Nissan North America (NNA) today reported September U.S. sales of 92,964 units versus 74,205 units a year earlier, an increase of 25.3%. Of that total Infiniti sales were 8,479 units for September, an increase of 2.1% versus 8,305 a year earlier.
The NNA gain was in contrast to Toyota Motors Sales (TMS), which decreased 18% to121,451 – including 14,995 at Lexus – and American Honda, which posted a -8% decline at 89,532 sales of cars and light trucks for the month, which includes 10,010 Acura models.
This means that Nissan surpassed American Honda Motor (AHM) once again to place Number Two on the Japanese Three U.S. sales chart. As it stands, and perhaps for not much longer now that Honda is back up to full production speed, Nissan is benefiting from a deft move that had Nissan building all that it could from existing or still in production parts – not exactly what the dealer or customer had ordered.
Year-to-date American Honda remains in the Number Two spot at 859,797 compared to Nissan’s 774,079. Honda’s strong sales of light trucks at 45,723 surpassed its car sales (43,809) for the month, and perhaps for the first time in its history. Plenty of trucks along with a building supply of newly revised Civic models bodes well for AHM hanging on to the Number Two position in Japanese sales for the 2011 calendar year.
“I’ m going to start today’s call by saying these words… one… last… time,” said Bob Carter, Group Vice President and General Manager of the Toyota Division, told reporters on a conference call. “Combined Toyota, Scion and Lexus sales were down for the month. Down 17.5% (at 121,451) from last September to be exact,” Carter said.
Carter than went on to predict that with Japanese and U.S. production now fully resumed, and almost all Toyota plants are working overtime, that he expects Toyota Motor Sales to exceed year-ago sales levels beginning in October. “We will continue to do so every month through the fourth quarter and beyond,” Carter said.
In green car news, sales of the electric Nissan Leaf totaled 1,031 units in September; with total sales of 7,217 units since its December 2010 U.S. debut. TMS posted September sales of 12,123 hybrid vehicles, a decrease of 18.5% compared to the same period last year. Toyota Division posted sales of 9,772 hybrids, while Lexus Division reported sales of 2,351 hybrids for the month.
