2010 U.S. auto sales may top 11.5 million

[rickaren]

J.D. Power predicts 2010 U.S. auto sales may top 11.5 million

Posted Thursday, Aug 13, 2009, 3:50 pm in Employee News

U.S. autos sales may rise nearly 15 percent to reach 11.5 million units next year, ending a punishing four-year decline that saddled major automakers with mounting losses, an influential industry forecaster told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We do see the credit market is a little better. The financial market is stabilizing. Consumer confidence is edging along,” Gary Dilts, senior vice president at J.D. Power & Associates, told Reuters in an interview. “We’re pretty confident that unless something really goes wrong, 2010 is going to be a million or a million and half units better than this year.”

Forecasts from J.D. Power are one of the benchmarks that auto manufacturers and suppliers use to plan for future production, the news service said. The forecast for a recovery in 2010 comes at a time when the industry is gearing up to increase output on the view that the worst of the current downturn has passed. J.D. Power had projected U.S. light vehicle sales of 10 million units for 2009, down sharply from 13.2 million units last year and 16.2 million units in 2007, the story said. (Reuters/Automotive News)