In the first half of 2024, the average selling price of used vehicles came to around 28,300 U.S. dollars. In 2023, new automobiles and light trucks were on average almost 17,700 U.S. dollars more expensive than used light vehicles. The used car boom As the price for new vehicles has been increasing, more Americans are turning towards buying second-hand cars and light trucks. Buying new cars and light trucks is typically seen as a privilege that few may do often. Generally, used vehicle sales are on the rise in most countries. Thanks to ever-improving technology, automobiles may keep running for many years and remain in good condition. This allows the average age of light vehicles in operation in the United States to increase slowly. Although new cars are often seen as status symbols, vintage cars are also very popular in the United States, the main reason for this trend being aesthetic and cultural values.

This statistic shows the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of second hand car purchases in the United Kingdom (UK) as an annual average from 2008 to 2023, where the year 2015 equals 100. In 2023 the annual average price index value of second hand car purchases was measured at 118.9.

Used car prices in Germany have increased significantly since 2018, though 2023 saw a drop across some sales channel categories. Free trade vehicles recorded a decrease, with figures falling to around 15,700 euros in 2023. Prices of used cars sold through brand trading have always been historically higher. New and old Germany is a leader on the global car market, with car brands and production quality of long- standing. Volkswagen, Mercedes, and BMV are among the first of many names that come to mind. Consumers may therefore be motivated to buy new cars by various means of financing, considering it a good investment for the future. Of course, new car prices differ significantly compared to used vehicles, with a new car costing an average of around 44,630 euros in 2023. Prices had grown in recent years, both due to the far-reaching effects of COVID-19 restrictions on industrial production and the energy crisis following the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. Drivers looking to buy a car are faced with familiar cost-related decisions regarding whether they buy new or second-hand, but higher fuel prices across the board are an issue facing all vehicle owners. A market with a future The German used car market is expected to grow in the coming years, with around 114.6 billion U.S. dollars predicted for 2025. Besides potentially contributing to sustainability and environmental protection goals, selling used cars is a business going beyond Germany’s borders. For example, Poland was Germany’s leading second-hand vehicle market by far when compared to other European countries, with around 422.3 cars imported in 2023.

Sales of used light vehicles in the United States came to around 38.9 million units in the third quarter of 2024. The same period, approximately 15.6 million new light trucks and automobiles were sold here. Declining availability of vehicles In the fourth quarter of 2023, about 288.5 million vehicles were in operation in the United States, an increase of under one percent year-over-year. The rising demand for vehicles paired with an overall price inflation lead to a rise in new vehicle prices. In contrast, used vehicle prices slightly decreased. E-commerce: a solution for the bumpy road ahead? Financial reports have revealed how the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has triggered a shift in vehicle-buying behavior. With many consumer goods and services now bought online due to COVID-19, the automobile industry has also started to digitally integrate its services online to reach consumers with a preference for contactless test driving amid the global crisis. Several dealers and automobile companies had already begun to tap into online car sales before the pandemic, some of them being Carvana and Tesla.

Used car prices have been increasing across all vehicle age groups in Spain between 2021 and 2022, with used cars between 10 and 15 years old recording the steepest price inflation. This age group's average price was up 58.2 percent year-over-year, reaching around 7,900 euros in 2022. In contrast, cars between one and three years old reported a slower inflation, costing approximately 21,574 euros in 2022—23.3 percent more than in 2021.

In the United States, the average selling price for a new light vehicle came to around 47,010 U.S. dollars in 2023. New light vehicles were about 1.6 percent more expensive in 2023 than in 2022.

What is the price of a new car in the U.S.?     New automobiles and light trucks were on average around 17,700 U.S. dollars more expensive than used light vehicles: the average selling price for used vehicles amounted to about 29,300 U.S. dollars in 2023. This increasing price gap between new and used vehicles is partly linked to the industry's recovery from the semiconductor shortage, which led to higher new vehicle inventory and reduced pressure on the used vehicle market.

