Initially, it looked like August would be a very good month for new vehicle sales in the U.S., with seven automakers reporting a combined increase in sales of nearly 13%.
But no one was celebrating. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate fell short of expectations at 15.1 million, according to data from Motor Intelligence, down nearly a point from July and the lowest level since January.
U.S. dealers get it. Their outlook for the current quarter is tepid, if not pessimistic, according to the latest results from the Cox Automotive Dealer Sentiment Index we reported this morning.
All of this adds up to yet another justification for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this month. Wall Street was struggling today with as of a cut may be coming, but we won’t know for sure until the Fed’s September 18 meeting.
The bottom line, with sales stagnant and inventories rising, is that automakers and their customers need rates to come down soon.
In other matters, there’s a lot of buzz these days about potential conflicts of interest for Elon Musk if the Tesla CEO becomes head of an efficiency commission being pushed by Donald Trump if he reclaims the White House in November’s election. There’s some interesting debate going on about that, as noted in our Reuters story.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government has made it clear that it wants to help automakers move forward with electrification. Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Mazda are planning to invest around $6.6 billion in EV battery developments over the next few years — with $2.3 billion coming from government subsidies. Our Hans Greimel explains all in this story.
Finally, this story from Carly Schaffner tells why Kia is accelerating assembly of its new EV9 in West Point, Georgia.
Looking ahead, we’ll have an exclusive report on Monday on future product plans from Tesla Inc., Rivian Automotive and other major U.S. electric vehicle makers.
Until then, have a great weekend.