U.S. dealerships are poised to sell more new vehicles in 2023 than in the past three years, according to Urban Science’s midyear Automotive Franchise Activity report.
The average number of new vehicles sold by U.S. dealerships, known as throughput, is estimated to rise to 842 in 2023, which would be an increase of 83 vehicles over last year’s 759, Urban Science said.
Despite the anticipated increase, the estimate is still lower than the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019, when throughput was 940, according to Urban Science data.
The report also said as of July 1, the number of dealerships in the U.S. increased only 0.1 percent, to 18,280. The number of franchises, however, declined 2.3 percent to 30,844, Urban Science said.
California added 13 dealerships and Tennessee added seven, Urban Science found. Meanwhile, New York lost five dealerships and Illinois lost three.
Urban Science said sales of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles jumped 56 percent in the first half of the year to 664,104 vehicles.
Urban Science said it projects this trend to continue through the remainder of 2023 with electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales of an estimated 1.3 million for the year.
California, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and New York, in that order, had the highest number of electric and hybrid plug-in vehicle sales through the first half of 2023, Urban Science found.