The semiconductor shortage    The hike in prices across the board recorded in 2022 can be in parts attributed to the global automotive chip shortage, which started in 2021 as demand rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic. The average price rise could be observed across segments, with new full-size SUV/crossover vehicles averaging 73,900 U.S. dollars as of December 2022.

The U.S. auto industry sold nearly three million cars in 2024. That year, total car and light truck sales were approximately 15.9 million in the United States. U.S. vehicle sales peaked in 2016 at roughly 17.5 million units. Pandemic impact The COVID-19 pandemic deeply impacted the U.S. automotive market, accelerating the global automotive semiconductor shortage and leading to a drop in demand during the first months of 2020. However, as demand rebounded, new vehicle supply could not keep up with the market. U.S. inventory-to-sales ratio dropped to its lowest point in February 2022, as Russia's war on Ukraine lead to gasoline price hikes. During that same period, inflation also impacted new and used car prices, pricing many U.S. consumers out of a market with increasingly lower car stocks. Focus on fuel economy The U.S. auto industry had one of its worst years in 1982 when customers were beginning to feel the effects of the 1973 oil crisis and the energy crisis of 1979. Since light trucks would often be considered less fuel-efficient, cars accounted for about 77 percent of light vehicle sales back then. Thanks to improved fuel economy for light trucks and cheaper gas prices, this picture had completely changed in 2020. That year, prices for Brent oil dropped to just over 40 U.S. dollars per barrel. The decline occurred in tandem with lower gasoline prices, which came to about 2.17 U.S. dollars per gallon in 2020 - and cars only accounted for less than one-fourth of light vehicle sales that year. Four years on, prices are dropping again, after being the highest on record since 1990 in 2022.

In 2023, the average purchase value for a used automobile in Japan was around 1.72 million Japanese yen, increasing from 1.57 million Japanese yen in 2022. The most commonly purchased price range for used cars was usually between 500 thousand and one million Japanese yen.

Outlooks for Japan’s used auto market

The recent trends have been encouraging; registrations of used cars indicate a vivid circulation, and the average value of used auto purchases hit a record high in 2022, despite prices briefly glitching in 2020. But the grain of salt is evident: mainly younger generations opt for used cars. Clients in their 20s and 30s contribute significantly to the market size as they spend more on their vehicles on top. It is, therefore, Japan’s demographic development that depresses market outlooks.

The used EV-market: small steps

Another issue in the automotive world is CASE (connected, autonomous, shared and service, and electrified vehicles). As the government pushes domestic dealers to substitute their lineup of new passenger cars with electrified models by 2035, this government policy would have implications for the used auto market once implemented. One result would be a larger supply of used electrics, whose market is currently in its infancy. Because used cars and commercial vehicles are not affected by the announced 2035 sales ban, EVs may remain a niche product in the used car market for longer than that.

The consumer price index (CPI) measures inflation. It estimates the average variation in the prices of products consumed by households between two given periods.This statistic shows the evolution of the consumer price index (CPI) of new and secondhand cars in France, from May 2020 to December 2024. In December 2024, the CPI reached 114.42.

Car loan interest rates in the United States decreased since June 2024. Thus, the period of rapidly rising interest rates, when they increased from less than four percent in February 2022 to 7.9 percent two years later, has come to an end. The Federal Reserve interest rate is one of the main causes of the interest rates of loans rising or falling. If inflation stays under control, the Federal Reserve will start cutting the interest rates, which would have the effect of the cost of car loans falling too. How many cars have financing in the United States? Car financing exists because not everyone who wants or needs a car can purchase it outright. A financial institution will then lend the money to the customer for purchasing the car, which must then be repaid with interest. Most new vehicles in the United States in 2024 were purchased using car loans. It is not as common to use car loans for purchasing used vehicles as for new ones, although over a third of used vehicles were purchased using loans. The car industry in the United States The car financing business is huge in the United States, due to the high sales of both new and used vehicles in the country. A lot of the United States is very car-centric, which means that, outside large cities, it can often be difficult to do their daily commutes through other transportation methods. In fact, only a small percentage of U.S. workers used public transport to go to work. That is one of the factors that has helped establish the importance of the automotive sector in North America. Nevertheless, there are still countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe with higher car-ownership rates than the United States.

