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Cox Automotive Update: New-Vehicle ATPs Flirt with Record Highs


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Our quarterly EV sales report, built with our team from Kelley Blue Book, was published on Monday and shows that EV sales in the U.S. were rolling in the final months of 2024. The big finish helped push the 12-month total to 1.3 million units, a gain of 7.3% year over year. The full report is published here and shows another record year for volume and share, of course, with notable gains from Honda (zero to hero!), General Motors and Ford offsetting a big drop in volume from Tesla and others. And the year ended strong: Estimates indicated that December was the best month ever for EV sales in the U.S., with volume of 132,392. 

December was a good month for expensive automobiles. The Kelley Blue Book average transaction price (ATP) data for December went live this morning and shows the industry was flirting with record highs. ATPs typically peak in December as luxury sales surge, and that was certainly the case last month. Our data suggests a record number of vehicles transacting for over $80,000 sold in December, and full-size pickups were moving as well. In fact, December was the best month of 2024 for full-size pickup sales — and that’s a formula for higher ATPs. You can read the breakdown here

Lastly, sales of used EVs continue to increase. In 2024, nearly 300,000 used EVs were sold at retail, a year-over-year jump of more than 60%, according to data we shared last week. (Slide #48 in the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index presentation.) And with more sales of used EVs comes more questions about battery health. One solution is transparency: an effort to include VIN-specific battery health data on vehicle listings. That’s what our colleagues at Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book are beginning to include on their sites. Here's an example: Mustang Mach-E.  And we will have more to say about that in the coming weeks.

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Many of my colleagues and I are heading to New Orleans next week for the 2025 NADA Show. As the world’s largest provider of automotive services, we will be the biggest vendor at the annual meeting of auto dealers and will be showcasing tools that help the industry manage retail, inventory, wholesale, logistics and battery lifecycle management, to name a few. If work takes you to The Big Easy late next week, reach out. We’d appreciate a chance to connect. 

And speaking of NADA, have you ever thought of being a car dealer? The money is good, but it’s not an easy business. A reminder of this hit my inbox earlier this week. Our team at Dealertrack provides an annual “Compliance Guide” for dealers, and the 2025 edition is no less than 186 pages. There’s a lot in there, including a sizeable glossary covering terms you should be aware of, such as Disparate Impact Credit Discriminationthe Gramm-Leach-Billey Act (GLB) and the all-important IRS/FinCEN Form 8300. Good luck out there. 
As always, thanks for staying up to speed with Cox Automotive.

Mark Schirmer
Director | Industry Insights & Corporate Communications
Email: mark.schirmer@coxautoinc.com
Mobile: 734-883-6346
LinkedIn: Mark Schirmer
www.coxautoinc.com/newsroom

If you have any questions or want to connect with anyone from our team, reach out. We would be happy to help.