US New Car Sales Grow by 17%

I thought this story about US vehicle sales was an interesting counter-point to the post I wrote yesterday about new car sales in Japan. Whereas new vehicle sales have dropped off by 21.5% in Japan in January 2011, the same statistic for the US is the reverse – an increase of 17% over the same period in 2010.

The rise in US sales is being pushed particularly by the increase in small truck sales. Interestingly, the new passenger car sales in Japan have dropped by 23%, but the sales of kei cars (“light” city cars) has only dropped by 7%. This shows how different niches within different markets are responding in different ways.

Although Toyota, Honda and other Japanese manufacturers are lagging behind GM, who has lead this growth, they posted healthy year-on-year growth of 17% and 15% respectively. This should certainly help offset the extreme market contraction they are seeing at home.

(Sources: FT – English language / Reuters – Japanese language)