Fact #653: December 13, 2010 Import Cars and Trucks Gaining Ground

The market share for import cars and light trucks has been growing nearly every year since the mid-1990's. Import car market share more than doubled in that time -- from 14.9% in 1996 to 33.7% in 2009. Imports cars have a larger share of the market than import trucks, but import truck market share has nearly tripled since the mid-1990's. Import truck market share rose from 6.5% in 1994 to 17.9% in 2009.

Cars: Domestic vs. Import Market Share
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Light Trucks: Domestic vs. Import Market Share
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Supporting Information

Domestic and Import Retail Light Vehicle Sales in the U.S., 1970-2009
 Cars
(Thousands)
 Light Trucks
(Thousands)
 
YearDomesticImportPercent
Import
DomesticImportPercent
Import
19707,1191,28015.2%1,397664.5%
19718,6811,56115.2%1,673844.8%
19729,3271,61414.8%2,0961436.4%
19739,6761,74815.3%2,5122338.5%
19747,4541,39915.8%2,1631757.5%
19757,0531,57118.2%2,05322810.0%
19768,6111,49914.8%2,7202368.0%
19779,1092,07418.5%3,1083229.4%
19789,3122,00217.7%3,4733358.8%
19798,3412,33221.8%2,84446714.1%
19806,5802,36926.5%1,95948119.7%
19816,1812,30827.2%1,74544420.3%
19825,7572,20027.6%2,06240816.5%
19836,7952,35325.7%2,51846615.6%
19847,9522,37223.0%3,25760615.7%
19858,2052,77525.3%3,69176717.2%
19868,2153,18928.0%3,67192320.1%
19877,0853,10730.5%3,78582517.9%
19887,5433,00428.5%4,19560512.6%
19897,0982,68027.4%4,10850210.9%
19906,9192,38425.6%3,94860013.2%
19916,1622,02824.8%3,59552812.8%
19926,2861,92723.5%4,2313988.6%
19936,7421,77620.8%4,9873646.8%
19947,2551,73519.3%5,6413926.5%
19957,1291,50617.4%5,6603936.5%
19967,2551,27114.9%6,0894306.6%
19976,9171,35516.4%6,2265718.4%
19986,7621,38016.9%6,6496508.9%
19996,9791,71919.8%7,3067679.5%
20006,8312,01622.8%7,5578309.9%
20016,3252,09824.9%7,71798311.3%
20025,8782,22627.5%7,6501,06312.2%
20035,5272,08327.4%7,7311,20713.5%
20045,3962,14928.5%8,1351,22613.1%
20055,5332,18728.3%8,0561,22513.2%
20065,4762,34530.0%7,3291,35515.6%
20075,2532,36531.0%7,0821,38916.4%
20084,5352,27833.4%5,2831,09817.2%
20093,6191,83733.7%4,06088517.9%

Note: Domestic includes all vehicles built in North America. Imports are units imported from outside North America.
Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 29, Tables 4.5 and 4.6..

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