General Motors (GM), continuing a trend of strong second quarter sales for the industry, reported that US deliveries jumped 18.8% compared to a year ago.
GM revealed total US sales of 691,978 for Q2, with electric vehicle sales hitting 15,652, a jump of over 120% compared to EV sales last quarter. GM also said this was its fourth consecutive quarter of sales growth.
Across the GM portfolio, the automaker reported GMC truck sales were up 18%, Chevrolet sales climbed 17%, and luxury brand Cadillac sales were up 15%. Powering sales across those brands were the refreshed Sierra pickup, new Chevy Trax, and Escalade SUV, respectively.
GM also touted stronger pricing, with its average transaction price (ATP) up $1,482 versus Q1. Other good news: Incentives were flat and there was a less than 4% rise in inventories.
GM’s strong Q2 performance follows similar upbeat sales results reported by Tesla over the weekend and Rivian and Honda on Monday. Honda’s sales in particular were noteworthy; sales jumped an astounding 44.7% compared to a year ago. GM’s crosstown rival Ford will report Q2 sales on Thursday.
Automotive sales and data provider Edmunds forecasts the industry to see sales jump 16.1% overall for Q2 versus a year ago, with sales even climbing 13.8% sequentially compared to Q1 of 2023.
“If you look at Q2 in the aggregate, new vehicle sales appeared to settle into a stable groove, which is a nice departure from the tumult that the industry has witnessed over the last few years. More consumers returned to the market with older trade-ins, which indicates that pent-up demand helped buoy sales,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights.
He added: “But digging a bit deeper into the data, June tells a slightly conflicting story. After five consecutive months of increasing discounts and vehicles sitting on dealer lots for longer periods of time, June shows that those trends are stalling a bit.”
That being said, Drury believes that the days of steep price cuts due to bloated inventory are over, and any discounts will be modest in comparison to years past.
With automakers better “aligning production and demand,” Drury said it's possible the industry overall may be headed to a new, normalized pace of sales.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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