts-on-sale-for-only-59.95
It is very detailed. See comment #13.
And Happy Independance Day to all (who celebrate it on the 4th of July)!
Jul 4th, 2011 (8:39 am)Boy, I find this confusing. I think all these numbers are base on unit sales (not $).
So there are retail sales, sales to rental companies (generally no profit) and fleet sales. So that is how total GM sales increased 11% and retail sales increased 16%.
Ford up 14% and Chrysler up 30%, both significantly better than GM’s 11%. With most of the industry reporting large increases from BMW’s 12.8% to Kia’s 41.2%. It would seem that GM has lost significant market share and in fact the ONLY companies with less than 11% increase are the Japanese companies damaged by the earthquake. It is pretty clear that GM only managed to squeak out a gain because of the disaster in Japan. I count myself as a GM fan, and consider this grim news. It is nice to see that GM made gains, but they must do a lot better as increased market share is the most important metric, and when the Japanese companies recover GM will be in big trouble unless GM can dramatically improve its image.
I think there are still many GM haters out there for 4 reasons. Mainly poor quality cars prior to about 2000 and GM needs to convince the public that their quality has improved (and continues to improve). Ford ads stress quality all the time. Secondly, bad dealers. It only takes a few bad dealers to destroy the image of all dealers. There are only a few, but some are unscrupulous in sales and service. GM needs to identify these dealers and figure out how to dump them. Third, share holders lost money and fourth a lot dislike the fact that GM was bailed out by the government. Not a whole lot can be done about these, but I felt that share holders who could prove losses should have been offered discounted new shares and GM could try to convince naysayers that the bailout was best for the country and stress how GM is paying that back.
+5
Jul 4th, 2011 (8:50 am)A few quick suggestions regarding the charger cords getting warm as discussed on the front page.*
*
*
Have an electrician install a heavy duty GROUND FAULT CIRCUIT INTERRUPT outlet. **At the very very least.**
(The circuit performance, phasing, and load balance, noise, ground continuity can be all be checked in a few moments by a licensed electrician, because these things can also cause excess circuit degradation everywhere.)
*
*
Use correct torque on the screws, because the push-in-hole quick-connect small spring loaded internal connections of a cheap duplex outlet, (the one you are using), can never convey enough amps without getting too hot, which will burn up your cords.
*
This is important because GFCI outlets are built far, far better than the standard seventy nine cent duplex outlet. The larger flat spade load pin spring grasp that your plug goes into is a lot tighter, assuring that at least at that terminal, low wattage losses occur. When the cord has to work very hard in conveying the eight amps for eight hours every night, it is the scenario of the weakest link. But a weak area anywhere, makes the entire circuit run hotter everywhere.
*
* Also, copper wire can only be bent so much over many many times before the copper itself begins to degrade continuity, as malleable as it is.
*
Have you ever noticed in the Winter, when lots of birds are perched on only one length of power line? That segment of line is warmer than the rest of the circuit, because that segment has continuity weaknesses causing resistance heat. (Power distribution companies ought to map where the birds perch, to consider testing those segments, BTW.)
Move up to the Level 2, 240 Volt, hard-wired-in professional installation, which is what the Volt needs.
+7
Jul 4th, 2011 (8:53 am)Roy_H,
Hi Roy..when you look at percentages it can be confusing.
11% increase for GM is a lot more vehicles than Kia at 44%
using randomn numbers here but if Kia sold 100,000 last year, and 144,000 this that is a 44% increase or 44,000 units.
GM sold 1,000,000 last year and 1,110,000 that is 11%, but 66,000 MORE than Kia.
Toyata Tundra truck sales can climb 100% (they sold about 39000 units all last year), by comparison, Ford sold that many in less than 4 weeks.
before anyone unfurls a white flag, a little numerical perspective is needed with VW’s growth (54%). In June, VW sold a total of 38,696 cars and trucks. During the same month, GM sold 44,956 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. it luxury division Bentley is up 158%..mind you that is a total of 178 cars….
