By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The thing about Ford pickup trucks is that they used to be the #1 bestseller of all models in the US much of the time. Other full-size trucks were near the top too and made it to #1 from time to time because the US is where full-size pickups are bestsellers.
Pickups these days come with big-fat prices for buyers, and with big-fat profit margins for automakers and dealers. Buyers didn’t mind paying out of their nose for big equipment – but that may be changing now. Fancy pickups – high-powered 4-door 4×4 fully loaded trucks – can cost over $100,000. And the Ford F-150 often ranked at the top and did so again last year.
But that has changed in 2024. The F-150 (both ICE and EV models combined) dropped to #3, actually to #4 in Q1 and picked up some share to end up in the #3 spot for the first half, with a share of 2.7%, behind the Toyota RAV4 (2.8%) and the Tesla Model Y (2.8%), based on registrations, reported by Experian yesterday.
The Chevrolet Silverado 1500’s share rose to 2.5% and it moved up to #5. The GMC Sierra 1500 had a share of 1.4%.
Stellantis has a huge problem. The Ram 1500 – there’s a glut of them now clogging up dealer lots and overflow lots – dropped off Experian’s list of the 20 bestselling models for the first half, from #10 in Q1. Overall, Stellantis dropped to #6 in the first half, now surpassed by Honda and Hyundai-Kia.
The top 5 Bestselling models in the US, according to Experian’s report on registrations (a registration occurs when the new vehicle that was sold to an end user is registered at the DMV to obtain the title):
#1 Toyota RAV4: share in the first half dropped to 2.8%, from 3.2% in Q1, just a hair ahead of Tesla’s Model Y.#2 Tesla Model Y: share rose to 2.8%, its highest share ever (up from 2.6% in Q1), a hair away from being the #1 bestselling model in the US.#3 Ford F-150: re-gained share to 2.7%, after having dropped to #4 in Q1 with a share of 2.4%. In Q3 2023, it was still #1, ahead of the Model Y (2.5%), but it’s share had already dropped to 3.0%.#4 Honda CR-V: maintained its share of 2.5%, coming in head-to-head with the next pickup in line, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500.#5 Chevrolet Silverado 1500: regained share, from the drop-off in prior quarters, and at 2.5%, was back where it had been in Q1 2023
The Big Three US automakers:
GM (Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC) remained #1 with a share of 17.0% (up from 15.7% in Q1).Ford (Ford, Lincoln) remained #3 but lost share, at 12.4% (from 13.0% in Q1).Tesla became #8 in 2023, and has stayed there in 2024. Its share rose to 4.1% (from 3.5% in Q1).
The big foreign automakers:
The “foreign automakers” here manufacture most of the vehicles they sell in the US either in the US or in Mexico. Honda’s models have for years ranked with Teslas at the top in terms of US content. Toyota makes a number of its vehicles in the US, including its full-size pickup (made in Texas). The Camry also ranks near the top in terms of US-content. So “foreign” is not about where vehicles are manufactured, but about the name plates on the vehicles.
Toyota (Toyota, Lexus) remained #2, well ahead of Ford.Hyundai-Kia became the #4 automaker in 2023 and stayed there this year, up from #5 in 2021 and 2022 and #6 in 2020. It’s share reached 10.8% in the second half.Honda regained its #5 spot, after having lost it during the period of shortages.Stellantis, a European auto-conglomerate formerly known as Peugeot (PSA), acquired FCA – and thereby Ram, Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler. In the first half, Stellantis got booted down to #6, from #5 in Q1. Its share dropped to 8.3%, from 9.0% in Q1, and from 9.9% in Q3 2023. More on its dealer revolt in a momentNissan remained #7.Share Registrations by Automaker2024 first half1GM17.0%2Toyota15.4%3Ford12.4%4Hyundai-Kia10.8%5Honda8.7%6Stellantis8.3%7Nissan6.5%8Tesla4.1%9Subaru4.1%10VW3.6%11Mazda2.6%12BMW2.3%13Daimler1.8%14Geely (Volvo)0.8%15Tata0.6%
EV market share grew to a record 9.0% in Q2 (April-June), up from 8.1% a year ago. This category covers battery-electric vehicles only and does not include hybrids and plug-in hybrids. And they continue to eat market share from ICE vehicles, despite the ridiculous clickbait media coverage of declining demand for EVs.
A special word of love for Stellantis.
Jeep and Ram dealers in the US are in revolt against Stellantis management that has prioritized high prices and high corporate profit margins – a nasty strategy during the pandemic and shortages – to cater to Wall Street. That strategy worked for a while. And then it didn’t. The market share losses have caused its shares [STLA] to plunge by nearly 50% since their Wall Street benighted peak in March. Greed comes home to roost.
So in a letter sent to Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, a Jeep and Ram dealer advisory group last week raged about top management’s “disastrous choices” and “reckless short-term decision-making to secure record profits” that caused prices to be too high, which then caused the sales decline, the loss in market share, and the glut of vehicles on dealer lots. The letter was viewed by media outlets, including the WSJ.
The dealers accused the company of prioritizing high prices and high profit margins, and giving up sales and market share. They called on the CEO to spend more on promotions and incentives to clear out the glut of vehicles on their lots.
“Your own distribution network, your dealer body, has been left in an anemic and diminished state,” the letter said.
This letter came after months of complaints by dealers – that kept reaching the media – that the company needed to cut prices and increase discounts and incentives, that prices were too high and weren’t competitive, and that they were losing sales because of them, and that they were drowning in a glut of trucks that were getting old and stale on their lots.
That said… Ram and Jeep dealers were among the worst slapping huge and obnoxious addendum stickers on the MSRPs of their trucks during the shortages, and even after the shortages had started to fade, and we hope that potential customers who saw that and walked away in disgust, and those customers that were dumb enough to pay for those addendum stickers, will never-ever forget it and will never-ever set foot in that dealership. And that’s another side of the problem, but Ram dealers brought it upon themselves. They’d violated the old rule in the car business: You can milk a cow many times, but you can bleed it only once.
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