• Passenger car sales improve as light truck sales surge.

• Domestic & import sales post strong increases.

• Imports' share of vehicle market continues to rise.

U.S. sales of light vehicles strengthened last month as COVID-19 vaccines were more readily available. The Autodata Corporation reported that light vehicle sales during March surged 13.0% to 18.00 million units (SAAR) and were up by more than one-half y/y.

Sales of light trucks jumped 13.3% (66.0% y/y) during March to a record 13.99 million units. Purchases of domestically-made light trucks rose 12.4% (59.9% y/y) to 10.95 million units following February's 4.1% decline. Adding to the rise, sales of imported light trucks increased 16.5% (92.4% y/y) to a record 3.04 million.

Trucks' share of the light vehicle market improved to a record 77.7%.

Auto sales increased 12.0% (35.9% y/y) last month to 4.01 million units, the highest level since February of last year. Purchases of domestically-produced cars rose 13.2% (23.1% y/y) to 2.66 million units after three straight months of decline. Sales of imported autos jumped 10.7% (70.9% y/y) to 1.35 million, the highest level since July 2019.

Imports' share of the U.S. vehicle market increased last month to 24.4%, up from a low of 19.9% during all of 2015. Imports' share of the passenger car market eased to 33.7% in March. Imports' share of the light truck market edged slightly higher to 21.7%, but was down from a high of 23.0% this past November.

U.S. vehicle sales figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. Additional detail by manufacturer is in the INDUSTRY database.