COVID-19 cases may have started to rise worryingly toward the end of September but it didn’t slow down the automotive market for the month.

Sales of new light vehicles for September were estimated by DAC to be up 2.4% over September 2019 reaching 169,876 units. “Having the automotive market back in positive territory for a month is a huge step forward for the industry” noted Andrew King Managing Partner of DAC. “Whether this momentum can be continued through the Fall is an open question given the economic and social restrictions that may be put in place as part of the second wave” he added. “For now, however, sales are climbing with September easily being the most impressive month we have seen since the pandemic started.”

For the first three quarters of the year as a whole, Ford led the market selling close to 190 thousand units and gaining a full point of market share. In percentage terms Kia impressed year-to-date with a decline of only 10.3%. In total, 1.15 million units were sold year-to-date, down 23.7% from the same time in 2019.

For the third quarter specifically, sales reached 500,734 units, down just 3.9% from the third quarter of 2019. Some third quarter highlights:

• Porsche secured the largest sales increase at 22.5% for Q3
• Similar performance levels were noted by Subaru and Volvo, up 19.9% and 19.7% respectively
• Sales at Kia were also up 14.7% for the quarter, bolstering their year-to-date results
• In total, 8 of the reporting brands secured positive sales increases