Subaru, FCA Biggest Share Gainers in 2015; Honda, GM Fall

Subaru again gained the most market share among companies selling in the U.S. last year, WardsAuto data shows.

Subaru ended 2015 with a 3.4% slice of the U.S. light-vehicle market, up from 3.1% in 2014.

Subaru also posted the biggest increase in share in 2014.

The Japanese juggernaut in 2008, the year before it began its U.S. sales streak, commanded a mere 1.4% share of LV sales.

Posting the second-biggest jump in U.S. market penetration among companies last year was FCA US, thanks entirely to the Jeep brand’s success.

FCA’s share rose to 12.8% from 12.6% in 2014, with Jeep taking a 5.0% slice of the market, up from 4.2% in 2014, making it the biggest-gaining brand in U.S. share in 2015.

Jeep’s strong performance offset market-share losses at Dodge, down to 3.0% from 3.5%, Fiat (0.2% from 0.3%), and Ram (2.7% from 2.8%).

Honda was the automaker losing the most share in 2015, falling from 9.4% in 2014 to 9.1%, due to the Honda brand’s loss, second only to Dodge’s. Honda fell from 8.4% share of the U.S. LV market in 2014 to 8.1% last year.

General Motors had the second-biggest dip among companies, ending the year at 17.7% from 17.9% in 2014.

The GMC brand’s uptick to 3.2% share last year from 3.1% in 2014 wasn’t enough to offset the 0.2-percentage-point loss at Chevrolet (12.2% from 12.4%) or the 0.1-percentage-point dip at Buick.

Companies increasing their share in the U.S. market by 0.1% last year included Audi (1.2% from 1.1%), Jaguar Land Rover (0.5% from 0.4%), Kia (3.6% from 3.5%), Nissan (8.5% from 8.4%) and Volvo (0.4% from 0.3%).

Both Nissan-owned brands gained a tenth of a percentage point, with Infiniti rising to 0.8% from 0.7% and Nissan 7.8% from 7.7%.

Despite Nissan’s gains last year, the automaker still is far from its goal of achieving 10% U.S. market share at the close of its 2016 fiscal year. Japan’s fiscal 2016 runs from April 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017.

After its best sales in eight years, the Lexus brand rose a tenth of a percentage point in 2015 from 2014, to 2.0% from 1.9%.

The gain evened out losses at Toyota (12.1% from 2014’s 12.2%) and Scion (0.3% from 0.4%), keeping Toyota’s share of the U.S. market at 14.4%.

Despite finishing the year with higher volume than Lexus, German luxury brands BMW and Mercedes-Benz both slipped, with the former dropping to 2.0% market share from 2.1% and the latter 2.1% from 2.2%.

Mired in controversy related to its diesel-emissions scandal, the Volkswagen brand lost 0.2 percentage points of share in the U.S. in 2015, ending the year at 2.0% from 2.2% in 2014.

Ford’s share of the U.S. market held steady in 2015 (14.7%) as did share at the Ford (14.1%) and Lincoln (0.6%) marques.

Acura (1.0%), Cadillac (1.0%), Chrysler (1.9%), Hyundai (4.4%), Mitsubishi (0.5%), Porsche (0.3%) and Tesla (0.1%) also maintained their 2014 U.S. LV market share in 2015.

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