April 2015: General Motors Co.

[William Maley]

Double-digit Crossover and Truck Gains Drive Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac Sales

• April was GM’s best-ever month for crossover sales
• Pickup sales up 22 percent
• Commercial deliveries up 31 percent

DETROIT – Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealers in the United States delivered 269,056 vehicles in April 2015, up 6 percent year over year. Retail deliveries were up 5 percent, fleet deliveries were up 8 percent and commercial sales were the highest since March 2008.

 

“At GM, truck and crossover sales have been strong all year, thanks to our increasingly deep and broad product portfolio,” said Kurt McNeil, General Motors’ U.S. vice president of Sales Operations.

 

GM’s trucks and crossovers posted double-digit sales increases in April, up 13 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Thanks to new products, GM’s estimated share of the retail market for midsize pickups is now 31 percent calendar year to date, according to J.D. Power PIN. For small crossovers, it is 55 percent and for large SUVs it is 74 percent.

 

“Consumer and commercial customer demand for pickups and utility vehicles has been building since last fall, and that’s a clear sign that the slowdown in GDP growth during the winter months was caused by factors that are mostly transitory in nature,” McNeil said. “The auto industry continues to be on track to have its best sales year since 2006.”

 

Highlights vs. 2014 (except as noted)

 

Chevrolet

• Chevrolet crossover deliveries were up 51 percent (excluding the fleet-only Captiva, which has been discontinued). Equinox was up 42 percent for its best April ever.  Traverse, up 28 percent, also had its best April ever, and the all-new Trax is off to a strong start with 3,451 sales.
• Chevrolet pickup sales totaled 52,988 units, up 24 percent. Silverado deliveries were up 8 percent and the all-new Colorado midsize pickup had its best month since launch, with 7,010 deliveries. The Colorado has now been the industry’s fastest-selling truck for three months in a row, with a “days to turn” of only 15 days.
• Spark EV sales were a record 920 units, the Sonic was up 14 percent, the SS was up 6 percent and the Corvette Z06 is one of the industry’s fastest-selling car, with a “days to turn” of only 17 days.
• Chevrolet is the industry’s fastest-growing truck brand so far this year and Chevrolet passenger car volumes have increased sequentially each month this year.

Cadillac

• Cadillac deliveries in April were up 14 percent and the brand’s calendar-year-to-date sales are in line with 2014.
• Escalade sales were up 144 percent. The SRX crossover saw a 41-percent increase and the XTS sedan was up 14 percent.

GMC

• GMC had its best first-quarter sales since 2005, and followed that up with a 20-percent increase in April.
• GMC pickup sales were up 19 percent, with Sierra up 5 percent and Canyon deliveries totaling 2,432 units. The Sierra and Canyon have the highest average transaction prices (ATPs) in their respective segments, according to PIN.
• Denali penetration is at record levels, surpassing 23 percent of retail sales.
• GMC’s crossover sales were up 25 percent, with Terrain up 13 percent and Acadia up 40 percent. Both vehicles had their best-ever April sales.

Buick

• Buick Encore deliveries were up 29 percent, and sales have increased year over year for 16 consecutive months.

General Motors

• Crossover deliveries were up 25 percent, with small crossover sales more than doubling to 9,000 units. April was GM’s best-ever month for crossover sales.
• Combined van, SUV and pickup deliveries were up 13 percent, with pickup deliveries up 22 percent. Full-size pickups were up 7 percent and midsize pickup sales reached 9,442 units.
• ATPs were approximately $34,750, up $880 per unit, according to PIN estimates. Calendar year to date, ATPs are up $1,580.
• Incentive spending as a percentage of ATPs was 9.5 percent in April, according to PIN estimates. That is in line with March and down 0.6 percentage points year over year. Industry average spending was 9.2 percent of ATP.
• Commercial deliveries were up 31 percent. Through April, commercial deliveries have grown year over year for 18 consecutive months. Large vans were up 64 percent and full-size pickups were up 42 percent.
• GM estimates that the seasonally adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) for light vehicles in April was 16.7 million units.

GM passenger car deliveries were down 12 percent in April, reflecting the segmentation shifts that began in the fall of 2014, as well as lower rental deliveries and incentive spending on an ATP basis that is considerably below the industry average. Chevrolet has the lowest passenger car incentives in the industry on an ATP basis compared to other full-line manufacturers.­

 

[2QuickZ's]

I'm a little surprised Encore is outselling the Trax even though I think it is the better looking of the two.  That is good for GM since it gets a bit of a price premium.  Camaro was massively outsold by Mustang and barely came in ahead of the Challenger.  Alpha can't get here fast enough!

[ocnblu]

Colorado and Canyon have PLENTY of room to grow in the market, as the hoary old buckboard Tacoma continues to clean their clock.  I really hope it is only production capacity and not something else keeping them down.

[smk4565]

That is a crap ton of Equinoxes, the Lambdas did well too overall even though the Enclave was down.  Crossovers are staying hot.  Which I don't get the mass appeal, I'd rather have something that drives sporty.  Silverado still up with the Colorado on sale, so that is a good sign that people just didn't buy the smaller truck and flee the Silverado.   CTS is hurting, 2nd month in a row with a huge drop.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'm a little surprised Encore is outselling the Trax even though I think it is the better looking of the two.  That is good for GM since it gets a bit of a price premium.  Camaro was massively outsold by Mustang and barely came in ahead of the Challenger.  Alpha can't get here fast enough!

 

I wonder how much of that is people waiting on the sidelines for the new one. It goes into production later this year, so I can imagine if you are a huge camaro fan waiting another few months to make a purchase. 

Colorado and Canyon have PLENTY of room to grow in the market, as the hoary old buckboard Tacoma continues to clean their clock.  I really hope it is only production capacity and not something else keeping them down.

 

It's probably just time on the market and public awareness.  I still don't see too many of them out and about, but as more and more people see them, there will be an awareness of those models. 

[Drew Dowdell]

That is a crap ton of Equinoxes, the Lambdas did well too overall even though the Enclave was down.  Crossovers are staying hot.  Which I don't get the mass appeal, I'd rather have something that drives sporty.  Silverado still up with the Colorado on sale, so that is a good sign that people just didn't buy the smaller truck and flee the Silverado.   CTS is hurting, 2nd month in a row with a huge drop.

 

I wonder how much of that Equinox growth is due to the Captiva being out of production now and 'Noxes ending up in rental fleets. When I left O'Hare airport yesterday and passed the Alamo lot as I dropped off my car, every. single. Midsize-SUV. was a Black Equinox.  Every single one. 

 

Still, even if all the increase is from fleet selling, the 'Nox maintaining its sales at the very tail end of the current model is still pretty good. 

[smk4565]

Well they might as well fleet sale Equinoxes.  The retail ones probably have decent incentives on them anyway.  And people will buy used SUVs, so the rental companies can probably get better resale on an Equinox than they can a Malibu.  They might prefer an SUV to a rental car.  Because the Malibu or Cruze or 300 might get that rental car stigma and have crap resale value, but most American car shoppers have such a love for crossovers, that even if the Equinox has a 40% fleet rate, they'll still want it because it is a crossover.