U.S. vehicle sales by major car brands through December 2021

In terms of monthly light vehicle sales in the United States, Ford was the top brand in December 2021 with Toyota and Chevrolet in second and third place. Customers in the U.S. bought some 166,000 Ford-badged vehicles in December 2021.

What was the effect of the pandemic on sales?

U.S. vehicle sales tanked in March 2020 but bounced back soon thereafter. Due to the global chip shortage, sales fell again through 2021. U.S. auto dealers sold around 962,300 light vehicles in December 2021, a decrease of just under a quarter year-on-year. These figures can be seen as a consequence of the dwindling supply while automakers halted manufacturing due to a lack of semiconductors for vehicle production.

Pre-crisis plateau

Slightly under 14.5 million light vehicles were sold to U.S. auto dealers in 2020. Retail sales are estimated to have slowly recovered in 2021, falling short of the 15 million mark. New sales of light vehicles remained relatively flat between 2017 and 2019 albeit on a high level. 2019 car and light truck retail sales of just under 17 million units put the industry’s new light retail sales figures 1.4 percent lower in 2019 than in 2018. It is particularly passenger cars that do not move off the shelves easily, as light truck sales reached a peak in 2019. Passenger cars now only represent less than one-third of all light vehicle sales in the U.S.