Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Kia Sales Plummet in April

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor, Hyundai and Kia sales fell in the double digits in April year over year.

The loss leader in this equation was Toyota Motor Corp. who saw April sales volume fall 23%, with deliveries down 23% at the Toyota division and 18% at Lexus. The company’s sales have dropped nine consecutive months.

All of Toyota’s top sellers saw double-digit declines in April: Camry, down 12%; RAV 4, down 18%; Highlander, off 29%; Corolla, down 22%; and Tacoma, down 27%.

The automaker closed April with a 20-day supply of vehicles; 137,067 cars and light trucks, with 13,831 in dealer stock and 123,236 at ports or in transit, a spokesman said.

Honda Motor Co. saw a 40% drop in sales in April and cited “difficult supply constraints” as the reason. The drop marks the company’s ninth-straight month of decline, with deliveries down 41% at the Honda division and 33% at Acura.

Four of the automaker’s biggest sellers saw double-digit declines. The Accord was down 20%; the Civic, down 51%; the CR-V, down 56%; and the Pilot, down 43%. But HR-V deliveries rose 6%.

The company started 2022 with U.S. dealer stocks under 20,000 cars and light trucks and began April slightly below that level. The automaker had 300,000 vehicles in dealer inventory at the start of 2021.

Deliveries fell by 20% at Hyundai and 16% at Kia in April, marking the second consecutive month of double-digit declines for the two Korean brands.

Hyundai has picked up the focus on retail sales with an expanded crossover lineup, its first pickup and the new Ioniq 5 electric vehicle. Retail sales tallied 61,668 last month. But the company reported zero fleet deliveries in April for the fourth consecutive month. Hyundai closed April with 15,000 vehicles in inventory, down from 18,000 at the start of the month.

Subaru deliveries dropped 26%, marking the 11^th consecutive month of decline. Mazda volume dipped 3.3%, after two monthly gains.

Meanwhile Genesis volume rose 53% to 5,039, a monthly record and the brand's 17th straight increase. The brand's two crossovers, the GV70 and GV80, outsold combined deliveries of the brand's three sedans.

Analysts forecast U.S. new-vehicle sales will fall by 20% April due to the ongoing microchip shortage and other supply chain hurdles.

Analysts at LMC, J.D. Power, Cox Automotive and TrueCar also predict the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of sales will hit 14.3 million to 14.8 million in April, well below the 18.5 million pace set in April 2021. With the exception of January, SAAR has been below 15 million since July 2021.

J.D. Power reports U.S. dealers had fewer than 900,000 new cars and light trucks in inventory in April. Kia, Honda, Toyota, Land Rover, Lexus and Subaru have the lowest inventories, while Chrysler, Audi, Ram, Lincoln and Dodge have some of the highest stockpiles, finds Cox Automotive.