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In The Land Of SUVs, Can The Car Recover?

SUVs in New York traffic
Image via The New York Post

Summary

  • Combining SUVs and Light Trucks, they made up 80% of new vehicle sales in 2023
  • SUVs are selling often in the 200,000 to 400,000 units range
  • Import SUVs are outselling American-made SUVs by a nearly 2:1 ratio
  • Some cars are keeping up, albeit just, like the Toyota Camry and the Tesla Model 3
  • We think that unless there is a major revolution in vehicle technology to drag customers back to cars, Americans are in love with SUVs and CUVs, and the trend looks to grow even more in 2024

If you’ve spent any amount of time on a freeway, highway, or interstate in the US at all in the past 10 years, one thing you’ll have noticed is that there has a been a gradual, but still noticeable, shift towards SUVs, CUVs, and light trucks as the most common type of vehicle.

This trend has not shown any signs of slowing down, either. In fact, since 2022, the most common vehicle on the road is a utility vehicle or a light truck instead of a coupe or sedan car. In 2023, SUVs and light trucks became the most bought out of all all vehicles, with SUVs taking 60% of sales, and trucks another 20%. That left only 20% of sales for cars.

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