SANTA MONICA, CA — August 28, 2019 — The car shopping experts at Edmunds forecast that 1,599,264 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in August for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 16.6 million. This reflects a 14.3% increase in sales from July 2019, and a 7% increase from August 2018.
"New vehicle sales in August look a little healthier than usual thanks to Labor Day weekend falling earlier this year," said Jeremy Acevedo, Edmunds' senior manager of insights. "Market conditions are looking slightly more favorable than earlier this year thanks to a minor dip in interest rates, but we don't expect that to cause a major turnaround. August really just stole sales that are normally attributed to September. "
Edmunds estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 14.4 million vehicles in August 2019, with fleet transactions accounting for 13.1% of total sales. An estimated 3.4 million used vehicles will be sold in August 2019, for a SAAR of 39.8 million (compared to 3.4 million — or a SAAR of 39.6 million — in July).
| Sales Volume |
August 2019 Forecast |
August 2018 |
July 2019 |
Change from August 2018 |
Change from July 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM* | 274,916 | 240,000 | 235,000 | 14.5% | 17.0% |
| Toyota | 243,164 | 223,055 | 209,204 | 9.0% | 16.2% |
| Ford* | 207,713 | 217,700 | 191,000 | -4.6% | 8.8% |
| Fiat Chrysler* | 202,798 | 193,718 | 170,000 | 4.7% | 19.3% |
| Honda | 162,889 | 147,903 | 141,296 | 10.1% | 15.3% |
| Hyundai/Kia | 126,694 | 111,406 | 112,711 | 13.7% | 12.4% |
| Nissan | 108,902 | 112,376 | 98,880 | -3.1% | 10.1% |
| VW/Audi | 58,713 | 53,162 | 50,558 | 10.4% | 16.1% |
| Tesla | 19,904 | - | - | - | - |
| Industry | 1,599,264 | 1,494,502 | 1,399,656 | 7.0% | 14.3% |
*GM sales totals for August 2018 are estimated, FCA, Ford, and GM sales totals for July 2019 are estimated
**NOTE: August 2019 had 28 selling days, August 2018 had 27 and July 2019 had 25.
| Market Share |
August 2019 Forecast |
August 2018 |
July 2019 |
Change from August 2018 |
Change from July 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM | 17.2% | 16.1% | 16.9% | 1.1% | 0.3% |
| Toyota | 15.2% | 14.9% | 14.9% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Ford | 13.0% | 14.6% | 13.8% | -1.6% | -0.8% |
| Fiat Chrysler | 12.7% | 13.0% | 12.3% | -0.3% | 0.4% |
| Honda | 10.2% | 9.9% | 10.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| Hyundai/Kia | 7.9% | 7.5% | 8.1% | 0.5% | -0.1% |
| Nissan | 6.8% | 7.5% | 7.1% | -0.7% | -0.3% |
| VW/Audi | 3.7% | 3.6% | 3.6% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Tesla | 1.2% | - | - | - | - |
More insight into recent auto industry trends can be found in the Edmunds Industry Center at https://www.edmunds.com/industry/insights.html.
About Edmunds
Edmunds guides car shoppers online from research to purchase. With in-depth reviews of every new vehicle, shopping tips from an in-house team of experts, plus a wealth of consumer and automotive market insights, Edmunds helps millions of shoppers each month select, price and buy a car with confidence. Regarded as one of America's best workplaces by Fortune and Great Place to Work, Edmunds is based in Santa Monica, California, and has a satellite office in Detroit, Michigan. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
