(This story has been updated with new information.)

General Motors on Tuesday reported a 2.2% decline in U.S. new vehicle sales in the third quarter as sales of its Chevrolet pickups, particularly to fleet customers, came in lower than the year-ago period, which was a strong quarter for comparison.

But GM remains the top-selling automaker. GM reported it sold 659,601 total vehicles in the quarter compared with the year-ago period when it sold 674,336. Part of the decline is due to GM's fleet sales, which were down about 18%, said GM spokesman David Caldwell. Fleet sales typically comprise 20% of GM's total sales.

GM's closest rival in total U.S. sales is Toyota North America. It reported a sales decline of 8% Tuesday, selling 542,872 vehicles in the third quarter compared with the year-ago quarter. Toyota first captured the U.S. sales crown from GM for 2021 after the shortage of semiconductor chips crippled GM's production, but GM recaptured the title soon thereafter and has held it since. Auto industry experts had predicted third quarter U.S. sales results would be lower than the year-ago period for many carmakers, citing affordability being a concern for many consumers and fewer selling days in September compared with August.

But GM is gaining momentum in its electric vehicle sales, reporting it sold 32,095 EVs in the quarter, a 60% gain from the year-ago period and up 46% from last quarter. Toyota reported its third quarter electrified vehicle sales, which includes hybrids, totaled 255,863, up 38.6%.

More: GM 2nd-quarter US sales rise slightly, with EV sales up 40% from 2023

“GM’s EV portfolio is growing faster than the market because we have an all-electric vehicle for just about everybody, no matter what they like to drive," Rory Harvey, GM's president of Global Markets, said in a statement Tuesday.

Caldwell said it is the ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year retail sales growth, the best since 2020. Caldwell told the Detroit Free Press that GM sold “more than 552,000 vehicles at retail” in the quarter, a 3.4% gain from the year-ago quarter.

Analyst Dan Ives said he is impressed with the results overall.

"This was a good quarter for GM in a choppy environment," Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told the Detroit Free Press. "The transition to EVs is going smooth for Barra & Co. and GM is seeing some demand tailwinds into year end. I would characterize this as B+ performance with the Street fearing a C- like Stellantis."

GM's average transacation price in the quarter was $49,349. That's down slightly from the year-ago figure of $50,700, Caldwell said. GM's incentives remained contained compared with the rest of the industry. As a percentage of the average transaction prices, GM's incentives in the quarter were about 4.5% compared with the industry average of 7%, Caldwell said.

GM pickup and EV sales

The year has been challenging for many automakers, given that interest rates on auto loans remained high, though the Federal Reserve last month acted to lower its rate, which may have a domino effect on rates other lenders offer. The high rates have made affordability an ongoing problem, auto industry analysts have said.

U.S. sales results at crosstown rival Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat, also are expected to come out Tuesday. Ford Motor is expected to report its third-quarter sales results Wednesday.

GM’s results showed that in total sales — those which include fleet and retail — it sold 131,297 Chevrolet Silverado pickups in the quarter, an 8.5% drop from the year-ago quarter. Sales of the heavy-duty Silverado, which is built at Flint Assembly plant, plummeted 22.4% to 41,979 sold in the quarter. GM sold 1,995 Silverado EVs, up from 18 sold a year earlier.

Sales of the GMC Sierra pickup came in at 80,613, up 10.1% from the year-ago period. GM reported selling 387 newly launched Sierra EV pickups.

Caldwell said overall sales of GM's total pickups are good.

"Combined, our large pickups are up about 3% this year, midsize pickups up 25%," Caldwell wrote in an email. "Bear in mind that 2023 was the all-time record for Chevy Silverado. So the results this year are quite good in relation to that, and it’s increasing market share. New midsize Colorado pickup is up 20% year to date and 13% in Q3. And 2024 GMC Sierra is on pace for its best ever sales year, as is the midsize Canyon."

GM reported its EV sales were led by the new Chevrolet Equinox EV. GM sold 9,772 of those vehicles, which first launched this quarter. The next biggest seller at 7,998, was the Chevrolet Blazer, up from 19 sold in the year-ago quarter. GM sold 7,224 Cadillac Lyriqs, up from 3,018 a year ago. The EVs GM is selling this year all use its new Ultium propulsion system.

GM's total EV sales include its BrightDrop all-electric delivery vans made in Canada. GM sold 246 in the quarter, compared with 35 BrightDrop vans a year earlier.

GM's top sellers in the quarter

GM's Buick and GMC brands reported the biggest total sales percentage gains for the quarter. Buick’s third-quarter sales rose 7.8% to 47,405 vehicles sold, thanks to the addition of the compact SUV Envista to the lineup and sales of the Envision. It is the seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth for Buick.

GMC sales rose 6.4% to 151,865 vehicles sold in the quarter on the strength of full-size and midsize pickups. Sales at Cadillac also grew as demand for the all-electric Lyriq as well as the gasoline-powered XT4 and XT6 SUVs took off. Cadillac reported a gain of 4.4% to 37,214 new vehicles sold in the quarter.

For Chevrolet, sales dipped slightly even though it had some big winners. Overall, Chevy sales came in 6.4% lower at 422,871 compared with the year-ago period. But one of its biggest sellers continues to be the compact Trax SUV, which comes in five variants, all starting under $25,000. GM sold 59,299 Traxs in the quarter, a 56.6% gain year-over-year. Caldwell said the popularity of this vehicle and others is what has driven down GM's average transaction price.

"We have more affordable vehicles selling well (Chevrolet Trax, Equinox EV, Buick Envista) and that has some impact on (average transaction prices)," Caldwell said. "However it’s not the case that incentives are higher. They’re quite low across our portfolio, and it’s not the case that pricing on a model-by-model is lower. It’s more about us having some more popular affordable models. The actual pricing customers are seeing is very consistent for us."

GM's disappointments in the quarter

Sales of large SUVs came in lower than the year-ago period. GM sold 9,049 Chevrolet Suburbans, a 25% decline from the year-ago period. It reported selling 23,337 Tahoe SUVS, a 15.4% drop. Even midsize SUVs struggled with the Traverse selling 28,390, a 12.2% decline.

At Cadillac, sales of the popular Escalade dipped 17.9% to 8,788 in the quarter. At GMC sales of the Yukon large SUV were down 8.6% to 19,331 sold. Finally, at Buick, the Encore GX, a sporty subcompact SUV, saw a sales slide of 26.8% to 14,675 sold in the quarter.

GM's dealer inventory at the end of the quarter was 627,048 compared with last quarter when dealers had 581,001 vehicles in stock.

Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM reports 2.2% US sales dip in 3rd quarter, cites lower fleet demand