The US economy is booming and consumer spending is bubbling. The upswing is also heating up the car market.
After the onset of the Corona crisis, car sales in the USA are picking up speed again – German manufacturers are also benefiting from this.
According to information from Thursday (local time), Volkswagen sold 120,520 new cars with the VW logo on the important US market in the second quarter. That was 72 percent more than in the previous year’s period, which was weak due to the pandemic, when factories and car dealerships had to be temporarily closed due to lockdowns.
VW spoke of the best sales result in a quarter since 1973. In the case of expensive urban SUVs, the German industry giant was even able to more than double deliveries. SUV sales now account for almost three quarters of all VW cars sold in the United States. For several years now, the manufacturer has been focusing on heavier and larger models, which are particularly popular with US customers.
VW subsidiary Audi increased its US sales even more in the three months to the end of June. The Ingolstadt manufacturer sold 66,995 cars during this period, 92 percent more than a year ago. Especially with the SUVs of the Q series, Audi was able to make up ground again after the stresses of the Corona crisis. The sports car manufacturer Porsche, which is also part of the VW Group, delivered 18,958 cars, an increase of 55.5 percent compared to the previous year.
BMW also benefited greatly from the recovery in the US auto market. According to its own information, the Munich-based company sold 96,561 new cars of the core brand in the second quarter, an increase of almost 90 percent compared to the same period last year. The subsidiary Mini grew by almost 77 percent and delivered 9,340 of its small cars to US customers. BMW’s German luxury class competitor Daimler does not want to publish the sales figures for Mercedes-Benz USA until later this month.
According to the Munich-based Ifo Institute, the German auto industry is more optimistic about the future than it has been for years. At the same time, the companies want to cut jobs, especially in production, as the institute reported after its monthly survey on the situation in the industry. Accordingly, the sentiment indicator rose to 44.2 points in June, the highest value since August 2018.
Despite the good mood, far fewer cars are leaving the production lines in Germany: Compared to the first half of 2018, according to Ifo, the auto industry has only achieved 63 percent of its production volume at that time in the current year. And many companies are still planning job cuts.
In the USA, the domestic market leader General Motors saw a much slower upward trend than the German manufacturers and their Japanese main rival Toyota. With an increase of 40 percent to 688,236 cars delivered, the GM group remained below the expectations of the analysts. Toyota increased quarterly sales by 76 percent to 688,813 cars, even outperforming the largest US manufacturer slightly.
The second largest US manufacturer, Ford, which plans to present its figures on Friday, recently had similar difficulties as GM.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
