DETROIT – General Motors ’second-quarter U.S. car sales were slightly lower than analysts had expected as the shortage of semiconductor chips affected car manufacturing and dealer stocks.
On Thursday, the Detroit automaker reported 688,236 vehicles sold in the second quarter, 39.7 percent more than the coronavirus pandemic caused Americans to take refuge in their homes and temporarily close auto dealers. Analysts forecast GM sales to grow from about 40% to 43%, according to forecasts from Edmunds and Cox Automotive.
“Consumer demand for vehicles is also strong, but they are limited by very tight stocks. We expect high demand to continue in the second half of this year and until 2022,” said EMA chief economist Elaine Bakberg.
The new Chevrolet will be unveiled on May 14, 2021 at the Stewart Chevrolet dealership in Colma, California.
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GM said it finished the second quarter with just 211,974 inventories, down 37 percent from 334,628 at the end of the first quarter. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, which affected vehicle production, the vehicle’s inventory level by the end of 2019 was about 616,000 units.
GM is among the first major automakers to report second-quarter sales on Thursday. Overall, analysts estimate that automakers sold nearly 4.5 million cars in the U.S. in the second quarter – up from 52 percent to 53 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
Sales results from other automakers are slightly lower than analysts had expected.
Hyundai Motor America reported 240,005 vehicles sold in the second quarter, up 69% from the silent second quarter of 2020. Sales by Cox Automotive were lower than expected by 74%.
Toyota Motor North America reported 688,813 vehicles sold in the second quarter, up 73% from a year earlier. This was in line with Edmunds ’forecast, but was below the nearly 76 percent growth Cox expected.
While the resumption of trade in the depths of the pandemic has been very impressive, sales have been declining this year. Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner estimates that the sales rate in June will be 15.7 million units, down from 17.1 million in May and 18.6 million in April. Others, such as Cox Automotive, had sales of about $ 16.4 million in June.
“There’s market demand, but there’s no inventory,” Ford’s former CEO, a senior adviser to TPG Capital, said in an interview with Acesparks’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday. “It’s an old demand and supply.”
According to Cox Automotive, the inventory of new cars in early June was historically low, down 43 percent from the same period in 2020, and 54 percent from the same period in 2019.
The low level of goods has led to a record rise in prices for new cars. Cox Automotive’s vAuto analysis of existing inventory data showed that the inventory of new cars in early June was historically low, down 43 percent from the same period in 2020, down 54 percent from the same period in 2019.
Fields said the unprecedented low inventory rate could last at least 15 months next year. He said it will not be a “buyer market for a while”.
Other automakers to report June and / or second-quarter sales include:
- Nissan Motor sold 298,148 vehicles during the second quarter, an increase of 688%.
- Kia Motors reported 68,486 units sold in June, up 43.1 percent from a year earlier and 378,511 vehicles in the first half, up 43.7 percent.
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