March Fleet Sales Decrease Slightly After Strong February

Sales into large fleets decreased nearly 4% month over month in March to 176,322 units, after an improvement in February, and remained down more than 11% year over year. Rental fleet sales volume remains low and sales into government fleets saw a modest decline. Meanwhile, sales into commercial fleets in March saw an impressive gain year over year.

MARCH 2022 FLEET SALES

Combined sales into large rental, commercial, and government buyers were down nearly 4% year over year in March. Sales into rental were down slightly over 19% year over year, while sales into commercial fleets were up 19% and sales into government fleets were down 2%. Including an estimate for fleet deliveries into the dealer and manufacturer channels, we estimate that the remaining retail sales were down 23% year over year in March, leading to an estimated retail seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 11.3 million, which was down 27% from 15.4 million last March and down 7% from last month’s 12.2 million rate.

March total new-light-vehicle sales were down nearly 22% year over year, with one less selling day compared to March 2021; however, retail sales were down slightly more at 23%. By volume, March new-vehicle sales were up 19% over February. The March SAAR came in at 13.3 million, a 24% decline from last year’s 17.6 million, and down 5% from February’s 15.0 million pace. Fleet share of total sales was 15%, up nearly 2% from last March’s fleet share.

Among manufacturers, GM saw a large increase in fleet deliveries in March, up nearly 85%. All other manufacturers were down from last year, with Nissan down the most at -62%.