The new car market in the United States is still relatively unstable, which means fewer new vehicles hit the US roads every day. As a natural result of this trend, there are more and more older vehicles in operation and according to the latest analysis from S&P Global Mobility, the average age of cars in the country has reached a new record.
According to the available data, more than 284 million vehicles are currently in operation on US roads. Their average age is 12.5 years, which represents an increase in the average age by more than three months compared to 2022. This year also represents the sixth consecutive year of increase in the average vehicle age of the US fleet, according to S&P Global Mobility.
"We expected the confluence of factors impacting the fleet coming out of 2021 would provide further upward pressure on the average vehicle age. But the pressure was amplified in the back half of 2022 as interest rates and inflation began to take their toll," Todd Campau, associate director of aftermarket solutions for S&P Global Mobility, describes the processes that stand behind the growing average age of vehicles on US roads.
Contrary to a report from May this year, the new analysis summarizes that the traditional car segment keeps losing ground in the United States. About 78 percent of all new vehicles registered in the country last year were SUVs or light trucks and those two segments now represent nearly 63 percent of all vehicles currently in operation in the US. Trucks and SUVs also dominated a recent list of longest-lasting vehicles in the US.
Another interesting finding comes from the EV segment. The average age of electric vehicles in the country drops by a month to 3.6 years as new BEV registrations continue to grow every year. S&P Global Mobility also estimates that of the nearly 2.3 million battery electric vehicles registered in the US from 2013 to 2022, about 2.12 million are still on the road today.
