U.S. Car Sales Declined 3% in June

Sales of new cars and light-duty trucks in the U.S. fell 3% to 1.51 million units last month, Automotive News reports.

Volumes have trailed year-ago levels all year, declining 2% to 8.42 million through the first half of 2019. But AN’s calculated annualized sales rate of 17.3 million units marks the third time in four months that the pace surpassed a healthy 17 million units.

Analysts say relatively strong fleet sales have been able to soften the slump in retail demand.

June sales fell at Ford (-5% to 218,700 units) and General Motors (-1% to 254,700). Both companies now publicly report sales results only on a quarterly basis only.

Fiat Chrysler Automobile’s Ram truck brand surged 45% to 75,200 units last month. That was enough to offset declining sales for Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands and give FCA a net 2% gain to 206,100 vehicles.

June sales retreated for other high-volume manufacturers. Deliveries dropped for Toyota-Lexus (-4% to 202,400 units), Honda-Acura (-7% to 135,900), Nissan Group (-15% to 123,500) and Mercedes-Benz (+1% to 29,300).

Gainers for the month include Hyundai-Kia-Genesis (+2% to 122,900 units), Subaru (+3% to 61,500), Volkswagen Group (+6% to 56,700), BMW Group (+4% to 35,000) and Tesla (+56% to 12,000).