For just the third time in a decade, the U.S. auto industry is expected to enter the summer selling season without a monthly sales gain. Light-vehicle deliveries are predicted to decline between 1.5% and 3.3% this month from June 2018, according to estimates from four forecasters. That would mark the 6th straight month of decline and the third time since 2009 that the industry hasn’t experienced a monthly increase during the first half of the year.
The seasonally adjusted, annualized selling rate is projected to remain healthy in June, with estimates between 17 million and 17.3 million. U.S. sales dipped 2.4% through May, with retail demand down and fleet sales up. U.S. sales rose 5.2% in June 2018, one of the biggest gains of the year, and the SAAR tallied 17.32 million.
Hyundai-Kia and Subaru are among brands expected to post higher sales gains in June, while Nissan and Ford are forecast to see the greatest declines from a year ago.
