New-vehicle inventory levels slipped by 110,000 in January amid expected seasonal fluctuations, Cloud Theory said in its latest inventory report.
Inventory fell from 2.64 million in December to 2.53 million in January, interrupting an 11-month period of sustained growth, the data analytics company said. The last time inventory levels fell was in January 2023, indicating that the slip is likely a normal seasonal fluctuation, the report said.
“The end of the year is always a key selling period for the manufacturers, and there’s an influx of inventory that occurs,” said Rick Wainschel, vice president of data science and analytics at Cloud Theory. “There’s a bit of a shift that occurs in the end of a year and into the beginning of the next, and this year was no exception.”
The report comes amid post-pandemic records for new-vehicle inventory after years of shortages. New-vehicle inventory levels are expected to reach a four-year high in 2024 but still fall short of pre-COVID records, Cloud Theory said in its 2024 Outlook report released last month.
Demand has also remained stagnant in January with a 40 percent turnover rate, indicating the industry is settling in to a “new normal,” Wainschel added.
Cloud Theory’s inventory efficiency index also found a decline for luxury automakers in January, which is typical after the holidays, Wainschel said.
Toyota remained the top brand nationally in the index, claiming the highest score in eight of the nine surveyed regions.