(Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> on Tuesday reported its fifth straight month of declines in the United States in August as demand for cars remained sluggish even after factories and dealerships reopened from coronavirus-led lockdowns.
The Japanese automaker said its sales in August fell 22.7% to 191,841 units from the same month in 2019.
U.S. auto sales have remained sluggish since hitting a bottom in April as major automakers scrambled to ramp up production and boost weak inventories at dealerships, especially in states where they remained open throughout the shutdowns.
The recovery could be threatened by a renewed COVID-19 surge, which is weighing on demand.
Toyota’s sales decline in August was worse than July when volumes tumbled 19%, its slowest since March.
Smaller rival Hyundai Motor Co’s <005380.KS> U.S. sales too fell 8.4% in August as its fleet sales plunged 63% and represented 4% of total volume. The South Korean automaker said its sales in August fell to 58,361 units, compared with 63,737 units in the same month in 2019.
(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M. And Maju Samuel)
