(June 27, 2022) New-vehicle retail sales for June are expected to decline when compared with June 2021, according to a joint forecast from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive. Retail sales of new vehicles this month are expected to reach 965,300 units, a 18.2% decrease compared with June 2021 when adjusted for selling days. June 2022 has one additional selling day compared to June 2021. Comparing the same sales volume without adjusting for the number of selling days translates to a decrease of 15% from 2021.

New-vehicle retail sales in Q2 2022 are projected to reach 2,977,300 units, a 23.3% decrease from Q2 2021 when adjusted for selling days.

New-vehicle retail sales for the first six months 2022 are projected to reach 5,827,300 units, a 19.1% decrease from the first six months of 2021 when adjusted for selling days. The first half of 2021 was an all-time record for retail sales.

Total new-vehicle sales for June, including retail and non-retail transactions, are projected to reach 1,133,000 units, a 15.8% decrease from June 2021. Comparing the sales volume without adjusting for the number of selling days translates to a decrease of 12.4% from 2021.

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) for total new-vehicle sales is expected to be 13.1 million units, down 2.3 million units from 2021.

New-vehicle total sales in Q2 2022 are projected to reach 3,488,800 units, a 20.5% decrease from Q2 2021 when adjusted for selling days.

New-vehicle total sales for the first half of 2022 are projected to reach 6,781,300 units, an 18.7% decrease from the first half of 2021 when adjusted for selling days.

Thomas King, president of the data and analytics division at J.D. Power:
“The 2022 theme we have seen of sales quality over sales quantity is continuing in June. On a volume basis, June year-to-date retail sales will be just under 5.9 million units, a large decline of 19.1%. Excluding pandemic-affected 2020, this is the worst first six months’ sales volume performance since 2011," said Thomas King, president of data and analytics at J.D. Power.

"However, from a profitability standpoint, the first half of 2022 has set records for both retailers and manufacturers as vehicle prices continue to rise, manufacturer discounts get ever smaller and retailer margins set new highs."