We use the third quarter of 2019 as a bit of a control year since it was before the Covid-19 pandemic and automotive chip crisis hit. US auto sales were up 1% in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the third quarter of 2021, but they were down 13% compared to the third quarter of 2020 and down 21% compared to the third quarter of 2019.
The US car industry has thus stopped declining, but can we still describe it as rebounding? Still not. We’ll have to wait and see if it can reach the levels of 2020 and 2019.
The next two graphs display the change in the industry in terms of both the total volume change and the percentage change stated above. (A few small automakers, like Jaguar and Polestar, don’t appear in the statistics since they don’t report it.) According to the volume change chart, US vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2022 decreased by approximately 500,000 units from the third quarter of 2020 and by almost a million units from the third quarter of 2019. In comparison to Q3 2021, they increased by 19,202.
In this piece, I will examine the brand-by-brand split and include two charts comparing Q3 2022 to Q3 2021. Visit the post on CleanTechnica Pro to get the same charts for comparisons of Q3 2022 to Q3 2020 and Q3 2022 to Q3 2019. On CleanTechnica Pro, there is an additional graph that displays Q3 for each of the four years and all auto brands. Here is a summary in bullet-list format of how vehicle brands changed during those four years based just on text:
Several auto brands had a fall in sales from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020, followed by another decline from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021, before a recovery to somewhere between Q3 2020 and Q3 2021 occurred in Q3 2022. Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, Dodge, Lincoln, MINI, and Infiniti were among those brands. Toyota somewhat outperformed Q3 2020 in Q3 2021, but it fell short of both of those benchmarks in Q3 2022. Like other automakers, Honda’s sales did decrease for three straight years (2019–2021), but in Q3 2022 they decreased even more. It was interesting to note that the title of Honda’s press release revealing quarterly sales was unusual. “ American Honda Overcomes Transportation Issues as Sales Improve Over Summer Months ” appeared in the headline. Having written and read countless headlines, I found that one to be very intriguing, complex, and obviously intended to spin some extremely negative news in a way that is somehow positive. Honda, a somewhat smaller country compatriot, appears to be suffering the most at the present despite the fact that Toyota may garner more attention for its anti-EV foot-dragging. (Well, possibly; we haven’t finished this bullet list yet.) On the other hand, Kia and Hyundai unquestionably defied the declining tendencies I just mentioned. In Q3, Kia’s US sales climbed continuously from year to year. Hyundai almost achieved the same results, although its sales in Q3 2020 were somewhat lower than those in Q3 2019. The year-over-year gains weren’t significant, but one has to believe that Hyundai and Kia would have experienced noticeably robust growth in the US market in recent years if not for Covid-19 and the automotive chip issue. BMW’s sales decreased from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020, similar to Hyundai, but subsequently increased in Q3 2021 and Q3 2022. In the third quarter, Jeep, Nissan, Ram, and Subaru all experienced declines for the fourth consecutive year, following Honda’s “lead.” Nissan has simply been losing sales, while Ram and Subaru had a slight improvement over the other brands. Honda lost more money than Nissan between Q3 2019 and Q3 2022 in terms of volume (190,000 vs 160,000), but Nissan started at a lower level and suffered greater percentage losses. Its sales dropped by more than half, although Honda’s decline wasn’t quite as severe. Naturally, Tesla’s third-quarter sales climbed for the fourth consecutive year. The trend indicated at the top of this list was almost replicated by Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Audi, but their Q3 2022 bouncebacks were so significant that their sales in the previous quarter exceeded their Q3 2020 sales (as well as their Q3 2021 sales). Lexus’ sales history was peculiar and unique. Sales rose in Q3 2020 and Q3 2021, but fell again in Q3 2022 to a level much lower than Q3 2019. You should refer to the chart for smaller brands. Again, over on CleanTechnica Pro, there is a complete chart that visually illustrates everything.
Now let’s move on to the most basic chart. The sales of the various auto brands in Q3 2022 are listed below.
There is no imminent threat to Toyota, Ford, and Chevrolet’s gold, silver, and bronze medals (though, Ford may steal gold from Toyota). Honda is still in fourth place in the following trio, but if current trends continue, Kia and Hyundai, two Korean automakers, will soon overtake it. The fact that fully electric Tesla is currently ranked #11 is noteworthy, in my opinion, especially given that the American automaker is on track to enter the top 10. That will most likely occur in the fourth quarter.
