US Light Vehicle sales totaled an estimated 1.28 million units in December, according to an analysis just released by LMC Automotive, a GlobalData Company*. This is a Year-over-Year increase of 7.2%, with the same number of selling days as December 2021. The year end was not one to celebrate, though. During each year between 2014 and 2020, December sales were at 1.5 million units or above. “A combination of ongoing problems with the availability of vehicles and unfavorable economic conditions are keeping the market relatively subdued,” LMC said.

However, December posted the highest volumes of 2022, ahead of March by ~26,000 units. The daily selling rate was estimated by LMC as 47,500 units/selling day, compared to 44,900 units/selling day in November. LMC thinks that shows how the annualized selling rate was affected by the historical seasonality rather than the pace of sales necessarily slowing down. According to preliminary estimates, retail sales totaled around 1,057,000 units, unchanged from December 2021, while fleet accounted for approximately 225,000 units, representing 17.6% of the total market.

The bottom line: the economy and auto industry continue to struggle with the hopes that the Federal Reserve (more jobs data out today) can choreograph a soft landing – a dubious proposition in AutoInformed’s historically nurtured view – 2022 ended with US sales coming in at 13.7 million units, a decline of 8% from 2021.

Soothsaying 2023, there are some improvements in the economic outlook. While a recession is still the base case scenario from all consultancies, GDP growth is expected to be positive for the year, at 0.9% growth in LMC’s forecast. However, given the pricing pressure and a remaining level of disruption, Light Vehicle sales are still expected to remain well below pre-pandemic levels at 14.9 million units, an increase of 9% from 2022.