Toyota, Honda, Hyundai Gains Boost U.S. Share for Asian Brands
Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co., benefiting from demand for their newest cars, boosted November sales more than 10 percent and helped Asian brands match their second-highest U.S. market share ever.
Gains at Toyota and Honda, the fourth- and fifth-largest automakers in the U.S. by sales, gave Japanese and South Korean brands a 39 percent share of new vehicle sales last month, up from 35.8 percent a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Market share for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler dropped to a combined 53.3 percent share from 56.7 percent last year.
U.S.-based automakers ``are suffering in part from a payback from employee pricing deals earlier in the year, and secondarily from a relentless pursuit of market share by the Japanese and Koreans,'' CSM Worldwide Inc. analyst Joe Barker in Farmington Hills, Michigan, said yesterday. ``New product helps. Consumers are looking for the new best thing.''
Toyota's Avalon and Lexus IS sedan, Honda's 2006 Civic cars and the 2006 Hyundai Sonata sedan, all released earlier this year, were among the fastest-selling models in November as U.S. consumers purchased more cars and fewer larger sport-utility vehicles, a segment led by GM and Ford. Industrywide sales fell 2.8 percent to 1.17 million, with cars increasing 4.7 percent and light trucks down 8.5 percent.
Toyota's November sales rose 10 percent, Honda's increased 11 percent and Hyundai had a 12.5 percent gain. Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-biggest automaker, had a 3.9 percent sales decline. Asian automakers had record U.S. market share of 40 percent in October.
GM and Ford, the two biggest U.S. automakers, had respective sales declines of 7.5 percent and 15 percent last month. Neither company replaced its offer of employee prices for all customers with new programs. Employee discounts boosted their sales in June and July.
Toyota
Toyota, second only to GM in global auto sales, sold 169,665 cars and trucks in November. Along with the Avalon and Lexus IS, demand for the Toyota City, Japan-based company's Prius hybrid-electric cars and Tacoma and Tundra pickups each rose at least 24 percent.
Toyota's luxury Lexus line sold 25,649 cars and sport- utility vehicles, up 12 percent from a year ago. Toyota's U.S. market share for the month was 14.6 percent, up 1.7 percentage points from a year ago.
Honda, Nissan
Honda, whose new Civic this month was named Motor Trend magazine's 2006 car of the year, sold 105,860 vehicles last month, compared with 95,524 a year ago, the company's U.S. unit said in a statement. Ridgeline, Tokyo-based Honda's first U.S. pickup, posted sales of 5,243, the model's best sales volume since its release in March.
Honda raised its share of the U.S. market 1.1 percentage points to 9.1 last month.
Toyota's U.S. shares rose 2 percent to $98.76 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4:18 p.m. They have risen 21 percent this year. Honda's U.S. shares rose 49 cents to $28.45 in New York and have increased 9.1 percent this year.
Nissan, sixth in U.S. sales, sold 77,212 vehicles last month, North American sales chief Jed Connelly said in an interview yesterday. That's a 3.9 percent drop from 80,376 a year ago. Much of the decline came from lower sales of luxury Infiniti models and weaker demand for the company's largest sport-utility vehicles, Connelly said.
A lull in Nissan's release of new models in the U.S. contributed to the Tokyo-based automaker's November decline, Connelly said.
``We had so many new releases and this year, the pace is an aberration for us,'' Connelly said. ``That makes it more challenging.''
Nissan's market share slipped to 6.6 percent, down 0.1 point from last year. The company's U.S. stock price rose 14 cents to $20.65 at 4:30 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have risen 5.8 percent this year.
Hyundai
Hyundai, South Korea's largest automaker and seventh measured in U.S. sales, sold 33,383 cars and SUVs last month, spokeswoman Toni Honsowetz said yesterday. The increase was led by its new Sonata sedan, which posted record sales of 14,216.
The jump in Sonata sales, more than double last year's 6,557, ``is certainly the kind of volume we are anticipating and working towards,'' Mark Barnes, Hyundai's vice president of U.S. sales, said in an interview.
The Sonata line at Hyundai's first U.S. plant, in Montgomery, Alabama, is now operating at full capacity and should be able to continue supplying enough cars to maintain November's sales pace, Barnes said.
Hyundai estimates Sonata was the fourth-best selling mid- size sedan in the U.S. last month, and the company expects to eventually move the model past Nissan's Altima, currently third in the market behind the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, Barnes said.
Hyundai's market share rose to 2.9 percent last month from 2.5 percent. Hyundai shares aren't listed on a U.S. stock exchange.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alan Ohnsman in Las Vegas at aohnsman@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 1, 2005 18:57 EST
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