A short list of winners, dominated by luxury brands
We’ll look back on 2020 as a turbulent year in the automobile business — and while some carmakers have championed through the troubled waters with higher sales numbers, other important carmakers have been hit hard. The car industry for Q3 2021 saw some encouraging results vs. Q3 2020 for a handful of nameplates, and that’s significant given the ongoing Covid pandemic and crippling semiconductor shortages that have depleted dealership inventories and distorted prices.
Overall, demand for some new vehicle brands remains high while others experienced a significant lack of demand during Q3 2021, far behind behind Q3 2020 sales.
Who was up? Luxury brands BMW, Cadillac, Land Rover, Genesis, Volvo and the overall winner: Lexus. Mazda and Kia, with a variety of new models also made the “up” list of automakers. Notable losers include, surprisingly, Honda, Ford (down 140,924 units), Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Nissan, Porsche and Subaru, among others (see chart).
This table looks at quarterly sales performance by automotive brand for the United States. It includes all major automotive brands sold in the U.S market. We compare last quarter’s U.S brand sales with the same brand sales for the same quarter last year. Even giant Toyota felt the slide, with sales dropping by 49,865 units.
The numbers
Data as of November 5, 2021
