U.S. vehicle inventory up slightly, but still low

New-vehicle inventory in the U.S. continued to recover in April, albeit slowly, as automakers struggled to resupply their dealers while filling presold orders from earlier production constraints, according to data compiled by the Automotive News Research & Data Center and Cox Automotive.

Cox said automakers and dealers had 1.11 million vehicles on hand nationwide, a 36-day supply. The figure is up about 30,000 vehicles from the previous month, but still 900,000 vehicles below where inventory stood a year earlier, and 2.4 million vehicles lower than at the same point in 2020. Cox computes its days' supply figures based on the selling rate of the previous 30-day period.

Among the seven automakers that continue to report monthly sales and inventory data, Ford Motor, Hyundai-Kia, Mazda and Subaru saw their days' supply shrink from the previous month. American Honda's was flat, while Toyota Motor and Volvo saw slight improvements.

Cox said in its analysis that among the 15 brands with above-average inventory levels, 10 were domestic, while import brands continued to struggle to maintain stocks.

On a segment basis, Cox said the tightest inventories were among compact vehicles, hybrids, small crossovers, subcompact cars, minivans and luxury full-size SUVs. The company also said the highest days' supply levels were among full-size pickups and some SUVs. Cox said days' supply was tightest for the Honda CR-V, Kia Sportage, Honda Accord, Subaru Crosstrek and Toyota Highlander.