Sales in the U.S. auto industry grew 6% to 698,990 vehicles in January, driven by strong fleet sales (sales to rental companies as well as corporate and government houses) and redesigned vehicles in the market. Ford Motor Co. (F) ruled among the U.S. automakers, while Nissan Motors (NSANY) was the only automaker to witness sales growth among its Japanese peers in the nation.

U.S. Automakers

Sales at Ford advanced 26.4% to 116,534 units with a staggering 154% rise in fleet sales. The automaker bagged a 16% market share during the month, up from 14% in January 2009.
 
Ford’s car sales rose 43%, crossovers 20%, SUVs 8% and trucks and vans 14%. Sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury branded cars rose 24.1% to 112,406 vehicles. Meanwhile, Volvo, which is up for sale, clocked a 41.9% rise in sales to 4,128 vehicles.

General Motors (“GM”) saw a 14% rise in sales to 146,825 vehicles after reporting year-over-year declines for several months in 2009. The improvement was driven by higher fleet sales (225%) and strong sales of compact crossovers — Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain.
 
GM’s four existing core brands — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac — witnessed a 31% rise in sales. The company’s discontinued brands — Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac and Saab — lost 90% of volume during the month.

Sales at Chrysler sank 8% to 57,143 vehicles. This was driven by declining sales of Ram trucks and Jeeps on the back of a $1,230 cut in incentive spending to $3,061 per vehicle.

Japanese Automakers

Among the Japanese automakers, Nissan Motor was the only one to post a sales gain of 16.1% to 62,572 vehicles. This was attributable to the automaker’s boost of incentive spending by 14% to $2,455 in January. Sales at Nissan Division rose 19.4% to 55,861 units, while sales of Infiniti vehicles declined 5.7% to 6,711 units during the month.
 
Toyota Motors (TM) has been hit hard by its recall of 8 popular models due to faulty gas pedals, which has affected 2.3 million cars and trucks in the U.S. In fact, the automaker lost more volume than any other auto group in the industry.

Toyota’s sales fell 16% to 98,796 vehicles, which comprised all the recalled models such as Camry, Corolla and Avalon cars and the Matrix hatchback, the Tundra pickup, RAV4 crossover and SUVs including Sequoia and Highlander. It was the first time since February 1998 that Toyota’s monthly U.S. sales fell below 100,000 vehicles. Car sales decreased 10% to 60,634 units while light truck sales slashed 24% to 38,162 units.

Sales at Honda Motor (HMC) slipped 5% to 67,479 vehicles as weak truck sales offset an overall improvement in the sale of cars. The automaker’s car sales rose 2.7% to 41,638 vehicles while truck sales declined 15.3% to 25,841 units from the year-ago level.

Global Automakers Elsewhere

Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Group, which includes both the Hyundai and Kia brands, posted a combined sales gain of 24% to 30,503 units. Among its 10 U.S. car models, sales of Accent, Elantra, Santa Fe, Tucson and Genesis reported sales gain during the month.

Daimler (DAI) recorded an impressive 26.4% rise in sales to 15,436 vehicles fueled by a strong demand in both the Mercedes sedan and light-truck categories. Mercedes-Benz sales shot up 45.3% to 15,158 units. However, smart fortwo micro-car sales plummeted 84.3% to 278 units.

Barring the performance of Toyota, there are enough signs to suggest that U.S. auto industry is in the path to recovery. Automakers are now optimistic and will probably try to start the year afresh with new and innovative product launches. Recently, GM has raised its U.S. industry sales outlook to 11.5 million–12 million vehicles for 2010 from 11 million–12 million vehicles predicted last month.

Read the full analyst report on “F”
Read the full analyst report on “TM”
Read the full analyst report on “HMC”
Read the full analyst report on “DAI”
Zacks Investment Research