Limited inventory, affordability challenges, reduced customer loyalty—we all remember the significant changes brought about by the pandemic. While these issues have started to dissipate, the automotive industry is now entering a new era as electric vehicles (EVs) take center stage. For as many opportunities as this next frontier creates, an equal number of challenges emerge. These headwinds include slowing sales velocity, EV prices that are still higher than ICE vehicles, and a noisy market saturated with new EV models.
In recent months, new-vehicle inventory levels have been on the rise, reaching some of their highest point in two years, according to monthly reporting by Cox Automotive. And when you drill into this issue, you quickly see that EVs are among the segments with the highest inventory — many EVs had more than 100 days’ supply at the end of July 2023. Additionally, Kelley Blue Book reported that the average price of an EV in July 2023 was still several tho…