EV Production Outdoes Demand
Unsold electric vehicles are beginning to pile up at dealerships across the nation, Reuters reports.
Analysts and industry data show that EV inventories have been rising faster than demand, with U.S. dealers having over 90 days’ worth of unsold EVs in their inventory, according to data from Cox Automotive.
New vehicle inventories overall are up 74% from a year ago. The number of EVs dealers have has seen a three-fold increase from the previous year, with an estimated over 92,000 EVs in stock.
As automakers plan to produce more than 90 new EV models for the U.S. market through 2026, according to AutoForecast Solutions, analysts predict a struggle to meet profitable sales volumes. Manufacturers may be forced to cut prices and profit margins or slow down assembly lines.
Though Tesla does not have dealers or report inventory, the automaker has recently been cutting prices and offering discounts, such as customer referral discounts. These actions caused average selling prices for EVs for the second quarter to rise to $53,438, which is down 19.5% from June 2022.
“There's a natural speed of market growth here that many are fighting against, and there's a lot of confusion in the market with too many brands,” said EV investment banker Vitaly Golomb. “The strong will survive here and the rest will struggle.”
