Light-vehicle sales return to pre-pandemic range in September

Sales of light vehicles totaled 16.3 million at an annual rate in September, continuing a rebound from the 8.7 million pace in April. The pace of sales in April was the lowest on record since this data series began in 1976 and follows a run of 72 months in the $16 million to 18 million range from March 2014 through February 2020. Unit vehicle sales fell significantly below the range as the 2008-2009 recession began, hitting a low of just 9 million in February 2009. Sales began a slow recovery and returned to the 16-18 million range in March 2014, about five years after hitting the low.

For the month of September, light-truck sales totaled 12.6 million at an annual rate, up 8.2% from the 11.6 million rate in August but well ahead of the 6.7 million rate in April. Car sales also had a solid gain, rising 5.7% to a 3.7 annual rate versus 3.5 in August and 2.0 in April.

The light-truck share stood at 77.1% for September, below the 77.9% record high in May, but still completely dominating the car share of 22.9%. The dominant share of light-trucks continues a long-term trend. As recently as February 2013, the split between cars and light-trucks, such as SUVs and pickup trucks, was about even, with both segments selling about 7.76 million at an annual rate.

Breaking down sales by origin of assembly, sales of domestic vehicles rose to 12.8 million units versus 11.9 million in August while imports rose to 3.6 million from 3.3 million in the prior month. The pace of sales for domestic light-vehicles was slightly below the recent range of 13 to 14 million.

Robert Hughes joined American Institute for Economic Research in 2013 following more than 25 years in economic and financial markets research on Wall Street. He was formerly the head of Global Equity Strategy for Brown Brothers Harriman, where he developed equity investment strategy combining top-down macro analysis with bottom-up fundamentals. He served as senior equity strategist for State Street Global Markets, senior economic strategist with Prudential Equity Group and senior economist and financial markets analyst for Citicorp Investment Services. Bob has a master’s degree in economics from Fordham University and a bachelor’s degree in business from Lehigh University.