December Vehicles Sales increased to 16.27 Million SAAR; Annual Sales off 14.7%

The BEA released their estimate of light vehicle sales for December this morning. The BEA estimates sales of 16.27 million SAAR in December 2020 (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate), up 4.1% from the November sales rate, and down 3.2% from December 2019.

This was above the consensus estimate of 15.8 million SAAR.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows light vehicle sales since 2006 from the BEA (blue) and the BEA's estimate for December (red).

The impact of COVID-19 was significant, and April was the worst month.

Since April, sales have increased, but are still down  year-over-year,

The second graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967.

Note: dashed line is current estimated sales rate of 16.27 million SAAR.

Annual sales in 2020, at 14.46 million, were down 14.7% from 16.95 million in 2019.

This was the fewest annual sales since 2012.