Associated Press
Pickup trucks are lined up for sale at Betley Chevrolet in Derry, New Hampshire.
- The coronavirus sent US car sales tumbling in Q1, as shown by first-quarter sales reports released on Wednesday.
- Compared to Q1 of 2019, Fiat Chrysler's sales fell 10%, Subaru's sales decreased 16.7%, and Nissan's sales plummeted 29.6%.
- Kia's Q1 sales went up by 1%, however, compared to the first quarter of 2019.
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As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, its effects continue to ripple across nearly every industry - tanking US car sales in the process.
First-quarter sales reports came out Wednesday, and the numbers show a significant drop in US sales for most major automakers. Fiat Chrysler said Q1 sales fell 10%, while General Motors said sales dropped by 7%. Nissan reported a 29.6% decrease.
Sales plummeted dramatically in March as people began to stay home en masse amid lockdown orders and concerns of contracting the virus. Volkswagen of America, for example, said that its March sales fell 42%, while Subaru of America's dropped by 47%.
Monthly figures are not available for all automakers, however, as an increasing number of companies have moved to quarterly reporting - a practice that smooths over month-to-month sales volatility. The sharp decline in sales is the second major challenge automakers are grappling with in the midst of the global pandemic, as the industry has effectively come to a halt with production shutdowns.
Here's how each automaker fared during the first three months of 2020, as the novel coronavirus spread around the globe:
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