US light vehicle market down 14% in March

GlobalData

Thu, April 2, 2026 astatine 11:58 AM CDT 5 min read

According to preliminary estimates, US Light Vehicle (LV) income fell by 13.9% year-on-year (YoY) successful March, to 1.39 cardinal units. March 2026 had 1 less selling time than March 2025, meaning that income fell by 10.5% YoY connected a selling day-adjusted basis. The regular selling complaint was measured astatine 55.6k units/day successful March, up from 49.2k units/day successful February. The annualized selling complaint was estimated astatine 16.2 cardinal units/year successful March, up from 15.6 cardinal units/year successful February. Retail income were estimated astatine 1.13 cardinal units, down by 16.2% YoY, portion fleet income were thought to full 258k units, down by 2.3% YoY.

OEM Analysis

General Motors Group was again the nation’s bestselling OEM successful March, with its marketplace stock small changed from February, astatine 16.9%, representing volumes of 234k units. This is among the automaker’s little marketplace shares implicit the past 12 months. Toyota Group was second, with income of 212k units, for a marketplace stock of 15.2%. However, the astir singular effect was that Hyundai Group outsold Ford Group to instrumentality 3rd place, erstwhile Ford’s medium-heavy Pickups had been excluded. Hyundai Group claimed a 12.1% marketplace stock with 168k units sold, portion Ford Group sold astir 600 less Light Vehicles, a full that besides rounded to a 12.1% share. This was the archetypal clip since July 2021 that Hyundai Group had surpassed Ford Group successful monthly sales. At a marque level, Toyota remained astatine the apical of the rankings, connected 183k units, followed by Ford connected 159k units and Chevrolet connected 153k units.

Model Analysis

For a 2nd consecutive month, the Honda CR-V led the income rankings, with volumes of 40.8k units. The Ford F-150 was second, connected 37.3k units, up of the Chevrolet Silverado connected 33.3k units. The apical 5 was rounded retired by the Toyota Camry (30.7k units) and the Tesla Model Y (27.9k units). The Model Y had not appeared successful the apical 5 since December 2025, though it is emblematic for Tesla income to highest astatine the extremity of a quarter. Still, these volumes volition beryllium taxable to revision arsenic we get a much implicit representation of Tesla’s show implicit the coming weeks. The Toyota RAV4 is inactive struggling with a deficiency of inventory of its caller generation, and truthful it failed to marque the apical 5 for a 2nd consecutive month, selling 21.7k units.

Segment Analysis

Though March is usually a beardown period for Compact SUV income – and that remained broadly existent this twelvemonth – the segment’s marketplace stock was somewhat impacted by the RAV4’s little volumes. Compact Non-Premium SUVs accounted for 21.7% of the full marketplace successful March, down by 0.2 pp, YoY. Midsize Non-Premium SUV ranked second, with a 17.0% marketplace share. While this stock was down by 0.9 pp connected February’s outstanding performance, it was inactive up by 1.7 pp YoY, driven by ample gains for models specified arsenic the Toyota Grand Highlander and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Large Pickup secured a 13.4% marketplace share, the segment’s highest of Q1, and up by 1.1 pp, YoY. The Ram 1500’s income were particularly anemic a twelvemonth earlier, enabling a robust YoY summation successful March 2026.