US carmakers Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and General Motors (GM) reported a decline of 39pc and 34pc, respectively, in vehicle sales in Q2 2020.
The decline is in line with the sales decreases seen by auto makers around the world because of COVID-19 related disruptions that impacted production through most of the quarter.
However, both carmakers noted that demand has risen in June, with suppliers scrambling to meet the consumers’ needs. In fact, both Jeff Kommor, sales head for FCA, and Kurt McNeil, vice president of sales at GM said that their respective companies are filled with order back logs, due to the low finance rates banks are offering for cars. They also indicated that inventories are being restocked quickly, with production coming back to pre-pandemic levels.
At GM, sales decreased 34pc to 492,489 units in Q2 2020, from 746,659 units in the prior year period. For the first half of the year, the automaker’s sales stood at 1.11 million units, down 21.4pc from 1.41 million units in H1 2019. Among the inhouse brands, Cadillac suffered the most in the second quarter with a 41.4pc drop in deliveries.
FCA’s sales fell by 39pc in Q2 2020 to 367,086 units from 597,685 units in the prior year period. For the first half of 2020, sales shrunk by 26pc to 8.13 million units from 10.96 million units during the same period in 2019. The most affected brand among the group was Dodge with sales of 117,582 units, down an alarming 63pc from the prior year period.