The U.S. automotive industry saw its worst year since the Great Recession in 2017, but the outlook for 2020 is very positive. It is expected that car and truck sales will increase by nearly 10%, to 14.5 million. This will be down from the 17 million vehicles sold last year, but it will still be better than the 10-12 million predicted last spring. However, the outlook for 2020 isn’t all good news. The automotive industry in the U.S. has been in a slump since the early 2000s.
According to the American Automotive Policy Council, the United States auto industry will produce 8 million vehicles by 2020, a 14% increase over the previous year. This figure is not broken down by brand, model, or manufacturer, but rather, by the number of new and used vehicles sold in the country. The raw data are available from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which provides information for various industries and statistics.
The automotive industry has also suffered from a cooling market, but the industry is not as bad as some would think. With the sales of light vehicles increasing by 2.9% in the first quarter of 2019, the automakers are turning their attention to more profitable models like SUVs and crossover utility vehicles. Although the U.S. automotive industry is experiencing a slump, the initial numbers are incredibly promising. As of March 20, there are currently over one million plug-in electric vehicles on American roads. And California has more than 2025 public EV charging stations, outnumbering the next six states combined.
As of 2018, the U.S. auto industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the world. In 2018, it exported $692 billion worth of vehicles. By 2020, the automotive industry is forecast to have the highest amount of EVs on the planet and the highest number of electric vehicles on American roads. But the United States’ automotive market faces stiff competition from foreign automakers, which are gaining ground in the country. The United States’ vehicle production is expected to fall by more than 27% by that time, and will grow to 8.8 million units in the next few years.
The U.S. auto industry is experiencing a tough time. In fact, the government is offering $250 billion to banks in a bailout. It is estimated that the economy will lose about two million jobs in 2020. While the numbers are impressive, they still don’t reflect the reality that the industry is facing. In addition, the economy is not booming. The U.S. car market is shrinking by more than a third, so the future of the auto industry is unclear.
Final Thought
The automotive industry is experiencing a tough time. This industry is forecasted to experience the fourth-largest annual decline since 1980. The two previous years, however, experienced the worst recession in history. The decline was 18.1% in 2010. Meanwhile, the average weekly hours in the auto manufacturing sector decreased by about three million. The government is also predicting a lower number of new car sales in the future.
