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Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Subaru and Mazda are expected to release May results later Wednesday, followed by sales from Ford Motor Co. and Volvo on Thursday. The rest of the industry reports U.S. sales on a quarterly basis.
The U.S. light-vehicle market is expected to lose more momentum in May, with the seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of sales expected to fall as low as 13.1 million, the lowest of the year so far, based on a range of forecasts from J.D. Power, LMC Automotive, TrueCar and Cox Automotive. That would be down from April’s 14.7 million pace and May 2021’s 17.12 million rate, which capped one of the hottest three-month stretches ever for the U.S. auto market.
Bob Carter, executive vice president for sales at Toyota Motor North America, on Tuesday said the company is projecting a May SAAR of 13.6 million to 13.8 million.
Overall, forecasters expect sales to drop 17 percent to 28 percent last month from May 2021, which, at 1.59 million units, was the second best month in 2021.
“Historically, the daily sales pace is higher in May than in most other months, with spring optimism in the air, thoughts of summer road trips on the horizon, and the buzz of Memorial Day sales,” said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive. “But many of the industry’s normal patterns have been overturned by tight inventory and the lingering effect of the global pandemic.”
A chronic shortage of microchips worldwide continues to dampen production, and severe COVID-19 lockdowns in China’s main auto manufacturing hubs, notably Shanghai, have hampered parts output and shipments to North America.
J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said new-vehicle retail inventories ended May below 1 million units for the 12th consecutive month.
In North America, car and light truck production rose only 4.4 percent in the first four months of the year, according to the Automotive News Data Center, with output down at five automakers: Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen and Volvo.
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