Slight upswing of the U.S. market

German Manufacturers Once Again Substantially Outperform Market as a Whole

Frankfurt am Main, February 3, 2010. In the U.S. a total of 695,700 light vehicles (cars and light trucks) were sold in January, a 6-percent increase on the result posted for the same month last year. Although unemployment in the U.S. is still very high at 10 percent, there are increasing signs that the labor market is recovering and Americans’ consumer confidence improved at the beginning of the year.

German automakers once again outperformed their American and Asian rivals on the U.S. market. At 56,760 units, sales of light vehicles from Germany were 24 percent higher than in January 2009, increasing the market share of German manufacturers by more than one percentage point, to 8 percent. All the German suppliers achieved above-average growth rates. U.S. suppliers also increased sales in the new year, with the number of light vehicles sold rising by 13 percent to 317,700 units. Asian brands, on the other hand, recorded a 2-percent decrease in sales in January, with Toyota’s sales even declining by 20 percent.

The passenger car market is becoming increasingly important in the U.S., not least because of higher fuel prices. Because German automakers offer vehicle models that are especially geared toward overcoming this challenge, they were able to increase sales in the sector by 26 percent in January and expand their market share by one percentage point to 12 percent. Meanwhile, market share for German brands in the light trucks segment rose to 4 percent. Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), said "these gains demonstrate that German manufacturers already have the right products to take better advantage of the upswing that is slowly becoming more evident on the U.S. market.”