Honda’s April 2018 Sales: Trucks Up, Cars Down
In a stunning twist that will shock no one, American Honda reported that it sold fewer cars and more trucks in April 2018 than it did in April 2017. Given Americans’ current proclivity for unnecessarily large vehicles, this is a conclusion nobody could have seen coming.
In total, Honda was actually down across the board, but most of this had to do with April’s two fewer selling days compared to last year. Trucks were up 3.6% on a daily selling rate (DSR) basis while cars were down 5%, though Honda domestic car sales were actually up 0.2%.
The two highlight performances of the month for Honda no doubt came from the Odyssey and Pilot, which were up 31.3% and 32.2% on a DSR basis, respectively, on sales of 8,464 and 11,891 units, also respectively. Notably, the Odyssey is the top retail-selling minivan in America so far in 2018 and Honda was proud to note that it is “leading with the lowest incentive spending as well.”
Related: 2018 Honda Odyssey overview
The Civic and CR-V also continued to battle over their status as best-selling models in the Japanese automaker’s lineup. This time it was the Civic that narrowly took victory with 28,399 sales over the CR-V’s 28,323. Last month the CR-V had been Honda’s best-seller. The award-winning Accord also had a strong month with just over 21,000 sales.
“Even as we increase our sales of light trucks to record levels, we remain committed to delivering a balanced lineup of cars and light-truck offerings for our customers,” said Henio Arcangeli Jr., senior vice president of the Automobile Division & general manager of Honda sales. “Our flexible manufacturing capabilities allow us to evolve our production mix in real-time to meet these continued shifts in consumer demand. Moreover, we recognize not all customers in the market want a truck or SUV, so growth opportunities still exist within the passenger car side of our business.”
Related: Honda Ridgeline named among industry’s best trucks
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