New York”•General Motors and Toyota reported strong US sales at the end of 2020 on Tuesday, reflecting surprisingly robust consumer demand that mitigated the sales drop for the full year in the wake of COVID-19.
The pair are the top two automakers by US market share, and both scored higher sales in the fourth quarter despite notching double-digit sales declines for all of 2020.
US auto sales for 2020 are projected to drop 15.3 percent to 14.4 million”•which would make it the worst year since at least 2012″•according to a December forecast from Cox Automotive.
Still, those numbers are much better than analysts feared after the US car market almost completely froze during spring lockdowns as the country contended with a spiraling coronavirus crisis.
“Everybody is excited the market has done as well as it has,” said Charles Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive. “We’re getting back to normal much more quickly than expected.”
While the pandemic has caused elevated unemployment and long lines at food pantries, other consumers have more cash for cars and other big-ticket items due to less spending on travel and other discretionary goods, and many have benefited from federal stimulus funds.
“If you haven’t lost your job, the government has been giving away money,” said Chesbrough, who thinks the industry could benefit in the second half of 2021 from a recovering US economy bolstered by vaccinations and additional federal spending.
Chesbrough said auto companies have been able to keep selling incentives in check due to limited inventories. However, sales could sag in the first quarter if the worsening pandemic crimps demand.
GM cited continued consumer hunger for pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and other large cars that enabled the auto giant to score record average transaction prices in the fourth quarter and for the full year. AFP
The auto giant reported a 4.8-percent increase in US auto sales in the final three months of the year, to 771,323, topping analyst estimates.
But GM’s overall sales for 2020 fell 11.8 percent to 2.5 million compared with 2019, reflecting the hit from a nearly two-month disruption to auto manufacturing due to the initial US COVID-19 outbreak.
Since then, automakers have overhauled plants to respect social distancing protocols, enabling car output to return roughly to pre-pandemic levels.
