February Fleet Gross sales Surge – Cox Automotive Inc.

Gross sales into massive fleets, not together with gross sales into seller and producer fleets, elevated 48% 12 months over 12 months in February to 183,954 items, in accordance with an early estimate from Cox Automotive.

New-vehicle stock is vastly higher than year-ago ranges, enabling automakers to be extra aggressive with fleet gross sales. Mixed gross sales into massive rental, business, and authorities fleets have seen eight consecutive months of double-digit, year-over-year will increase. Gross sales into rental fleets have been up 77% 12 months over 12 months, gross sales into authorities fleets have been up 42%, and gross sales into business fleets have been up 23%.

February 2023 Fleet Gross sales

Fleet Share of Retail Gross sales Will increase Once more in February

As anticipated, robust fleet gross sales helped total February U.S. auto gross sales tempo, or seasonally adjusted annual fee (SAAR), seemingly attain 14.9 million items, above the Cox Automotive forecast of 14.4 million. Together with an estimate for fleet deliveries into seller and producer channels, the remaining retail gross sales have been estimated to be up 4.3%, resulting in an estimated retail SAAR of 12.3 million, up 0.5 million from final 12 months’s tempo, however down 0.9 million from final month’s tempo. 

• Fleet market share of 17.7% was a 3.5% achieve in comparison with final 12 months’s share of 14.2% and was a 1.2% enhance from final month’s estimated 16.5% market share.
• All massive producers had year-over-year fleet gross sales positive factors. Stellantis and Ford had the biggest fleet quantity positive factors – up greater than 50% – in February in comparison with final 12 months. Kia and Hyundai reported strong February retail gross sales outcomes with solely minor will increase in fleet gross sales.

Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, notes: “Fleet was a giant a part of the auto gross sales story in February. As stock ranges enhance, some automakers are selecting to promote extra items into the fleet channel to maintain retail provide restricted.”

Yr-to-date fleet gross sales are up 52.3% in comparison with the identical time in 2022 when fleet gross sales have been down 30% 12 months over 12 months. The Cox Automotive fleet gross sales forecast for 2023 is 2.2 million items.