June 2015 U.S. LV Sales Thread: SAAR Exceeds 17 Million in Consecutive Months for First Time Since 2005

WardsAuto tracks light-vehicle (LV) deliveries throughout sales reporting day. Monthly year-over-year change represents the change in daily sales rate (DSR).  June had 25 selling days this year and 24 in 2014, meaning DSR % change will be smaller than year-over-year volume change comparisons this month. 

SUMMARY (FINAL): U.S. automakers sold 1.47 million LVs in June a 0.2% decline in daily sales compared with June 2014. It was the first month in which DSR fell below year-ago comparisons since February 2014. However, with one extra selling day, June volume sales outflanked year-ago by 3.9%. June deliveries brought first-half 2015 sales to nearly 8.49 million units, a 4.4% improvement over same-period year-ago. 

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) for June sales was 17.1 million units, marking the second straight month the SAAR exceeded 17 million units. It also marks the first time the SAAR has exceeded the 17-million mark in consecutive months since June and July of 2005.

GM experienced the worst year-over-year decline (-6.9%) among major automakers, accounting for just 17.6% of the market compared with its 18.9% market share a year ago. Ford claimed the No.2 spot, with a 15% share, down from year-ago's 15.4%, while No.3 Toyota's share remained flat at 14.3%.

Nissan was the big winner among the Top 7 automakers, with an 8.8% DSR gain on 124,228 deliveries. Mitsubishi lead the industry in growth, with a 27% DSR jump on 7,963 sales.

(WardsAuto also estimates that Tesla sales hit 2,190 units in June, which would represent a 73% improvement over year-ago.)

See automaker synopses below and related articles for more detailed reports. 

Related Table 

U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Summary table

UPDATE 2:00 PM ET

BMW saw its DSR rise 3.5% on 38,350 deliveries, putting the automaker 9.6% ahead of year-ago YTD through June. Fellow German luxury automaker Daimler's June DSR was up 2.1% on 31,280 LV sales, putting YTD sales 8.6% over year-ago. 

Hyundai made up for some of its sister automaker Kia's under-performance versus expectations, by overshooting forecasts to deliver 502 LVs in June. Hyundai-brand YTD sales are 1.8% above year-ago compared with the industry's 4.4% first-half gain.

UPDATE 1:00 PM ET 

Toyota beat expectations delivering nearly 210,000 LVs in June compared with a very strong 201,714 the prior year. The year-ago results was due in large part to larger than usual fleet orders for Toyota, which were not expected to repeat this June. Howevever, strong retail sales all but made up for the projected decline in fleet sales, with daily sales (-0.1%) remaining nearly flat with year-ago. 
Year-to-date, Toyota is tracking 5.6% ahead of year-ago on total LV deliveries of 1.23 million.

Volkswagen's story is something of the opposite. VW brand registered a 1.4% increase in daily sales, but fell far below expectations for improvement against a very bad year-ago comparison. VW delivered 30,436 LVs in June, bringing YTD sales to just under 175,000 units, a 2.6% decline compared with year-ago.

Kia fell somewhere in between. The South Korean automaker had it's best June ever, capping its best first-half tally ever, but daily sales, which were up 2.7%, were below expectations and behind the automaker's 4.6% year-to-date improvement. 

UPDATE 11:30 AM ET
FCA had its best June on a daily basis since 2005, and its highest volume LV sales, 184,027, since 2006. The automaker's DSR rose 3.7% over same-month year-ago. FCA sales through the first half of 2015 finished just below 1.08 million units, a 6% improvement over like-2014.

FCA's year-over-year DSR gain stood in contrast to Ford and General Motors, which both saw daily sales fall. 

Ford delivered 220,704 light vehicles in June, equating to a 2.6% downturn in DSR, that left the automaker just 2% ahead of year-ago year-to-date, with a six-month tally of 1.26 million sales.

GM's DSR fell 6.9%, largely due to poor year-over-year comparison in fleet orders, which had been running ahead of year-ago in recent months. GM's 259,253 June deliveries brought its YTD total to 1.51 million LVs, a 3.4% gain over same-period 2014.

Honda daily sales were dead even with June 2014's DSR, as the company sold just under 135,000 LVs. Honda's YTD sales are tracking 1.8% ahead of year-ago at 753,001 units.

For the third consecutive year, Nissan set a new June sales record, reporting 124,228 deliveries and an 8.8% DSR improvement over the prior record for the month established last year. Nissan's June sales lift YTD sales to 736,483, a 4.5% gain on prior year.