Toyota Motor Corp. and other Asian auto makers captured a record share of U.S. sales in June, consolidating gains against General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. in the world's biggest car market.
Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. each boosted sales by more than 10 per cent to lead the Asians to 42.7 per cent of the U.S. market, according to Bloomberg data. U.S. auto makers, paced by a surprise 21-per-cent decline at GM, fell to a record low. Overall industry sales slid 3 per cent from June, 2006, levels.
Toyota recorded its 23rd monthly gain in the past two years, while new products and improvements in quality surveys failed to translate into sales gains for the U.S. auto makers. Detroit-based GM and Ford are trying to boost sales to individual buyers and pare low-profit sales to rental-car companies, which get discounts for buying in bulk.
"This is a market that is moving toward the strength of the import car makers," said Kevin Tynan, an Argus Research Corp. analyst in New York. "It will be increasingly difficult for the domestic companies to win sales."
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Toyota reported a 10-per-cent increase for the month. Honda rose 11 per cent and Nissan was up 23 per cent. Ford's 8.1-per-cent drop was its eighth consecutive monthly decline. DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Corp. slipped 1.4 per cent.
The U.S. brands of GM, Ford and Chrysler accounted for 50.3 per cent of the U.S. market, according to Bloomberg data, down from the previous low of 50.6 per cent in January. The previous high for the Asians was 42.1 per cent, also in January.
Auto makers sold cars and light trucks at an annualized, seasonally adjusted rate of 15.6 million, compared with 16.2 million in June, 2006.
GM boosted spending on incentives late in the month in an effort to lift sales, only to be "surprised" by the incentive spending at some rivals, company sales analyst Paul Ballew said. Toyota, for example, offered rebates starting June 15 of as much as $3,500 or no-interest loans on the new Tundra pickup truck.
Toyota, helped by rising U.S. sales, overtook GM as the world's largest seller of vehicles in the first quarter. Toyota is also gaining on Ford to become No. 2 in the U.S. It trailed Ford by 200 sales in June and has shrunk the gap for the first six months to 39,558, from 319,208 a year earlier.
Toyota has been helped by demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, such as the Prius hybrid, as gasoline prices have topped $3 a gallon in the U.S. for the third consecutive year. Prius sales rose 83 per cent last month to 17,756.
Sales of Tundra pickups, Toyota's biggest new model, more than doubled to 21,727 - about one-third the volume of Ford's F-Series and half that of GM's Chevrolet Silverado. Toyota also reported increased sales of Camry sedans and Yaris subcompact cars.
At Ford and GM, fleets accounted for more than a quarter of their sales in 2006, when GM posted a $1.98-billion loss and Ford had a record $12.6-billion deficit.
Ford said its sales to rental-car companies fell 39 per cent in June and 30 per cent for the first six months.
GM's decline was paced by a 23-per-cent drop in Chevrolet full-sized pickups and other light trucks and a 60-per-cent plunge in the mid-sized TrailBlazer sport-utility vehicle.
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