According to the aforementioned chart, Cadillac outperformed Q3 2021 in terms of percentage gain for sales growth. It increased by 50%, outpacing Chrysler’s 39% growth, Tesla’s 32% growth, and Chevrolet’s 30% growth. Although many other brands experienced year-over-year increase, as mentioned in the bullet list above, those were the top brands in terms of percentage change.
Looking at loudness change reveals a slightly different picture.
From this perspective, Chevrolet outperformed Ford, Tesla, GMC, and Mercedes in terms of year-over-year growth.
Together, several luxury brands and the two biggest mass-market American companies performed well year over year (Chevy and Ford).
On CleanTechnica Pro, you may find charts similar to the ones above for Q3 2022 vs. Q3 2020 and Q3 2022 vs. Q3 2019. The highlights, just in terms of textual trends, are as follows:
Comparing Q3 2022 and Q3 2020, as a percentage
From Q3 2020 to Q3 2022, just 9 brands saw growth (unless you count completely new market entrants). Tesla outperformed the competition in this area, growing 122%. Next best in terms of growth rates after Tesla were BMW and Kia (each with 12% growth), then Hyundai and Porsche (8% and 7%), respectively. Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Audi all experienced 3% growth. Cadillac experienced 2% growth, showing that its significant 50% rise from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022 was actually practically a direct recovery from its sharp sales decline from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021. Fiat, which has practically perished in the United States, was the largest loss. In those two years, it saw an 81% decline in sales. During that time, sales of Honda, Buick, and Infiniti fell by 43%, 42%, and 35%, respectively. Between Q3 2020 and Q3 2022, sales declined for 21 different auto brands. volume variation
According to our projections, Tesla ranked first in terms of volume increase, with 71,890 more sales in Q2 2022 than in Q2 2020. In this category, Korean cousins Kia and Hyundai seized silver and bronze, demonstrating once more that they are two of the strongest brands in the US in terms of growth. Perhaps they also shown superior management of the automotive chip crisis? BMW quietly took fourth. Rivian and Lucid are ranked fifth and eighth, respectively, yet they obviously made no sales in 2020. The following companies had minor growth: Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Cadillac. Oh Lordy, Honda is suffering in terms of losses! Between Q3 2020 and Q3 2022, it decreased by roughly 150,000 units! Even though it wasn’t as bad as Honda, Ford and Chevrolet also suffered greatly, losing 79,595 and 77,444 sales, respectively. Numerous other automakers suffered sales declines as well, but the final two I’ll mention are Nissan and Jeep, which saw declines of 60,938 and 60,861 respectively. Q3 2022 VS. Q3 2019 Possibly a three-year perspective
percentage variation
As of Q3 2022, Tesla sales were up 169% from Q3 2019. Sales increase was limited to three other auto brands during that time. Sales of Porsche increased by 18%, those of Kia by 16%, and those of Hyundai by 7%. Funny enough, three of the four automakers with the majority of their sales now coming from totally electric cars are Porsche, Kia, and Hyundai. (Audi is the fourth brand.) Did we mention that Fiat was on the verge of dying at the bottom of the table? Compared to Q3 2019, it decreased by 91% in Q3 2022. Yikes! When compared to Fiat, Infiniti and Nissan may feel wonderful, but they were down 55% and 53%, respectively, and if they can’t turn things around in “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” they may want to start drafting their wills soon as well. More than 40% of the sales of three additional auto brands decreased. Dodge (down 43%), Buick (down 44%), and Honda (down 49%) were those brands. Expect them to make some impressive efforts to reclaim their relevance, like this. From Q3 2019 to Q3 2022, 20 more brands saw sales declines. volume variation
With an increase of 82,367 sales, Tesla triumphed once more in terms of volume growth. With a sales gain of 26,054, Kia came in second. Hyundai’s cousin came in third with a gain of 11,403 sales. The last automaker to increase sales, Porsche, saw a 2,536 increase. These data include far too many stories. Comment below if I said anything you want to emphasis or if I missed something you want to call out!
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