Trucks Drive New Records and Acura Turns a Corner as American Honda Posts December Sales Increase

Honda finished 2018 on a strong note with both cars and trucks gaining in December, overcoming over four months of lost production due to a flood that shut the Celaya, Mexico auto plant to narrowly miss a new annual sales mark.

• Truck sales set new monthly and annual records led by CR-V which set an all-time monthly record, with 42,079 units in December, a gain of 13.8%. Pilot set a new annual mark, eclipsing its previous record by over 7,000.
• Accord jumped a strong 29.4% on 28,627 in sales for the month.
• Electrified vehicle sales set new monthly and annual sales records with 6,899 December sales, the 6th straight month above 5,000 units.

Acura was one of the few luxury brands to increase sales (+2.8%) in 2018, setting records for RDX and light trucks, leading to new market share and the brand’s first annual gain since 2014.

• Acura trucks set a new monthly sales record, gaining 17.5% on 12,786 units
• RDX gained 42.2% to set a new December mark on sales of 6,838 units, the model’s 7th consecutive monthly record and second best month in history.
• MDX had December sales of 5,948 units, helping the model to its 7th straight year of 50,000+ annual sales.
• ILX and RLX sedans gained in December, with ILX up 10.7% and RLX gaining 16.1% (its best month in 2018).