Why You Won’t Find a 2021 Vehicle in Dealership Lots These Days

The coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on the automotive market in the United States as data show that 2021 vehicles practically can’t be found at dealerships.

In this year’s spring, a lot of automakers opted to delay the launch and production of new vehicles for 2021. The decision was understandable considering the recession and general uncertainty among car buyers and the industry, add to that the rise in the coronavirus cases in the U.S.

But now that most companies are back on a regular production schedule, the effects of the previous months are starting to show. The most prominent being only 2% of vehicles at dealership lots across the country are 2021 models, a 9% decline compared to the same period in 2019, according to an analysis made by Cox Automotive.

“They’re just sort of behind. The white-collar workers are behind in planning the model-year rollovers; the factories have had a difficult time getting the supply chain up to speed,” said Cox Automotive Senior Economist Charlie Chesbrough. “I think some of it is the manufacturers themselves just said, ‘Let’s not introduce new problems, let’s try and get back to production of our old vehicles.'”

Shortly after automakers re-opened their facilities following a couple of months of hiatus, the problems became evident—supplier deliveries were delayed and vehicle inventories were depleted across the country.

Experts, however, remain optimistic for the remainder of the year, especially since several automakers have revealed their upcoming models due to begin production in the next few months. With this in mind, dealership lots could be filled with 2021 models sooner rather than later.

“My guess is that we will start to see more of the normal model-year rollover activities start to happen. I just think we’re going to see it as a continuous delay throughout the course of the fall, versus what is normal for this time of the year,” Chesbrough said.