Wholesale Used-Car Prices Rise Slightly in December, But More Declines Possible
Wholesale used-vehicle prices ticked up in December to cap off a year in which there were several consecutive monthly declines, according to one major indicator. Cox Automotive said Monday its Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — a measurement of wholesale used-vehicle prices calculated by tracking vehicles sold at Manheim's U.S. auctions and applying statistical analysis to those figures — rose 0.8 percent in December from November. Still, wholesale prices were down 15 percent at the end of December compared with the year-earlier period, reports Automotive News. Those figures are adjusted for mix, mileage, and seasonality. On a non-adjusted basis, the Manheim index declined 1.9 percent in December from its November level, with prices down 13 percent year over year. "While that [15 percent] decline was the largest in the series' history, compare that drop to the overall 88 percent increase in the 21 months from April 2020 to January 2022," said Chris Frey, senior manager of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive, during a Monday quarterly insights call. Click here for the full story.
Auto Manufacturer Websites Becoming More Important to Vehicle Shoppers, J.D. Power Finds
As auto manufacturer websites become increasingly important to shoppers, overall satisfaction for manufacturer websites is also growing, up 11 points (on a 1,000-point scale) for the premium segment to 722 and 3 points for the mass market segment to 708 according to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Manufacturer Website Evaluation StudySM—Winter. When shoppers use certain tools, specifically the build and price, vehicle compare, 360° viewer and payment/lease calculator, the likelihood of the shopper to consider the brand increases by 11 percentage points, reports CBT News. “In today’s shopping environment, manufacturer websites must have a robust set of tools for shoppers to use,” said Jon Sundberg, director of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “Not only is it important to have the tools, they also need to be easily discoverable, well-designed and intuitive to use to significantly drive brand consideration.” The J.D. Power U.S. Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study is a semi-annual study that measures customer satisfaction of automotive manufacturer websites during the process of shopping for a new vehicle by examining four key measures. Click here to view the rankings.
U.S. Must Quadruple Number of EV Charging Stations By 2025, Report Claims
The U.S. needs to quadruple the number of EV chargers in the country by 2025 to ensure the infrastructure keeps pace with the growth of the EV market, a new report warns. S&P Global Mobility’s data shows there are 1.9 million EVs in use in the U.S. today, which accounts for only 0.1 percent of the vehicles on the road. But the organization predicts that the number of EVs could swell to 7.8 million by 2025 and might reach 28.3 million by the end of the decade, reports Carscoops. And even if most drivers charge at home that’s still going to create colossal demand for publicly available charging points. S&P Global Mobility estimates there are about 126,500 Level 2 and 20,431 Level 3 charging stations today, plus another 16,822 Tesla Superchargers and destination chargers. But it thinks America will need 1.2 million Level 2 chargers by 2025 (a near-tenfold increase) and 109,000 Level 3 chargers. Click here for the full story.
North America Vows to Strengthen Economic Ties
The United States, Mexico, and Canada on vowed to tighten economic ties, producing more goods regionally and boosting semiconductor output. U.S. President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met in Mexico City and pledged to beef up supply chains after weathering serious disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Reuters. "We're working to a future to strengthen our cooperation on supply chains and critical minerals so we can continue to accelerate in our efforts to build the technologies of tomorrow - right here in North America," Biden said in a joint news conference with his fellow leaders after their meeting. Lopez Obrador said the region would promote economic development by creating a committee for import substitution to make North America less dependent on other parts of the world. The United States said the region would in early 2023 organize a semiconductor forum to increase investment in the strategic high-tech industry dominated by Asia. The White House said coordination would be needed on semiconductor supply chain mapping to identify needs and investment opportunities in making chips that are used in everything from telecoms to car making and defense. Click here for the full story.
It'll Be Much Easier to Buy the Car you Want in 2023 as Automakers Put the Chip Shortage in the Rearview
Weary car-buyers may stand to benefit from the waning impact of the chip shortage on today's vehicle inventory. Towards the end of December, it appeared as though the chip shortage was going to have a lesser impact on 2022 than it did the year before. The chip shortage forced automakers to prioritize only their money-making models and slash valuable features, which shrunk dealership inventory levels, and drove up the prices of new and used vehicles, reports Business Insider. The easing of the shortage could mean shoppers don't have to pay so much for limited choices. Sure enough, in 2022, automakers built 1.62 million fewer vehicles than expected in North America because of the chip shortage, per an AutoForecast Solutions estimate. That's about half of the 3.25 million fewer vehicles built in the region in 2021. Further, the impact of the chip shortage globally substantially declined from 2021 to 2022. Across the globe, automakers built about 4.38 million fewer cars last year, down from 11 million vehicles impacted world-wide the year before, according to AutoForecast Solutions. Click here for the full story.
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