Virgin Islands (USA) First Half 2020: Toyota, Ford overtake Jeep, Wrangler still #1 in market down -41.1%

The Jeep Wrangler supremacy in the U.S. Virgin Islands is under threat.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is a new addition on BSCB as this is only our second sales article about this unincorporated U.S. territory located east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea and home to 107.000 inhabitants. Sales in the territory collapse -41.1% year-on-year over the First Half of 2020. The brands ranking is completely reshuffled this year, and we are assuming this is because of the lack of tourism in the area which benefitted Jeep and its Wrangler, a darling of rental car companies in other U.S tropical locations such as Hawaii.

Toyota (-11.5%) vastly outpaces the market and gains two spots on its FY2019 ranking to snap the pole position with 29.6% share vs. 19.7% a year ago. Ford (-37.9%) remains at #2 whereas Jeep (-54%) is toppled from its pedestal and sees its share thaw from 25.7% to 20%. Chevrolet (-14.5%) is up one spot to #4 and gains almost 3 percentage points of share to 9.6% but it’s Hyundai (+3.4%) and even more strikingly Honda (+57.1%) that post the best performances, both bucking the negative trend to score upticks.

The Jeep Wrangler (-62.6%) remains the best-selling vehicle in the territory but it sheds almost two-thirds of its H1 2019 volume and is now threatened by a very dynamic Toyota RAV4 (+3.2%), lodging the only year-on-year gain in the Top 7. The Toyota Tacoma (-24.4%) manages to hold onto the third step of the podium, distancing four Fords: the F-Series (-21.2%), Escape (-56.3%), Explorer (-52.3%) and Ecosport (-31.1%). The Toyota Highlander (+11.1%) is up 4 spots to #8, the Ford Mustang lands at #9 and the Toyota Corolla (+92.3%) is up 21 to #10.

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

Full H1 2020 Top 16 All-brands and Top 85 All-models vs. Full H1 2019 figures below.