We have stopped digging our environmental graveyard. Now we need to fix many things.
AutoInformed notes here, wryly, that its vision is mostly clear on the significance of long past occurrences. Nonetheless, we still attempt to bring insight into events of the time. When we get it right, on view is a richer perspective that observes the past as partial influence of the chaos of the present with glimpses through the darkness and shadows obscuring tomorrow.
With that in mind, here’s our take on the last annum of automobility, from autonomous vehicles to global warming, to driving death disasters, to trade and tariffs and, alas, to the rise of American fascism. We do this with a humble awareness that AutoInformed conducts its education in public. We begin with our comments on significant recent automotive stories as we enter another year of plagues – Covid, political, social or otherwise. Continue reading
GM Delivers 2.2M Vehicles in US During 2021 off -13%. Q4 -43%
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General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and its dealers delivered 2.2 million vehicles in the US during 2021 with the ongoing inventory shortage caused by semiconductor supply issues resulting in a year-over-year decrease of -13%. Results were helped by strong pickup truck and SUV sales Combined sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra LD and HD were 768,689. The company’s share of the retail truck market in 2021 was approximately 39%, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates. Leaving aside individual brands, preliminary data show that overall Toyota* is the number one retail brand for the 10th consecutive year. GM’ Q4 sales dropped -43% y-o-y to 441,000.
The GM pickup claim is ~10 points higher than the next closest competitor, the Ford F-Series. However, GM is combing the sales of two brands – Chevrolet and GMC. Ford F-Series has led the full-size pickup truck market for 45 years running. By using the combined numbers, GM has led the industry in retail sales in the full-size pickup segment every year since 2003, according to J.D. Power. GM commercial fleet sales of full-size pickups increased 10%, while Medium Duty trucks were up 30%. Commercial sales of GM full-size SUVs (up 59%) and midsize pickups (up 37%) also increased during 2021. Another misleading use of the combined number comes with Ram. The Ram pickup truck easily beat sales of the Chevrolet Silverado. During 2021 Ram sold 569,388 pickups; Silverado 529,765. Continue reading →