December 2017: America Honda

[William Maley]

American Honda Sets 3rd Straight Annual Sales Record with Best-Ever December

Jan 3, 2018 - TORRANCE, Calif.

• American Honda breaks all-time annual record for total Honda and Acura vehicle sales with 1,641,429 units in 2017, a gain of 0.2%
• New light truck annual sales mark set for Honda and Acura combined, rising 3.3%
• Honda Division sets 4th consecutive annual sales record, up 0.7% on sales of 1,486,827 in 2017 with all-time sales marks for Civic, CR-V and HR-V
• Honda trucks achieve best month ever (up 3.4%) and annual (up 4.1%) sales
• Acura RDX tops 50,000 units in sales for the third year in a row

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (AHM) today reported its third consecutive all-time annual sales record on sales of 1,641,429 Honda and Acura vehicles in 2017, an increase of 0.2 percent over its previous best set in 2016. AHM also set new annual and monthly sales records for light trucks, recording 840,450 sales in 2017 for a 3.3 percent gain, and 86,740 sales in December, rising 1.4 percent. The Honda Division also reported record annual sales, gaining 0.7 percent on total vehicle sales of 1,486,827 while Honda trucks set new December and annual records, rising 3.4 percent on December sales of 75,856 and 4.1 percent on 2017 sales of 734,269. Total Acura Division sales declined 12.2 percent in December on sales of 15,062, and 4.2 percent in 2017 on total vehicle sales of 154,602.

Honda
With eight completely new or refreshed models in 2017, including a new generation of electrified vehicles, the Honda brand continued its commitment to strengthening passenger car light truck sales by leveraging its North American production operations to attract a record number of customers for the 4th consecutive year. 

Honda's effort to better leverage its North America production operations to grow light truck sales continued to pay dividends:

• Newly dedicating a production line in Honda's Alabama to Pilot in October helped the three-row SUV to December sales of 18,602, a jump of 54 percent. 
• CR-V, built at three plants in North America, also posted strong December sales of 36,983 units, to set a new annual sales mark of 377,895 as Honda's best-selling model.
• HR-V set a new annual record as well, topping last year's mark by 14.6 percent on sales of 94,034 for the year.

Honda also maintained its unique commitment to passenger car and strong retail sales leadership:

• Civic continued its record run with sales of 31,406 units in December on the way to a new all-time annual sales mark of 377,286 units.
• The all-new 2018 Accord continued to show strength in the incentive-heavy mid-size segment, as the 2.0 turbo model began to hit showrooms – triggering the full marketing launch set to begin in January. Overall, Accord topped 320,000 sales in 2017.
• Sales of the all-new Honda Clarity series of electrified vehicles reached a major milestone with December sales of more than 1,400 units signaling Honda's effort to take electrification mainstream, led by the launch of the all-new 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid in all 50 states.
• Overall, Honda Division set the following sales records:
  • Total vehicles, best ever annual sales – 1,486,827
  • Trucks, best ever monthly sales – 75,856
  • Trucks, best ever annual sales – 734,269

"2017 was a terrific year for the Honda brand with the continued fortification of our light truck and passenger car lineups, and a new generation of electrified vehicles combining to reach a record number of new customers for a fourth consecutive year," said Henio Arcangeli, Jr., senior vice president of the Automobile Division & general manager of Honda Sales. "Eight all-new or refreshed product launches is an impressive achievement for any car company, but it put us in a strong, competitive position to maintain our unique commitment to retail sales to individual buyers."

Acura
Acura recorded its best sales month in 2017 in December, showing a positive trend with sales increasing over the last three months of the year. In addition to strong truck sales for RDX and MDX, sedan sales showed promise with TLX topping 3,000 sales in December.

• RDX ended 2017 with 51,295 sales for the year, the only vehicle in the fast-growing entry luxury SUV segment with three consecutive years above 50,000 units in sales – a critical foundation for the all-new RDX Prototype that will make its world debut the North American International Auto Show this month.

"The continued strength of the RDX is a great foundation for the next-generation RDX we will debut to the world in prototype form in Detroit later this month," said Jon Ikeda, vice president & general manager of Acura Sales. "This is the first in a new generation of Acura products based on our Precision Crafted Performance brand direction and we're pleased to reach this moment with growing momentum for the Acura brand." 

[A Horse With No Name]

Like everyone else car sales off...