When you hold a larger share, your percentage increases are generally smaller, but it means more units. Ford is #1 currently (about 100,000 units YTD ahead of Chevy) and hte only manufacturer currently over 1 million units YTD
+1
Jul 4th, 2011 (10:11 am)It is interesting that auto sales are doing so well with the economy still in the dumper. I guess there is nothing like a new car to make you feel a whole lot better, even if you can’t really afford it. I know I’ve had to resist the urge to buy a Cruze, hoping we’ll still be able to figure out how to swing a Volt. Happy 4th of July to everyone!
+5
Jul 4th, 2011 (10:32 am)I’m mildly surprised at how well the Malibu is doing, second only in passenger car sales to the Cruze and beating both the Camry and Accord, something that its never done before as far as I know. All the more remarkable considering the Malibu design is several years old and at the end of its run. This could bode well for the 2012 newly designed Malibu especially if it gets good press.
I’m glad to see the Cruze really hitting its stride; I hope it can hold up because GM needs consistency among its products if it wants to climb out of the image pit they’ve fallen into.
The other significant trend that stands out for me is how deeply Toyota and Honda are plummeting, right at the time when the Big 3 domestic automakers seem to have turned things around and are regaining market share. The earthquake is only part of the reason; I felt that the big Japanese marques already were headed in a downward direction in our market.
My reasoning is based on a belief that the public at some point had to acknowledge the gains in product quality and design made by the domestic manufacturers, coupled with the public no longer believing Japanese manufacturers are invincible thanks to Toyota’s recall issues and because I don’t think Toyota and Honda’s current crop of cars have the competitive advantages they used to.
And lastly, how about that grey-haired Chevy Impala, still making the top 20 list!
+11
Jul 4th, 2011 (10:48 am)Best wishes to Lyle, whose independent spirit we remember, and to everyone here on this 4th of July.
+3
Jul 4th, 2011 (11:08 am)And the best is yet to come. As soon as they ramp up production, the Volt will sell like hot cakes.
+2
Jul 4th, 2011 (11:21 am)After the downswing in the economy and mass-layoffs of the past few years, I think people are getting patriotic and buying American vehicles. Yes, various foreign firms do manufacture “foreign” cars here in the USA. But there seems to be a resugence in USA-owned and USA-made products. Plus, the Cruze, Malibu and Volt are a good set of cars. Ford has a good variety of machines too. Is it that USA company manufacturing is getting better? Also, the stains of the before-2000 products are fading from memory as time goes by. My inlaws have a new Chevy Equinox and enjoy it. He was a long-time Ford guy and last vehicle was a Chrysler Town & Country. They’ve never bought a foreign-company vehicle.
For the econo-class, it’s not just the Prius anymore. The Cruze is making its mark as a lower-cost, economy vehicle and should grow in sales for a few years. I still don’t think Chrysler is yet in the ballgame for economy vehicles, so it is up to GM and Ford to lead the way. I think people are ok with 40 mpg as their personal target over the 50 mpg of the Prius at its higher price. You can do the math and determine your actual savings when comparing new car prices and # of dollars extra a 40 mpg will cost over 50 mpg.
Still have a Volt in my sights for late 2013, perhaps an early 2014 model year.
+2
Jul 4th, 2011 (12:11 pm)Bonaire,
I relate to both!!
my 2008 ‘Nox just passed 200,000 km, no troubles at all, runs great, AWD and V6 averaging 8.6 l / 100km (about 33 MPG)at 160,000 miles on the ODO…not bad, and just got approval for charging at work if I get a Volt…so when I get in 2 years (plan)..I will be laughin!!
+5
Jul 4th, 2011 (4:03 pm)I am thinking of all of you today. We may get labeled as “early adopters”, but I see all of you Volt owners as true patriots and leaders, leading the charge to get us off imported oil and create American jobs. It just doesn’t get any better or more important than that.
