Cox Automotive News MId Week Edition

We published the new Cox Automotive EV Market Monitor this week and also added the fresh data points to our Auto Market Snapshot. These newly introduced data points provide a measure of EV sales, inventory, and pricing for both new and used electric vehicles for the month of September. The monitor will be updated monthly going forward. The transition to higher EV sales continues to be one of the auto industry's most talked-about subjects; EV metrics remain the most sought-after market data points. We are not replacing our quarterly estimate of new EV sales, developed with our Kelley Blue Book team. Those posts will continue, with all the expected product-level details.  This new EV Market Monitor from the Cox Automotive Economic and Industry Insights team –  shout out to our analysts Stephanie Valdez Streaty and Tiffani Williams – is designed to provide a reliable gauge of EV market performance each month. As you will note in the post, September was the sixth month in a row that new-EV sales topped 100,000 units in the U.S., a sign of steady momentum. We hope you will check back to the Newsroom during the second half of November when the next EV Market Monitor -- with data from October -- will be published. New Vehicle Inventory: Are We Normal Now? Last week we provided our monthly update on inventory levels for both markets, new and used. You can find those data points here (new) and here (used). If there is one thing about our auto market now in 2024, compared to recent years, it’s how remarkably stable it feels. This is particularly true in the new-vehicle market. Dare we say it? Is this normal? At the end of September when we took measure of available new vehicles, the number seemed comfortably familiar: 2.75 million vehicles. And indeed, a calculation of the inventory level this year going back to January shows a consistent average of 2.78 million vehicles. September, normal? Check. The average listing price was familiar as well. At the end of September, our measure was $47,823. The average for the year? $47,438. We’ve barely budged. As our reports show, the sales pace slowed slightly last month, but many of our core metrics are unmoved. The Kelley Blue Book new-vehicle average transaction price (ATP) in September was $48,397. Back in January, the ATP was $48,313. After the metric mayhem we battled during the past few years, a bit of market stability might be welcome. Normal may not make headlines, but let’s all take a breath and enjoy the stability. One last note: Be sure to check out Jeremy Robb’s latest Manheim Market Insights, which was published on Monday. As always, Robb provides an excellent and efficient run-through of all the relevant wholesale used-vehicle market data, including a quick look at how the impact of major weather events can be detected by the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index.