Although the 2,685,839 new light vehicles on U.S. dealers lots at the end of February were up more than 143,000 from January, that wasn’t enough to keep pace with the month’s increased selling rate.
As a consequence, month-end days’ supply dropped to a slightly below-normal 59, about even with prior-year’s 60 but down from 67 at the end of January.
The decline was not universal, as some 44 models still posted readings in excess of 100 days’ supply on Feb. 29. But that was down compared with 57 models in the prior month and included a number of discontinued vehicles in the sell-down phase.
The Detroit Three generally benefitted most from the February days’ supply adjustment, falling to a still-high 72 from January’s 86 in the face of a 3.6% increase in unit-stock. However, that was still well above prior-year’s 62, which is at the low end of the normal range.
The high-side count included two Chevrolet models: The Corvette at 151 days’ and the Volt at 154, the latter facing production downtime of several weeks beginning later this month.
Dealers of Asia/Pacific brands boosted their inventories 9.5% in February to 1,004,887 units. But that remained subpar given the month’s 22% sales increase, cutting days’ supply to a weak 47 from a below-normal 53 at the end of January.
Hyundai and Kia again tied with 32 days each for the lowest LV supply among all brands in February. Hyundai’s Elantra and Veloster, at 18 days each, saw the industry’s lowest supply in car inventory for the industry.
While European brands mustered a 2.4% February inventory gain to 179,658 units, days’ supply held nearly steady at a too-low 46, compared with January’s 47. That included a mere 13 days’ for each of BMW’s X3, X5 and X6 cross/utility vehicles, the lowest of any light vehicle.
