New-vehicle inventories showed just incremental improvement last month as COVID-related lockdowns in Asia and political conflict in Europe exacerbated auto industry supply chain shortages.
As of March 21, the supply of unsold new vehicles in the U.S. totaled 1.1 million, up 40,000 vehicles from the previous week, according to Cox Automotive data.
"Time will tell if this marks a true shift in the pace of re-supply of inventory," Charlie Chesbrough, Cox Automotive senior economist, noted in an email.
The semiconductor shortage and other supply chain issues that continue to drag on will take a toll on North American auto production and U.S. sales.
LMC Automotive and J.D. Power expect U.S. light-vehicle sales to total 15.3 million for 2022, down from an earlier forecast of 15.9 million. Cox Automotive also cut its 2022 forecast, to 15.3 million from 16 million.
Dealerships began April with 526,100 vehicles in inventory, a 21-day supply based on self-reported data from seven automakers and compiled by the Automotive News Research & Data Center. That compares with 458,800 vehicles in January, a 20-day supply.
Inventory levels for March were down 60 percent from the 1.3 million vehicles — then a 39-day supply — where they stood a year earlier.
As of April 1, Subaru had the tightest supply of those automakers, at four days, while Ford Motor Co. had the highest, with 45 days' supply, according to Automotive News data.
According to Cox, industrywide sales totaled 960,000 vehicles in the 30 days ended March 21, up 7,000 vehicles from the previous period.
