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By Nora Eckert
DETROIT (Reuters) -U.S. new-car sales in 2024 continued to rise from their pandemic lows, bolstered by replenished inventories, higher incentives and surging demand for hybrid vehicles, automakers reported on Friday.
Sales of new vehicles finished at 15.9 million last year, according to Wards Intelligence, up 2.2% from the prior year, and the highest since 2019. Automakers are projecting strong sales will continue into 2025, although President-elect Donald Trump's proposed automotive policies, such as removing tax credits for EVs, present a wild card.
"We’re carrying significant momentum into 2025,” Rory Harvey, GM's head of global markets, said in a release. The Detroit automaker defended its 2023 crown as the biggest U.S. carmaker by sales, selling 2.7 million vehicles last year, the company said on Friday, up 4.3% from 2023.
Most automakers recorded solid sales results last year, as they adjusted to slowing demand for EVs and relied on their core business of gasoline-powered trucks and SUVs, while some capitalized on soaring consumer interest in hybrid vehicles.
Sales of traditional hybrids increased 36.7% in 2024 compared with the previous year, Wards reported.
'HYBRIDS, WE'RE SOLD OUT'
Toyota notched a 3.7% sales gain year-over-year in the U.S., boosted by steady increases of reliable smaller vehicles such as the Camry and RAV4 SUV, as well as significant gains for hybrid vehicles. Reuters reported last year that the automaker is potentially converting all of its lineup into hybrid-only models.
“For hybrids, we’re sold out - customers want them, we can’t get enough of them," said David Christ, head of sales and marketing for Toyota in North America. "Battery electric vehicles, even with the huge incentives we’re spending and the federal government’s incentives, are just not as in demand.”
Ford Motor also benefited from an increase in hybrid sales, which helped the automaker's total vehicle sales rise 4.2% in 2024. The Dearborn, Michigan, company sold roughly double the number of hybrids compared with its EVs, with 187,426 hybrids sold and 97,865 EVs.
Automakers have axed or changed lofty EV plans laid out when demand seemed much stronger than it turned out to be, but they are still aiming to attract new EV buyers.
Ford said on Friday that in an effort to support EV sales, which were up 34.8% for the automaker in 2024, it would extend a program where EV buyers receive free chargers and installation at home through the end of March.
U.S. sales of electric vehicles are expected to approach 1.3 million, or about 8% of all new vehicles purchased, Cox Automotive said. Buyers' willingness to go electric crept up slightly from 2023, when U.S. drivers bought 1.2 million EVs, comprising 7.6% of all sales, Cox said.