The share of used vehicles with financing in the United States decreased with fluctuations from the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2021. In the first quarter of 2021, 34.5 percent of the used cars in the United States were financed.

In financial year 2023, the market value of used cars was around 31 billion U.S. dollars. It was estimated that in 2028, it would increase to around 70 billion dollars. During the presented period, a general growth trend could be observed. Indian passenger vehicle industry India has one of the biggest passenger vehicle manufacturing sectors in the world, with an annual production of around 4.6 million vehicles. Among all the passenger vehicle manufacturers, Maruti Suzuki dominated this segment with the highest market share. In recent years, the Indian market has witnessed a shift from hatchbacks to crossovers and compact SUVs. Used cars market The predominantly unorganized market for used cars in India has grown immensely. It was estimated that by financial year 2028, the used car to new car market ratio would be approximately 1.9 across the country. However, the pace of industry organization has picked up speed during the pandemic, especially through digitization. Several online trading platforms have emerged and become more and more popular.

Crossovers are Americans’ favorite type of passenger vehicle. This category accounts for over 45 percent of automobile sales in the United States as of June 2022. The most popular models include Honda’s CR-V, Nissan’s Rogue, and Toyota’s RAV4. In the first quarter of 2022, U.S. auto buyers bought just under 101,200 units of Toyota’s RAV4 model, making it the best-selling vehicle in this category.

Toyota is the market leader  

The RAV4 was one of the very first specimens of its kind, as production of this model began in 1994. Toyota was the second most valuable automotive manufacturer worldwide in 2022, with a brand value of just over 33.1 billion dollars. It followed Tesla, which was first in the ranking with a gap of over 42 billion dollars compared to the runner-up. Toyota’s net revenue rose to 31.4 trillion Japanese yen in 2022 (around 257 billion U.S. dollars as of March 2022 exchange rates), a visible growth of over 15 percent compared to 2021, despite the manufacturer being impacted by the global automotive chip shortage.

 Crossovers benefit from the shift away from sedans   Crossover SUVs (sport utility vehicles) combine the fuel efficiency levels of compact and midsized cars and the higher seating positions of light trucks. They gained in popularity when fuel prices were low and, consequently, automakers increased production volumes and model additions of this vehicle type. Between 2014 and 2021, U.S. car sales fell from over 7.7 million to around 3.34 million units. Concurrently, light truck sales increased from 8.7 million units in 2014 to close to 11.6 million units in 2021. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vehicle demand led to a 9.6 percent drop in light truck sales in 2020. This drop in vehicle sales impacted countries across the globe. In 2020, Germany recorded a loss of over 140,000 sales of SUVs compared to 2019, whereas China’s new SUV registrations remained stable between the two years.

Light truck retail sales in the United States increased to 12.9 million units in 2024. This was a year-over-year increase in sales of some 3.94 percent compared to 2023. In contrast, 2022 was the second drop in sales in a decade, after the drop reported in 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales had been increasing since 2010, when the auto industry began recovering from low vehicle purchases after the 2008-2009 financial crisis. In 2024, sales of light trucks accounted for about 81.2 percent of the approximately 15.9 million light vehicles sold in the United States. Ford, with its signature truck, the Ford F-150, was one of the leading North American car brands in the United States. Why are consumers buying trucks now? Before the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, the U.S. economy had largely recovered from the woes of the financial crisis and unemployment in the United States fell to 3.7 percent in 2019. This meant that consumers were better able to purchase new vehicles. Similarly, due to lower gasoline and diesel fuel prices, motorists were more willing to buy trucks over smaller, more fuel-efficient sedans. 2022 presented a challenge for this automotive market, with Russia's war on Ukraine leading to motor fuel price inflation and to higher new and used car prices.

