On the US car market, the car manufacturer has Volkswagen is currently running despite headwinds from high interest rates. For the corporate subsidiary Audi However, it looks much more difficult. The Bavarians of BMW were also able to continue to grow, especially thanks to their continued good performance Electric cars. The overall market in the USA However, it is stuttering due to high interest rates and cautious buyers.
The Wolfsburg core brand VW Passenger Cars said it increased the number of vehicles sold in the three months to the end of June compared to the same period last year by almost a third to 100,612 units. Sales of the electric car model ID.4 However, they fell by 15 percent. However, the other SUV models offered in the USA such as the Atlas, Taos and the Tiguan with a wide wheelbase gave VW a boost. The sedan models – driven by the Jetta model – also achieved a significant increase. Three quarters of VW’s models sold in the USA are now SUVs.
VW sells 75 percent of SUVs in the USA
The Volkswagen subsidiary Audi However, there was a significant decline in the second quarter. With 48,687 vehicles, 12 percent fewer cars were delivered. The decline has been 14 percent since the beginning of the year. Audi has the problem of not having brought any new models onto the market for quite some time. In the car industry, an average young model range is considered the key to good sales opportunities – and fewer discounts must be granted for new models. The new Q6 e-tron electric SUV, among other things, is expected to help later in the year, as Audi US boss Daniel Weissland said.
Premium rival BMW scored points in the second quarter. The Bavarians sold 91,237 cars from the parent brand BMW, 3.7 percent more. The increase was due to the increase in SUVs – and the boost in fully electric cars (battery electric vehicles – BEV). These increased by almost a quarter. However, that was a significantly smaller increase than in the first quarter. Sales of the Mini small car series fell by a good fifth. The reason was the switch this year to the new, purely electric model range at Mini, it was said.
Audi falls behind, BMW can score points
Mercedes Benz and the VW subsidiary Porsche AG have not yet officially announced their sales figures. However, in their estimates for Mercedes, market researchers assume stagnation at around 96,000 cars. With almost 21,000 cars, Porsche is likely to have sold almost a tenth more than the year before. Tesla sold almost 19 percent fewer cars in the USA with almost 142,000 cars.
The US market is dominated by US manufacturers and Japanese car manufacturers. They had mixed numbers: The StellantisGroup (including Peugeot, Fiat, Chrysler, Opel) slipped by around a fifth, Toyota However, it sold 9 percent more cars in the quarter. General Motors showed a slight increase.
Japanese and domestic manufacturers dominate the US market
Not all car manufacturers have yet published their US figures. Overall, market researchers expect business to be slower in June than a year ago. Based on the previous data and estimates, the annualized sales figure adjusted for seasonal effects in the overall market was probably 15.8 million cars and light commercial vehicles. A year earlier there were 16.1 million vehicles.
Car buyers in the USA are struggling with increased interest rates and still high sales prices. The average interest rate for new car loans has risen by one percentage point to ten percent over the past twelve months, making cars less affordable. In the USA, cars are predominantly purchased through loans or leasing.
US car market overall declining slightly
Manufacturers have already responded with price reductions, but consumers are often waiting to see whether it will become even cheaper. Market analyst Erin Keating from market researcher Cox Automotive sees overall sales prices still above 2020 levels. Prices skyrocketed, especially during the pandemic, because production bottlenecks met with strong demand. Some car manufacturers also referred to a hacker attack on a software provider for car dealers, which put a strain on business in June.