Virgin Islands (USA) Full Year 2019: Jeep Wrangler ultra-dominant in market up 13.1%

The Jeep Wrangler is the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Today we welcome a new market on BSCB. The U.S. Virgin Islands is an unincorporated U.S. territory located east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea and home to 107.000 inhabitants. It is not to be confused with the British Virgin Islands, located further to the east. In 2019, new light vehicle sales soar 13.1% year-on-year on the archipelago to 2.669 units. Note until now U.S. Virgin Islands sales data was included in Puerto Rico figures, but will now be treated as a separate market as its characteristics and structure are totally unique in the USA and completely different from Puerto Rico.

U.S. Virgin Islands location. Map courtesy Wikipedia.

Indeed Jeep (+4.9%) is the most popular carmaker here with a mammoth 24% share albeit down from 25.8% in 2018. Jeep distances Ford (+14.9%) at 22.3%, which managed to overtake Toyota (+1.1%) at 20.9%. These three brands represent over two-thirds of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2019, with no other brand above 10% share. In the remainder of the Top 10, Hyundai (+158.8%), Chevrolet (+144.3%) and Kia (+121.6%) post spectacular gains whereas Honda (-31.8%), Dodge (-27.3%) and Ram (-25.4%) sink.

Model-wise, the Jeep Wrangler (+8.5%) slightly trails the market growth rate but remains out-of-reach with a stunning 16.2% share vs. 16.9% a year ago. The Ford Escape (+41%) leapfrogs past the Toyota RAV4 (+6%) and Tacoma (-4.5%) to land in 2nd place overall, with the Ford F-Series (+1.7%) cracking the Top 5. The Chevrolet Equinox (+288.9%) and Nissan Rogue (+167.9%) are new to the Top 10 this year, while the Kia Rio (+200%), Sportage (+130%), Chevrolet Colorado (+92%) and Ford Ecosport (+83.3%) also achieve splendid gains in the remainder of the Top 20. The Ford Ranger lands directly at #14 and the Nissan Kicks at #17.

Full Year 2019 Top 16 All-brands and Top 95 All-models vs. Full Year 2018 figures below.