Retail sales outpace fleet in November
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The 15 percent jump in U.S. light-vehicle sales in November was almost entirely on the retail side, with fleet volume growing only 1 percent among major players.
Fleet sales fell 45 percent for Nissan North America last month and dropped a bit for Ford Motor and Toyota Motor Sales.
General Motors' fleet sales rose 16 percent while its retail sales were flat, and Hyundai-Kia's 57 percent jump in fleet compared to a modest 3 percent retail increase.
Through November, retail sales for the top seven automakers are up 15 percent while fleet volume has risen 9 percent. Fleet has declined to 19 percent of total volume from 20 percent a year ago.
For both Ford and Chrysler, fleet as a percentage of total sales has declined 2 percentage points -- to 30 percent for Ford and 26 percent for Chrysler.
GM's fleet mix has remained steady at 26 percent this year, while Hyundai-Kia's fleet mix was 10 percent through November, the same as for the first 11 months of 2011.
Nissan North America's fleet volume for all of 2012 is 15 percent higher than for the first 11 months of last year. The group's retail sales are up 10 percent so far this year.
Toyota may not be able to meet its pledge to match 2011's 8 percent fleet sales mix. The automaker had a surge of make-good fleet volume in the first seven months. So while it has since throttled back, Toyota is still at 10 percent fleet with a month to go in the year.
You can reach Jesse Snyder at jsnyder@crain.com.
