U.S. Car Sales Surge in December with a 13% Boost, Fueled by Discounts and Increased Availability

According to a report by industry experts J.D. Power and GlobalData, new car sales in the U.S. are expected to go up by about 13% in December compared to last year. This increase is driven by good discounts and more cars being available. The total number of new cars sold, including retail and non-retail transactions, is estimated to be around 1,396,700 units in December, which is a 13.2% increase from the previous year.

The car industry is having a strong year, with total sales just below 15.5 million, a big 12.8% jump from last year. Right now, there are a lot of cars in stock, the most since early 2021, and dealers and carmakers are working hard to make room for new models coming in January.

Car dealers are offering big discounts and incentives during winter sales to sell off older cars and take advantage of high demand. The report predicts that each car will have an incentive spending of about $2,458 this month, up from $1,289 last year. This could lead consumers to spend around $50.4 billion on new cars, an increase of $2.4 billion.

Thomas King, the president of the data and analytics division at J.D. Power, said, "Sales growth for December is being helped by more cars being available and more affordable." However, even though dealers are selling more cars, the profits they make per car are going down because of more cars available and higher interest rates. Still, these profits are higher than what they were before the pandemic.

The average price for a new car in the United States in December is expected to be $46,055, a bit less than the $47,362 in the same period last year. Looking ahead, the report thinks that global demand will go up by 3%, reaching 92.3 million cars in 2024.

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