The US auto industry looks set for another record year, even as May new-vehicle sales reported so far yesterday showed a decline due to weak demand for sedans.
General Motors Co, the largest US automaker, reported an 18% drop to 240,450 vehicles from a year earlier.
In pickup trucks, sales fell 12.7% for its Chevrolet Silverado and decreased 7% for its GMC Sierra.
The decline in GM sales was steeper than analysts expected.
GM had slowed production at three of its plants that make sedans, which hurt May sales, the company said.
A year ago, the Cruze compact sedan was GM’s top-selling car, but its sales fell 30% in May.
The Malibu midsize sedan gained 13% to be the company’s best-selling car.
Industrywide, trucks and SUVs remained the US industry’s best sellers, to the detriment of traditional sedans.
The decline for May is not seen as the start of a slide for the industry.
Most analysts had expected a drop in sales, in large part because of two fewer selling days and one less weekend this past month.
Each month, auto sales are an early snapshot of consumer spending.
Ford Motor Co said its sales fell 6% to 235,997 vehicles, even as sales for the best-selling vehicle in the US market, the F-Series pickup, rose 9%.
But Ford’s car sales fell 25%.
Sales were essentially flat for its SUVs and up 9% for its trucks.
Among Ford sedan sales, the Fusion fell 21.5%, and the Focus dropped 27%.
Sales rose 5.5% for the company’s top-selling SUV, the Escape.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said sales rose 1% to 204,452 new vehicles from a year earlier on a 14% gain for its Jeep SUV brand.
FCA was the only major automaker in the US market for which analysts had not expected a sales decline.
FCA’s Ram pickup truck sales fell 3% in May but are still up 8% for this year.
Forty economists polled by Thomson Reuters expect on average a seasonally adjusted selling rate of 17.3mn vehicles for May, not greatly changed from April but down from 17.8mn a year earlier.
In 2015, vehicle sales were a record 17.47mn vehicles, according to Autodata Corp.