Nissan posted a massive decline in US car sales in April.
Deliveries dropped by 28 percent last month, a much bigger decline than what analysts had forecast. Edmunds had estimated a 10.6% drop while Cox Automotive predicted a 6.6% decline.
Nissan sold 87,764 vehicles in the US in April 2018.
The Japanese automaker’s namesake Nissan brand suffered a 29.1% drop in sales, while its luxury Infiniti brand experienced a 17% drop.
It should be noted that there were only 24 selling days in April 2018 compared to 26 days in April 2017.
Sales of Nissan’s Altima sedan almost halved while sales of its Rogue SUV dropped by 14.8% to 22,331.
A Nissan spokesperson said the decline in April was due to “intense competition in the US market” and fewer retail and fleet sales.
“April was an extremely challenging month with intense competition in the U.S. market. Reduced retail sales along with a pullback on fleet volume contributed to lower performance from the previous year,” Nissan said in a statement.
However, the company expects sales to bounce back with its new Kicks CUV and next-generation Altima later this year.
“We expect the situation to improve in the coming months as more new vehicles such as Nissan KICKS and the all-new Altima come into the pipeline,” Nissan said.
