Hyperdrive
Carmakers Learn to Live With Chip Shortage: Auto Sales Update
- GM loses top-seller crown for first time since 1998 to Toyota
- Tight vehicle inventories temper pace of industry’s recovery
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Automakers’ sales soared in the second quarter as consumers snapped up sport utility vehicles and pickups, but thin inventories created by the global semiconductor shortage are tempering the pace of the industry’s recovery.
General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and others said Thursday that their sales soared in the most recent quarter, buoyed by pent-up demand for vehicles as Americans loosened their purse strings following last year’s pandemic-induced slowdown. But automakers like Nissan Motor Co., Hyundai Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG warned that shrinking inventory due to chip shortages will keep squeezing sales this summer.