Status: 02.07.2021 11:19 a.m.
The demand for German cars in the USA is increasing sharply. After the onset of the Corona crisis, many US consumers have some catching up to do. At VW, SUVs are particularly popular, but sports cars are also popular.
The current car sales figures from the USA point to a lively recovery, from which German car manufacturers are also benefiting greatly. Volkswagen achieved its highest sales in almost 50 years with 211,000 vehicles, said Volkswagen’s US boss Scott Keogh. This also increased the market share. The reason was an expanded portfolio that increasingly focused on SUVs, according to Keogh.
In the completed second quarter, VW sold 120,520 vehicles. That was 72 percent more than in the pandemic-related weak period of the previous year, when factories and car dealerships had to be temporarily closed due to lockdowns.
SUVs are particularly popular in the USA. In this segment, VW more than doubled deliveries. SUV sales now account for almost three quarters of all VW cars sold in the United States. For several years now, the manufacturer has been focusing on heavier and larger models, which are particularly popular with US customers. In Germany, the share of SUVs in new registrations is currently around a quarter.
Audi and Porsche are pulling along
The VW subsidiary Audi, which increased its US sales even more in the three months to the end of June, is also benefiting from the particular popularity of city SUVs in the USA. Audi sold 66,995 cars in this period, 92 percent more than a year ago. Especially with the SUVs of the Q series, Audi was able to make up ground again after the stresses of the Corona crisis.
The sports car manufacturer Porsche, which is also part of the VW Group, delivered 18,958 cars, which corresponds to an increase of 55.5 percent compared to the previous year. Over the first half of the year, deliveries to customers rose by around half.
Daimler is a long time coming
BMW also benefited greatly from the recovery in the US auto market. According to its own information, the Munich-based company sold 96,561 new cars under its own brand in the second quarter, an increase of almost 90 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The subsidiary Mini grew by almost 77 percent and delivered 9,340 of its small cars to US customers.
BMW’s German luxury class competitor Daimler does not want to publish the sales figures for Mercedes-Benz USA until later this month.
A lack of chips slows down GM
The US market leader General Motors (GM), however, could not meet the expectations of the analysts. The group increased sales by only 40 percent to 688,236 vehicles. With production problems due to a shortage of computer chips, GM struggled to meet the high demand. The chip shortage basically affects the entire industry and can drag on for a few more months.
GM expects that the shortage of computer chips will continue to slow business. The US economy is picking up speed and demand is likely to remain high into the coming year, but the shortage of chips is likely to continue to lead to complications in the supply chain and burden the supply, said GM chief economist Elaine Buckberg.
The Japanese rival Toyota increased quarterly sales by 76 percent to 688,813 cars, even outperforming the largest US manufacturer slightly.