While car sales in the U.S. were fundamentally flat across the industry in November, sales of South Korean brands Hyundai and Kia fell sharply. It continues a tough year for the brands
According to Kelley Blue Book, total American sales are expected to drop 1% to 1,360,000. That supports a pace close to an annual record. Kelley Blue Book analyst Tim Fleming:
“Following two months of more than 18 million SAAR, we project November sales to return to the low 17 million range. The strong numbers from the last two months were influenced by replacement demand in the hurricane-impacted regions of Texas and Florida, which appears to be largely satisfied at this point. Despite the lower SAAR, this will be the second highest November on record, trailing only November 2016, so more than a few sales records could be broken this month.”
Among the larger manufacturers, Hyundai Kia sales are expected to fall 12.2% to 101,000. The brands report their sales separately, but KBB has combined them because they have the same parent. According to the KBB analysis:
…Hyundai-Kia stands to lose nearly a full point of market share in November 2017, hurt most by the volume competing in car segments that could average nearly 20 percent declines. While Hyundai-Kia’s fleet sales are projected to be down 20 percent and explain part of the drops, retail sales of the mid-size Kia Optima and Hyundai Sonata sedans appear particularly hard hit this month, perhaps affected by the recent launches of the new Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.
Among the car companies formally known as the Big Three, GM (NYSE: GM) sales are expected to drop 1% to 250,000. GM brands include Cadillac, Chevy, Buick, and GMC,. Ford sales are expected to rise 1.8% to 200,000. The Ford brands are Ford and Lincoln. Fiat Chrysler (NYSE: FCAU) sales are expected to fall 5.5% to 152,000. This continues a slide which dropped sales in the first 10 months by 9% to 1.5 million. Fiat Chrysler brands include Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Dodge, and RAM.
Toyota (NYSE: TM) sales are expected to rise .2% to 198,000, another month when the company will come close to passing Ford for the overall N0.2 spot in U.S. sales.
The Hyundai Kia sales will be extremely poor for the entire year. Kia sales are off 9.4% for the first ten months of the year to 44,397. Hyundai sales are down 15.2% to 53,010
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