Nissan Motor Co.'s U.S. sales surged 25 percent in May, triple the industrywide gain, after cutting prices and increasing incentives.
Nissan's results were better than the 22 percent increase that was the average of eight analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest carmaker, and Honda Motor Co. reported gains that fell short of estimates. Subaru, the auto brand of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., led Asian automakers with a 34 percent increase in U.S. deliveries.
"When Nissan announced a price cut in the beginning of May, it signaled an aggressive play for market share in the U.S.," said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst for Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California. "The actual prices were only about 4 percent lower than April's, but the announcement clearly had a big psychological impact to get sales moving."