October 2014 US New-Auto Sales: Nissan Up 13% As Rogue, Leaf Break October Record

Nissan North America said Monday that its sales jumped 13 percent last month, to 103,117 vehicles, compared with October 2013 on robust demand for the company’s core Versa, Sentra and Altima sedans. The luxury Infiniti brand fared better than in September, but was still down 1.2 percent on lower demand for its QX50 and QX70 compact and midsized crossovers.

Nissan also delivered 29 percent more Leaf electric cars in the U.S. last month, albeit on low volume of 2,589 units. U.S. consumers have bought a record 24,411 Leafs so far this year, up 35 percent from the same period last year.

Fred Diaz, senior vice president for Nissan U.S. sales and marketing, said in an emailed statement that he expects higher consumer confidence and lower gasoline prices “will continue to boost auto sales for the last two months of 2014.”

While Japan’s third-largest automaker is seeing its luxury crossover sales pulled down, Nissan brand crossovers Rogue and Murano saw double-digit sales growth. Nissan is selling down its 2014 Murano midsized crossover ahead of the all-new 2015 Murano, manufactured at the company’s Canton, Mississippi, plant.

Deliveries of Nissan’s Frontier were up 25 percent last month, but the company’s light-duty pickup truck might see stiff competition moving forward from General Motors’ 2015 GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado.

Automakers are reporting their U.S. October sales numbers throughout the day. Analysts expect a modest increase in U.S. new-auto sales for the month.