Declines in Greece, Russian, Brazil and Argentina are not affecting overall global sales as other markets prosper.
Global sales of light vehicles in August tallied 6.6 million units with the selling rate moving back up to 88.3 million units on an annual basis. Early data for China showed the market contracting only slightly to 1.7 million. Analysts at LMC Automotive after July sales thought China was going to continue its decline. They weren’t alone.
Helping a newfound optimism for global sales during the balance of the year were strong results in the US (running at 18 million annually) and West European markets (800,000 or +10%) in spite of Greece – remained solid. However, the Russian (-19% y-o-y) and Brazilian markets (falling below 2.3 million annually) continued to suffer.
