Segment declines in the second quarter as sales of new Lexus LS soar
Sales in the US Premium Limousine segment rose by 5.3% to 29,927 in the first half of 2018, as the first quarter sales growth of 15.0% gave way to a 2.7% sales decline in the second quarter, not that far off from the 8.2% sales decline the segment registered in 2017. With many of the new models starting to run out of steam (BMW 7-series, Porsche Panamera) and others already seeing their sales fall (Cadillac CT6, Genesis G90), the hope is that the sales growth of the new Lexus LS and Audi A8 will be enough to keep the segment in the black in 2018.
Highlights
Note: Clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off
- The top two models saw their sales growth slow down considerably: Mercedes-Benz S-class saw its sales growth of over 25% in the first quarter turn into a small sales decline, while the Cadillac CT6‘s mild sales growth turned into a sales decline of over 20%
- In fact, the CT6 was outsold by both the new Lexus LS (ranking a very strong third in Q2’18, with sales up almost threefold) and the soaring new Porsche Panamera, and only just stayed ahead of the BMW 7-series
- By comparison, the chasing pack did not do so well – the Korean duo of Genesis G90 and Kia K900 saw their sales fall by around 40%, Jaguar XJ saw its sales more than halve, while sales of the about-to-be-replaced Audi A8 fell by almost three quarters!
Note: clicking on the model names in legend turns the display for that model on/off; data is displayed from 1990 onwards, but starts earlier – access previous years using slider on bottom