New vehicle inventory in the United States was up in February, but according to Cloud Theory’s monthly report, the real headliner is the sharp 28% month-over-month increase in vehicle movement seen in March.
Cloud Theory is a real-time automotive data insights provider for automotive OEMs, agencies, and other industry players. Its report shows that vehicle movement in March, up 1.25 million units, reached its highest level since May 2021. And while the company admits the April forecast hints at a decrease to 1.20 million, they say that figure will still be higher than recent boundaries.
“The marketplace has been in a state of growing supply but stable demand since the summer, so this represents a shift to where both are on an upward trajectory,” said Rick Wainschel, Vice President of Data Science & Analytics at Cloud Theory, in a statement. “Aggressive pricing and incentives in March were effective in bringing those two sides of the equation into better balance.”
In its news release, Cloud Theory said the increase in vehicle movement resulted in a six-point gain in turn rate to 44% — the highest level since October 2023. As for pricing, which has been down for seven consecutive months, it started to rise and even surpassed $50,000 after falling below that benchmark in February.
Cloud Theory’s Inventory Efficiency Index showed that Toyota increased its lead over second place Honda and is leading in all census regions. The company described its index as assigning scores to vehicle makes and models “based on current active inventory and sales data relative to competitors.”
Based on that, BMW, having experienced a 44% movement increase even though its inventory gain was just 6%, moved up four ranks. And Cadillac, originally ranked third, slipped to eight place after its supply position increased 25% and its movement gained but did not keep pace (+19%).
