New-Vehicle Sales Reach 2009 High in May

U.S. new-vehicle sales rose to their highest level of the year in May, but demand is still below the levels that most automakers need to be profitable, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Ford Motor Co. said its market share rose to the highest level in three years. Ford’s sales were down 24% from a year ago, the smallest year-to-year decline reported by any of the six largest automakers since October, the Times reported.

Unlike General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, Ford is the only of the Big Three U.S. automakers that has not declared bankruptcy or accepted federal aid.

The seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate for the industry was 9.91 million units, the highest so far this year, the Times reported.

Until last year, automakers had been selling about 17 million vehicles a year for much of the past decade. G.M., once it restructures and emerges from bankruptcy, has predicted it can break even if industry sales are at least 10 million a year, the paper said.