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Auto industry expected to post another positive month of sales
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Automakers are expected to post another solid month of sales today, analysts say.
Kelley Blue Book and TrueCar analysts expect new vehicle sales to hit 1.47 million units for a 2.6 percent year-over-year increase.
“I think the story for this month, and for coming months, is the modest and slow growth,” said Tim Fleming, analyst for Kelley Blue Book. “I don’t think we have reached our peak yet, but we may be nearing it.”
Sales in the first half of the year came in at 8.5 million units for a year-over-year increase of 4.4 percent and the highest sales volume for the first half of the year since 2005. KBB expects sales this year to hit 17.1 million units overall for a 3.6 percent increase over last year.
Trending again in July sales figures due out today will be the compact sport utility vehicles. But KBB still expects the compact-car and midsize-car segments to be the two leading segments this year.
For July, compact cars, which include the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze, are expected to reach sales of 210,000.
KBB expects compact SUV/crossover sales to come in at 206,000 – surpassing midsize-car sales projections of 203,000 in July.
KBB expects GM to see a 0.7 percent increase in total sales in July with 258,000 sales.
Ford, Fiat Chrysler, American Honda, Nissan North America and Volkswagen are expected to see an increase in sales in July, according to KBB analysts.
Toyota and Hyundai-Kia are expected to see slight decreases.
TrueCar analysts project GM will show a 1.9 percent drop in total sales because of a pullback by the automaker on its fleet volume.
“We view that as a positive,” said Eric Lyman, TrueCar’s vice president for industry insights. “It is basically GM looking at their business practices and saying while this is a source of revenue it is not the most-desirable way to get that revenue. That does mean that the Cruze will be the most significantly hit in turning back on fleet sales. It alleviates some of the pressure and stress for the Cruze to perform to a certain level.”
GM has decided to continue making today’s version of the Chevrolet Cruze to be sold in dealerships with the completely redesigned, next-generation Cruze. It will be called the Cruze Limited and it will be sold for both the retail and fleet markets. Both the Cruze Limited and the next-generation Cruze will come out of the Lordstown plant.
“There is still demand for that variant,” said Annalisa Bluhm, Cruze, Sonic and Spark EV spokeswoman. “We want to give our customers the opportunity to have that option.”
Overall, all automakers outside of GM are expected to post an increase in total unit sales.
TrueCar shows GM’s retail sales increasing by 5.9 percent and beating every other automaker in retail with 208,700 sales projected in July.
TrueCar expects every automaker to show an increase in retail sales in July except Hyundai.
With July’s sales expectations, TrueCar analysts feel the industry is on target to hit 17.1 million sales. That number hasn’t been achieved since 2001.