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NEWS
Sandy's aftermath
Hurricane strike is proving costly for the US car industryNew car sales in the US have begun to falter already, as residents on the Atlantic coast pick up the pieces left by the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.
“Although the damage wrought by Sandy impacted twelve states and Washington, D.C., flooding appears to have been most severe in low-lying or coastal areas of New York and New Jersey, both of which rank in the top 15 states in terms of overall vehicles in operation... and new-vehicle dealerships...” Jonathan Banks told online publication autoremarketing.com.
Banks, an executive automotive analyst with the NADA Used Car Guide, observed that sales for October – the hurricane hit just two days before the end of the month – were "five to six per cent below" the forecast figure of 1.15 million vehicles sold. That translates to 1.09 million vehicles actually sold – a difference of around 60,000 lost sales in the one month... or three days, even.
The hurricane has directly resulted in plans by car manufacturers to scrap 15,000 new vehicles, with the further possibility that 200,000 will be replaced in total. Those numbers came from Bloomberg via respected US industry journal, Automotive News. The publication cited estimates from Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan and Honda to arrive at the 15,000-unit figure, and quoted Larry Dixon, a senior analyst for the National Automobile Dealers Association for the 200,000-unit total.
"Total vehicles affected may be about one-third of what we saw with Hurricane Katrina, and that was about 600,000 [used and new vehicles]," Dixon was reported as saying. "We don't see replacement demand starting to accelerate until we're into December."
Bloomberg says that Nissan alone has lost as many as 6000 vehicles (Infiniti models among them) and as many as 56 Nissan dealers in the area affected by the disaster were closed, although only five remained closed, according to the latest from Automotive News. Toyota puts its losses at around 3000 cars written off, with a further 1300 in need of repair to reinstate to as-new condition. 825 more vehicles were in dealer stock and will be written off as well.
Honda and Acura dealers expect to scrap 3440 vehicles and 500 US exports ready to ship when the hurricane struck are being declared a total loss also. At the time of publication, neither Ford nor GM could provide estimates of the losses, but Hyundai had lost 400 and Kia 200.
When Sandy crossed the Atlantic coast of New York and New Jersey on October 29, it hit with a force of 160km/h and waters surged to around 3.9 metres. 8.5 million homes and business premises lost power across the 21 states hit by Sandy. 886,000 homes and businesses remain without power this week, in New York and New Jersey alone.
Picture courtesy of David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons
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