The Detroit Three automakers’ stocks were getting kicked around Friday morning after reporting monthly sales for March that were short of the totals that analysts expected. As usual, though, pickup trucks did all they could lift industry sales
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 73,884 F-Series pickups in the month of March, an increase of 9% year over year. Compared with February 2016 sales, that’s a jump of 22%.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) said sales of its Silverado pickups rose 6.1% year over year in March to 47,966 units. Sales of GMC Sierra trucks rose nearly 24% to 21,548, for a combined total of 69,514.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) sold 44,874 Ram pickups in March, an increase of 8% year over year.
The other full-size pickups on offer in the United States are the Tundra from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and the Nissan Titan. Tundra’s sales totaled 10,002 in March (down 13.1% year over year). The Titan sold 1,274 units in March, up about 20% from February and up nearly 22% compared with last year.
Toyota’s midsize Tacoma pickup sold 17,687 units in March, holding its place as the leader in this space. Sales of GM’s midsize Colorado pickup rose by 46.8% to 9,718 units, and sales of the GMC Canyon rose 17.8% to 2,867 in March. Nissan’s midsize Frontier pickup sold 8,198 units in March, up 15% year over year, for a truck that hasn’t had a major renovation in more than 10 years. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) introduced a new version of its midsize Ridgeline pickup at January’s Detroit auto show, but the new pickup has not yet hit showroom floors.
In the full-size pickup segment, sales for March totaled 188,272 vehicles from the Detroit Three. Ford’s market share totaled about 39.2%. GM’s share came in at 25.5% for the Chevy Silverado and 11.4% for the GMC Sierra. Ram’s market share totaled 23.8%.
According to J.D. Power and LMC, new-vehicle sales are fueled by incentives, elevated leasing and long-term loans. Low gas prices drive demand higher for pickups, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossovers, while car sales remain weak.
U.S. demand for pickups and SUVs, especially compact SUVs, appears bottomless. While some analysts see the market nearing a plateau, others think there is still enough gas in the tank to keep sales on track for another year that approaches 2015 record sales total of 17.5 million cars and light trucks.
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