In the 10 months to October, sales of all-electric vehicles rose 53.1%.Image: Pixel
Highest car sales since pandemic: General Motors overtook Toyota Motor Corporation in 2023 to remain America’s best-selling automaker, thanks to easing supply constraints and sustained demand.
The auto industry had its best year since the pandemic by U.S. automakers.
Automaker in Detroit, home of the brand Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Buick, The automaker announced that new car sales in the U.S. will reach approximately 2.6 million units in 2023, an increase of 14.1% from 2022, avoiding the impact of the auto strike.
Toyota’s annual sales increased by 6.6% to approximately 2.25 million units.
car sales
Overall, U.S. new car sales ended last year at about 15.5 million vehicles, of which electric vehicles, including hybrids, accounted for nearly 17%, according to data released Wednesday by Wards Intelligence.
Sales are the highest since 2019 and are expected to exceed nearly 13.9 million units in 2022, according to Cox Automotive.
The steady recovery in auto sales adds to other signs that the U.S. economy is absorbing the shock of rapidly rising interest rates without slipping into recession.
Anxiety about recovery
Some analysts still warn that higher borrowing costs will hit demand this year.
“High car prices and high interest rates continue to plague the industry,” Cox said.
After two years of holding back on promotions, auto dealers offered generous incentives and discounts in December to boost sales and get old inventory off the market.
“This is the third year in a row that U.S. consumers have spent more than $5 trillion on new vehicles,” J.D. Power said in a report last month.
EVs participating in the race
By 2023, electric vehicles will account for an even larger share of consumer spending.
Toyota announced Wednesday that sales of electric vehicles, including hybrid and all-electric models, rose 30.4% to 657,327 vehicles, accounting for 29.2% of total U.S. sales.
The Japanese automaker’s purely domestic EVs, the BZ4X and Lexus RZ, sold a total of 14,715 units in 2023, accounting for approximately 2.23% of all electric vehicle sales.
GM sold 75,883 EVs, of which 62,045 were Bolts and 13,838 were Ultium platform EVs.
The Detroit automaker expects the strong demand to carry over into this year, projecting total industry sales of 16 million units for the year.
Shares of Ford, Elon Musk’s Tesla and GM fell on Wednesday, as did Stellantis’ U.S.-listed stock. The biggest decliner was Tesla, which fell 4% after nearly doubling in 2023.
GM announced that it will offer an incentive of $7,500 for EVs.
Electric vehicles just lost their U.S. government tax credits this week.
Demand forecast
Hyundai reported an 11% increase in annual sales, with annual EV sales of 55,783 units.
Mazda and Honda also reported annual sales increases.
Notably, total U.S. EV sales in 2023 are expected to be about 8% of total auto sales, with that number rising to about 10% this year, Cox added.
But analysts expect high interest rates to also hurt EV demand.
“EV sales are likely to continue improving, although not at the astronomical rates the industry has experienced in the past few years,” AutoForecast Solutions said in a report.
(according to Reuters information)