Bloomberg Businessweek February 8, 2021 pp15|Autos|”Cars Have Run Out of Gas”
Image from WSJ.com August 25, 2018
See the article to view informative graphs and other detail
“Despite all the buzz about how electric vehicles will reshape transportation, the real transformation in the auto business has been consumers’ race away from traditional cars and toward so-called light trucks (which include not only pickups but also SUVs and minivans)”
Data presented in graphs
Summary
Share of vehicles sold in the U.S.
Data shows that since January 1994 traditional cars or sedans have gone from about 59% of sales value declining below 50% after 1997 and diving progressively down in April 2013 to about 19% now. Light duty trucks are essentially a mirror image being about 41% of sales value way back in 1994 to 81% of retail value now and 76% of sales.
GM
For GM, the rise of Light Duty Truck and the fall in car sales resembles an X crossing around 2000, flattening after an initial rise but the shooting up and down a diagonal in 2013 to now where sedans account for about 10% while Light Duty Trucks around 90% of vehicles sold and 92% of retail value. GM will discontinue models consisting of 43,000 sedans going forward.
Ford
For Ford, the rise and fall was noticeable in 1994 and peaked by 2004 stayed flat until about 2014 and then fell and rose respectively to about 10% for cars and 91% for Light Duty Trucks of vehicles sold and 94% of retail value. Ford is phasing “out most its sedans by 2020, including the Fiesta and Fusion.”
FCA (Fiat Chrysler)
For FCA, the curves are similar to Ford but have stabilized since 2018 with Light Duty Trucks consisting of 91% of vehicles sold and 91% of retail value.
Not mentioned in the article, but of course the big kicker will be the arrival of light duty electric trucks happening now and in the coming years by traditional and non-traditional makers including Rivian, Tesla and others.