Automakers Shuffle Q4 Output Plans

Fourth-quarter production plans have been shuffled at a number of automakers in the industry’s latest round of schedule reviews.

The result of all the action is that 13,000 more vehicles have been added to the slate, although early on it appeared that the October-December plan would be trimmed by 2,000 units from where it stood a month ago.

However, in a late reassessment, Ford added some 15,100 units to the quarterly tally in its first official take on Q4 output.

Most significant is the fact the industry’s October production count closed at an estimated 40,800 units below what had been scheduled, bringing the total for the month to 1,633,700 units.

However, a large part of that “loss,” 33,900 units, has been rescheduled to November, moving the month’s tally to 1,516,100 vehicles.

Another 20,000 units has been added to December, now pegged for 1,325,600 completions.

Thus, the fourth-quarter plan stands at 4,475,600 vehicles compared with 4,462,500 a month earlier.

But, in addition to shifting output from October, automakers have sliced 29,700 cars from October-December plans, while boosting truck production by 42,800 units in response to evolving consumer preferences.

Light-duty units account for all of the truck-output increase, more than offsetting the 6,000 assemblies cut by the dedicated medium- and heavy-duty producers.

Fiat Chrysler, Ford and Toyota account for the majority of the Q4 output cuts, a combined 124,600 vehicles, much of which has been offset by increases totaling 127,000 units at General Motors, Honda, Kia, Nissan and Subaru. 

Smaller adjustments among other transplants also helped limit the overall Q4 loss.

The record-year-end tally now is expected to reach 18,209,500 vehicles, some 36,400 units short of the 18,245,900 completions forecast a month ago. That is due virtually entirely to the 42,800-unit shortfall in the final September count that helped reduce the final third-quarter tally to 4,492,400 vehicles.

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