Automakers report lower Q1 U.S. auto sales on virus hit

Agence France-Presse

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Automakers report lower Q1 U.S. auto sales on virus hit

AFP

'Further historic declines' in United States car sales are likely in April as well

NEW YORK, USA – Automakers reported lower United States sales on Wednesday, April 1, with purchases diving in March as the coronavirus pandemic prompted widespread economic closures in much of the country.

Some automakers did not break out sales by month, but among those that did, the numbers were ugly for March as the US economy abruptly shifted into shutdown mode.

These included Volkswagen, which saw US sales plunge 42% in March, and Toyota, which suffered 35.3% drop during that period.

“As the pandemic rolls across America, consumers’ interest in big-ticket purchases like vehicles has all be disappeared. And for those folks still interested in purchasing, in many markets they can’t because of mandated dealership closing,” said Cox Automotive senior economist Charlie Chesbrough, who predicted more pain ahead in the coming months.

“April is likely to see further historic declines, driven largely by a lack of consumer confidence and substantial increases in unemployment. And that trend will likely continue into early summer, at best,” Chesbrough said.

General Motors (GM) said sales fell about 7% from the same period in 2019 to 618,335 vehicles due to significant declines in March as cities and states around the US sharply curtailed activity to try to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The US auto giant, which has announced a venture with medical device company Ventec to build ventilators to treat the growing numbers of victims of the virus, continues to keep some dealers open in areas with stay-at-home orders to serve first responders and health care workers.

Fiat Chrysler said US sales dropped 10% to 446,768, as “strong momentum in January and February was more than offset by the negative economic impact of the coronavirus in March.”

Like GM, Fiat Chrysler has continued to keep showrooms open and permitted online ordering of cars.

Edmunds.com forecast an industry-wide decline of 11.8% in the January-March period to 3.5 million vehicles in the US market.

“The first two months of the year started off at a healthy sales pace, but the market took a dramatic turn in mid-March as more cities and states began to implement stay-at-home policies due to the coronavirus crisis, and consumers understandably shifted their focus to other things,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights. 

“The whole world is turned upside down right now, and the auto industry is unfortunately not immune to the wide-ranging economic impacts of this unprecedented pandemic.” – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!