According to Reuters, a joint report released by J.D. Power and GlobalData shows that after seasonal adjustment, total new car sales in the United States in June are expected to increase by 2.5% year-on-year to 1.25 million units. However, excluding the adjustment of sales days, actual new car sales in the United States in June are expected to decline by 5.4% year-on-year.
Image source: Buick
Market AnalysisShi pointed out that this phenomenon stems from American consumers’ concerns about the Trump administration’s tariff policy, resulting in some car purchase demand being released early to March and April this year, which has a negative impact on new car sales in the United States in June. Thomas King, president of J.D. Power’s data and analytics department, said that in order to avoid future price increases, consumers in the U.S. market bought new cars in advance in March and April this year, resulting in an additional 149,000 cars sold in these two months. Thomas King added: “These early sales will act as a headwind to the pace of industry sales for the rest of the year. ”
In addition, the outage of the sales system due to a cyberattack in June last year reduced retail sales of new cars in the United States by about 85,000 units, which had a significant impact on the year-on-year figures. Therefore, this particular factor makes the year-on-year data of new car sales in the United States in June more optimistic, but this is not the case.
At the same time, the data shows that the average retail price of new cars in the United States is expected to reach $46,233 in June, up 3.1% year-on-year, but only slightly increased by 0.2% month-on-month. Currently, tariff policies increase the cost per car by manufacturers by an average of about $4,275, with specific impacts varying depending on the region of production. In the face of tariff cost pressures, automakers have gradually reduced their promotional efforts, from 6.1% of the suggested retail price in January this year to 5% in June this year.
“The reduction in incentives reflects the cost pressure on automakers caused by tariffs, and also puts some consumers looking for economical vehicles on the sidelines,” said Thomas King. ”
The report also said that new car sales in the United States are expected to reach 4.18 million units in the second quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 2.5%. However, analysts pointed out that due to the rebound effect after the outage of the dealer system in the same period last year, the year-on-year data of new car sales in the United States in July this year may not accurately reflect the real situation of the market.
