GM Incentives Take July Pickup Market Share From Ford

After a rather dismal month of May, pickup truck sales improved somewhat in June, and the leading full-size pickup opened up a wider lead on its competitors. After a disappointing May, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw sales of its F-Series pickups rise to more than 70,000 again in June.

Ford sold 65,657 F-Series full-size pickups in the month of July, a year-over-year decrease of 1%. Compared with June 2016 sales of 70,937, that’s a drop of 6.7%.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) said sales of its Silverado pickups dropped 4% year over year in July to 54,116 units. Sales of the company’s GMC Sierra trucks rose 13.2% to 22,428, for a combined total of 76,544.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) sold 39,827 Ram pickups in July, a gain of 2% year over year.

[nativounit]

For the Detroit Three, full-size pickup sales in July totaled 182,028, compared with 175,887 in June, a rise of about 3.5%. Compared with total July 2015 sales of 181,635, that’s an increase of just 0.2%. Not an outstanding showing, especially given the incentive packages offered by both Ford and GM during the month of July.

The other full-size pickups on offer in the United States are the Tundra from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and the Nissan Titan. Tundra’s sales totaled 10,474 in July (down 0.4% year over year). The Titan sold 1,143 units in July, up 1.5% compared with July 2015.

Toyota’s midsize Tacoma pickup sold 16,580 units in July, holding its place as the leader in this space. Sales of GM’s midsize Colorado pickup rose 27.5% to 9,195 units and sales of the GMC Canyon rose 33.1% to 3,532 in July. Nissan’s midsize Frontier pickup sold 7,244 units in July, up 72.7% year over year. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) introduced a new version of its midsize Ridgeline pickup at January’s Detroit auto show, and the truck finally made it to dealer showrooms in June. Honda sold 2,472 units in June and 3,518 in July.

In the full-size pickup segment, July sales of 182,028 vehicles from the Detroit Three pencils out to market share for Ford of 36%, down four points from June. GM’s share came in at 29.7% for the Chevy Silverado (up about 1.5%) and 12.3% (up about 2.5%) for the GMC Sierra. Ram’s market share totaled 21.9% (up 0.2 points).

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sale is expected to come in at 17.6 million in July, up slightly from a SAAR of 17.55 million in July 2016. GM estimated a SAAR of 17.9 million for July.

TrueCar reported that the average incentive from all carmakers in July rose 5.2% year over year to $3,225. GM led with an average incentive of $4,338 (up 6.8%), with Fiat Chrysler at $3,996 (down 1.6%) and Ford at $3,632 (down 1.3%). GM offered huge incentives on selected model pickups in July.

[wallst_email_signup]