Over the next 10 years expect the car dealerships to have a evolution, but don't let yourself get tricked it's not gonna be a revolution. The changes are coming to auto dealerships, that's something inevitable, but it's not gonna be a disruptive overthrow of the business model.
The goal of the research was to look at the state of auto retailing in 2025. NADA commissioned the study in March as a way to stimulate long-term thinking and planning among dealers, the report's gonna be presented at the end of the week. The dealership model will remain dominant, with direct-sales efforts focused on high-end vehicles and representing just a small fraction of U.S. vehicle sales. But dealerships will become more alike with dealers adopting prescribed features of factory stores. The number of U.S. dealerships will shrink slightly to around 16,500 stores in 2025, down from just under 18,000 today. U.S. light-vehicle sales will be in the range of 17 million-18 million vehicles, similar to today’s level. But the mix will shift to more-expensive vehicles and higher-income customers.
Vehicle profit margins will be lower, but asset returns such as return on equity may be more stable. The gap between strong and weak stores will widen. Purely online sales will become common but not dominant. Electric-vehicle sales will grow by 2025 but remain less than 5% of the market. Still, it is crucial for dealers to embrace the electric-vehicle market.
