DETROIT — Both General Motors and Ford Motor on Friday reported their best annual U.S. new vehicle sales since 2019, prior to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic and yearslong supply chain problems.
Those results are in line with industrywide expectations for automakers. Market research firms expected U.S. automakers to report total sales of nearly 16 million vehicles in 2024, which would mark the industry’s best year since selling roughly 17 million units in 2019.
Several other automakers on Friday such as Toyota Motor, Hyundai Motor and Honda Motor reported single-digit annual sales increases, also largely in line with industry expectations.
GM remained the country’s top-selling automaker, followed by Toyota and then Ford.
GM reported 2024 sales of more than 2.7 million vehicles, up 4.3% from a year earlier. The automaker sold 2.9 million units in 2019.
“The driving force for our business is new vehicles with great design and performance across our portfolio, helping our dealers satisfy more customers. We’re carrying significant momentum into 2025,” Rory Harvey, GM president of global markets, said in a release.
GM said sales were driven by increases in all four of its U.S. brands as well as a roughly 50% increase in sales of electric vehicles to more than 114,400 units.
Despite the notable increase in EV sales, the vehicles only made up 4.2% of the automaker’s overall sales. GM estimated it achieved a 12% EV market share in the U.S. during the fourth quarter.
It was a similar trend at Ford, which reported a notable increase in sales of its “electrified” vehicles, including EVs and hybrids.
Ford on Friday reported 2024 sales of 2.08 million vehicles, up from just under 2 million in 2023. In 2019, the automaker sold 2.42 million vehicles in the U.S. For the fourth quarter, Ford reported an 8.8% year-over-year increase in sales to 530,660 vehicles sold.
That automaker said full-year sales of its vehicles with traditional internal combustion engines increased 0.2% compared to 2023, while sales of electrified vehicles increased 38.3% year over year.
Electrified vehicles, including hybrids and EVs, represented 13.7% of Ford’s total annual sales.
Here are other reported U.S. sales reported Friday compared with 2023 totals:
- Toyota reported a 3.7% uptick in sales for 2024, despite a 7.1% decline in December. The company sold more than 2.3 million vehicles last year.
- Honda reported an 8.8% increase in sales last year to 1.4 million vehicles, including a 9.9% increase during the last month of the year.
- Hyundai brand’s sales increased roughly 4% during 2024 to a new record of more than 836,800 vehicles.
- Kia, a sibling company to Hyundai, also reported record U.S. sales of 796,488 vehicles in 2024, up 1.8% from its prior record set in 2023.
