Company car not in demand: Corona doldrums prevail on the US car market

The corona pandemic severely slowed the US auto market in the second quarter. Sales at the US market leader General Motors collapse by more than 30 percent. The lack of interest in rental and company cars is particularly difficult for a manufacturer.

The corona virus crisis has caused the US automaker General Motors to drop sales by more than a third in its home country. From April to June, the company sold around 493,000 vehicles in the United States, 34 percent less than in the same period last year. However, the decline slowed towards the end of the second quarter, GM said.

While private customers now even want to buy new cars surprisingly quickly, vehicles for rental car companies and company cars for companies and authorities can hardly be set off. At Volkswagen, US sales fell 29 percent to just under 70,000 vehicles, at BMW by 39 percent to just under 51,000. As with GM, the decrease in Toyota in the second quarter was around 34 percent. The Japanese hit almost 400,000 vehicles.

The US-Italian rival Fiat Chrysler had to accept a drop of almost 39 percent to around 367,000 vehicles in the second quarter, but has been seeing growing interest among US customers in buying cars since April. This is fueled by stable fuel prices and cheap consumer loans, according to Fiat Chrysler.

Hyundai is particularly suffering from company car doldrums

GM explained that the task now was to get vehicles back to the dealerships as quickly as possible. Production was stopped for two months in the spring to curb the spread of the virus. Hyundai, in particular, felt the lack of interest in rental and company cars particularly strongly in June. In the last quarter of the month, the South Korean automaker's US sales fell by 22 percent.

But while customer business grew by six percent, a minus of 93 percent in the sale of vehicle fleets depressed the total number. For the entire second quarter, there was a drop of almost 24 percent with around 142,000 vehicles. The minus at Porsche is also of a similar magnitude, with a decrease of 20 percent. Around 12,200 vehicles from the sports car manufacturer found buyers in the USA. Daimler's US sales figures were not yet available.