Chicago Sun-Times

New auto sales up, but long way to go before full recovery

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DETROIT — U.S. new vehicle sales rebounded slightly last year from 2020’s dismal numbers, but were still about 2 million below the years before the coronaviru­s pandemic.

The reason? Although there are plenty of customers who want to buy new vehicles at hefty prices, there still aren’t enough computer chips for the industry to fully crank up its factories. So supplies are short, prices are high, and many customers can’t get what they want.

Sales hit just over 15 million vehicles in 2021, up 3.4% from 2020, the year the pandemic took hold in the U.S.

“Demand is not off at all,” said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Cox Automotive. “What is off is sales, because the inventory doesn’t exist.”

Cox expects 2021 sales to be 14.9 million vehicles, up 2.5% from 2020, the year the pandemic hit the U.S. and forced the industry to shut down for eight weeks. But over the five years before the pandemic, sales averaged 17.3 million.

Among the hardest hit by the chip shortage was General Motors, which was unseated by Toyota last year as the nation’s top-selling automaker for the first time. GM on Tuesday reported that last year’s U.S. sales fell 13% from 2020 levels. Toyota, on the other hand, saw its sales rise 10.4%.

Like other automakers, GM was forced to temporaril­y close factories during the year as it struggled to get semiconduc­tors, especially early in the year. Krebs said she isn’t sure if GM will be able to dislodge Toyota this year because Toyota has managed the chip shortage better and has a faster distributi­on.

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