So take a minute to pat yourselves on the back today. If our nation makes it to a better place, which I devoutly hope and trust that it will, it will be folks like you who lead it there.
+11
Jul 4th, 2011 (7:56 pm)Happy 4th of July everyone! I was just remembering last year when I was among the first to experience the Volt at highway speeds and took it into Manhattan to celebrate the 4th at a private GM party on Pier 92 watching the fireworks directly over the Hudson River – those were the days:
http://gm-volt.com/2010/07/05/chevrolet-volt-completes-1776-mile-us-freedom-drive/
+3
Jul 4th, 2011 (8:51 pm)Congratulations on winning the contest, FLMark! Glad I voted for the right one!
And hi Lyle, good to see you back here!
+4
Jul 4th, 2011 (9:06 pm)And Lyle, happy 4th to you. There is no doubt in my mind the Red Volt sitting in my garage wouldn’t be there without your dedication and your help.
WVhybrid
Jul 4th, 2011 (10:39 pm)Just out of curiosity, when does GM record a unit as sold? When the dealer is invoiced, or when a customer takes delivery?
The following segment made me wonder:
“Month-end GM dealer inventory in the U.S was about 605,000 units, up about 21,000 units compared to May and about 168,000 units higher than June 2010.”
If GM counts the cars on dealer lots as sold (which is what manufacturers of all kinds typically do), they they’re really just padding dealer inventory rather then delivering more cars to customers…
Jul 5th, 2011 (3:17 am)The sales numbers posted in the OP are US only. When people say that Nissan is clobbering GM in the *EV sweepstakes, they are looking at production and world sales.
Jul 5th, 2011 (3:18 am)The sales numbers posted in the OP are US only. When people say that Nissan is clobbering GM in the *EV sweepstakes, they are looking at production and world sales. All the more amazing considering the catastrophe in Japan.
Jul 5th, 2011 (10:06 am)Not to be a stinker, but GM’s gotta get ALL their pickup trucks and vans more efficient immediately:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-05/gm-s-widening-truck-inventories-risk-return-to-bad-habits-of-2008-cars.html
Adding plug in electric drive and/or decent 8 speed or CVT turbo (bio)diesel 4 or 6 cyl seems like a complete no brainer that should have been done decades ago. > 30 mpg highway for truck frame vehicles wins today, but not tomorrow.
Jul 8th, 2011 (9:44 am)You are exactly right, EVO!
What I cannot understand, outside of conspiracy theories, is why GM executives would NOT put on a major push to produce the Volt in high numbers and produce a midsize truck with substantial mileage improvement! It’s like they don’t want to!
Here is my challenge to GM: Do what is right for your country! Produce the cars/trucks that will get us off the oil wagon.
Jul 12th, 2011 (8:36 am)Great car Chevrolet! I still feel Impala a worthy automobile, and certainly would enjoy a Volt or Cruiz
I have owned Cavaliers(3), Malibus(2) Impalas (2) and found all to be worthy automobiles.
We have also owned (9) new Cadillacs over the years currently (2), but I see a Volt, Cruiz or Impala again in our future!
Great Value cars (CHevrolet) that I hope are around for many years to come.
Jul 12th, 2011 (8:41 am)You want to appreciate Chevrolet?
Just drive an overrated Toyota Camary, or even worse the vastly overrated Toyota Prius! If a Chevy Corvair was considered dangerous —–Prius could top it. What a waste, and to think people actually like them?? Drive a Prius through the Mountains and watch it pulsate back and forth between the battery and engine never quite sure od where to go, as you knuckle wench the steering wheel to keep in from being blown off the road by the slightest winds. I know I have done it with a 2009 Prius. What a Bummer. I never had that feeling of insecurity in a Chevrolet-not even in a Cavalier, which rwally were quite nice. Sorry boys and girls keep your foreign cars until you wake up and buy a Chevrolet!!
Jul 12th, 2011 (8:42 am)