GM, Ford, Chrysler, Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Nissan, VW report strong 2010, Toyota remains flat
2010 sales figures are in and America’s Detroit automakers all enjoyed a positive sales growth during 2010.
General Motors reported total sales of 223,932 units in December, a 16 percent increase from a year ago for the company’s for core brands (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC). For the calendar year 2010, GM sales increased 21 percent to 2,202,927 units. Interestingly enough, GM’s four brands sold 118,435 more vehicles this year than the company did with eight brands in 2009.
“Our sales this year reflect the impact of GM’s new business model,” Johnson said. “The consistency of results that we achieved demonstrates the focus on our brands, dealers and customers, and how we compete aggressively for every sale, every day.”
Ford’s December retail sales were up 17 percent versus a year ago, with a total of 190,976 units sold. The Dearborn automaker’s full-year sales totaled 1.935 million, up 19 percent versus a year ago.
“With our balanced line of high-quality, fuel-efficient products, we have a solid foundation to deliver more sales and improved results in 2011,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “Consideration for Ford is increasing beyond our traditional areas of strength – signaling that the seeds of growth already have taken hold.”
Chrysler’s December sales were up 16 percent with a total of 100,702 units sold. 2010 sales were up 17 percent when compared with 2009 with a total of 1,085,211 units sod.
“Chrysler Group 2010 sales of 1.1 million units are consistent with our sales objective that we presented in our Nov. 4, 2009 five-year business plan,” said Fred Diaz, President and Chief Executive Officer – Ram Truck Brand and Lead Executive for U.S. Sales. “We are extremely proud of the sales strides we made during this transition year. Chrysler Group launched 16 all-new or significantly improved models last year, most of them during the fourth quarter. We can now share our excitement with our customers as our new 2011 models arrive in dealerships in greater volumes over the coming months.”
Toyota’s sales were down 2 percent in December with a total of 177,488 units sold. For the year, Toyota reported annual sales of 1,763,595 vehicles, flat from the same period in 2009. Honda’s December sales came in at 129,616 units, an increase of 25.5 percent. 2010 annual vehicle sales totaled 1,230,480, an increase of 7.6 percent compared to 2009 results. Nissan record December U.S. sales of 93,730 units versus 73,404 units a year earlier, an increase of 27.7 percent. For all of 2010, Nissan sales finished up 18 percent, at 908,570 units.
Korean automaker Hyundai reported December sales of 44,802 units, up 33 percent versus 2009. For the full year of 2010, Hyundai reported 538,228 sales, up 103,164 units from last year for a 24 percent gain.
“December was the capstone to a good year for Hyundai, with our total sales results actually understating the more important gains we made at retail, where we added a full point of market share,” said John Krafcik, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor America. “While we grew total volume 24 percent, retail volume through our 800-strong dealer network climbed 35 percent, or 115,786 units, with 90,349 of that retail gain coming from the game-changing 2011 Sonata.”
Kia reported the company’s best-ever December sales of 30,444 units, while total 2010 sales came in at 356,268 units, up 18.7-percent over 2009.
German automaker Volkswagen reported that December 2010 marked a 17 percent increase over prior year sales for the entire line of vehicles. 2010 for Volkswagen was up 20 percent over 2009 total year sales.
– By: Omar Rana
