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Commercial Fleet Sales Jump 22% in August

Sales of vehicles to commercial fleets increased 22% in August, while sales into daily rental fell 21.2%. Sales to government agencies increased 18.3%.

September 7, 2018
Commercial Fleet Sales Jump 22% in August

Commercial fleet sales increased 22% in August on the strength of truck sales.

Photo courtesy of Ford, GM, FCA, and Nissan.

2 min to read


Sales of vehicles to commercial fleets from eight manufactures increased 22% to 63,969 in August as sales of trucks, vans, and SUVs provided 90% of the volume while sales of passenger cars increased more than 35%.

Truck-based sales increased 20.7% to 57,670, while car sales increased 35.6% to 6,299 units, according to Automotive Fleet data. For the year so far, sales to commercial fleets have increased 9.7% to 513,588. Truck-based sales have increased 10.3% to 450,245, while car sales have increased 6.1% to 63,343.

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Sales to government fleets from four manufacturers increased 18.3% to 24,801. Truck-based sales increased 28.2% to 21,367 and car sales declined 20.2% to 3,434. For the year, government sales have increased 1.8% to 185,042. Truck sales have increased 3.9% to 153,752 and car sales have fallen 7.1% to 31,290.

Daily rental sales from nine manufacturers fell 21.2% to 79,491 units. Truck-based sales increased 3.8% to 54,224 units, while car sales declined 48% to 25,267 units. Year-to-date sales have increased 8.1% to 1.18 million vehicles with a 12.3% decline in car sales to 452,953 and a 26.2% increase in truck-based sales to 729,045 units.

For all three segments, fleet sales in August fell 3.4% from a year ago to 168,261 units with a 14.2% gain in truck sales to 133,261 and a 39.2% decline in car sales to 35,000. For the year so far, sales into the three fleet segments have increased 7.9% to 1.88 million. While truck-based sales have increased 17.6% to 1.33 million, car sales have fallen 10.2% to 547,586.

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