The cost of diesel fuel in the United States reached an annual average of 4.21 U.S. dollars per gallon in 2023. This was a decrease compared to the previous year, when diesel sold for an average of nearly five U.S. dollars per gallon. Increased economic activity and thus fuel demand combined with supply constraints following the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, which resulted in a notable rise in monthly diesel prices.

Crude oil prices and their impact on motor fuel prices

Motor fuel prices largely mirror major oil benchmarks, such as the OPEC reference basket, WTI, and Brent. As such, the oil glut in 2015 and 2016, which followed years of increased oil production output by the U.S., is largely responsible for the fall in diesel prices seen in those years. The same is true for the 2020 pandemic-induced oil crisis and fall in benchmarks that year.

Diesel and gasoline price development

The usage of diesel began in the 1930s, but until further development in the 1960s, diesel vehicles were mostly used commercially. In the U.S., diesel-powered cars remain a fairly small portion of the automobile market and diesel fuel consumption is far lower than gasoline consumption. In general, gasoline also tends to be more widely available than diesel fuel and usually sells for a lower retail price. However, diesel engines have better fuel economy than gasoline engines, and as such are often used for large commercial vehicles.

In February 2025, one gallon of diesel cost an average of 3.68 U.S. dollars in the United States. That was an increase compared to two months prior, which was the lowest price in the past 24-month period. Impact of crude prices on motor fuel consumer prices Diesel prices are primarily determined by the cost of crude oil. In fact, crude oil regularly accounts for around 50 percent of end consumer prices of diesel. As such, supply restrictions or weak demand outlooks influence prices at the pump. The fall in diesel prices noted in the latter half of 2024 is a reflection of lower crude prices. Diesel and gasoline price development The usage of distillate fuel oil began in the 1930s, but until further development in the 1960s, diesel vehicles were mostly applied to commercial use only. In the U.S., diesel-powered cars remain a fairly small portion of the automobile market and diesel consumption is far lower than gasoline consumption. In general, gasoline also tends to be more widely available than diesel fuel and usually sells for a lower retail price. However, diesel engines have better fuel economy than gasoline engines, and, as such, tend to be used for large commercial vehicles.

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are projected to incur costs of around 50 euros per 100 km in 2030, the cheapest of all motor vehicles on the road. Vehicles using synthetic fuel that are powered by a mild hybrid electric drivetrain or an internal combustion engine are forecast to be the most expensive.

BEV’s cost advantage Mobility costs refer to the expenditure required for travel; they include costs relating to fuel, tax, insurance, and depreciation. BEVs are expected to be the most cost effective in 2030 due to fewer parts and less exposure to wear and tear. Furthermore, many drivers around the world are already taking advantage of financial incentives offered for switching to electric mobility. In China, the world leader for sales of BEVs, subsidies are available on purchases of new energy vehicles, and in the United States, electric vehicle buyers are eligible for a federal tax credit of up to 7,500 U.S. dollars – a state subsidy that many survey respondents consider to be appropriate. However, policymakers are likely to reduce the subsidies on offer for the purchase of electric vehicles over the next decade.

Hybrid vehicles: the best of both worlds? There are two types of hybrid electric vehicles on the market: mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). Both have an internal combustion engine and an electric engine, but the electric motor within an MHEV is not powerful enough to propel the vehicle on its own; it simply assists the internal combustion engine when fuel consumption is particularly high. The electric engine within a PHEV can be recharged via a charging socket and is capable of powering the car by itself. It is forecast that MHEVs and PHEVs will account for around 21 percent of global car sales in 2030.

Gold and silver prices increased over the course of 2021, but these did not grow as fast as the prices of iridium and, especially, rhodium. According to a comparison of price indices, the price for rhodium - a precious metal similar to platinum and used especially in catalytic converters of cars - was ten times higher in April 2021 than it was in January 2019. The price hike for rhodium was apparently caused by coronavirus-related lockdowns implemented in South Africa, where mining companies had to close for several weeks.

Volkswagen was the most popular car brand in Germany thus far in 2024, followed by Mercedes-Benz and Opel. All three car brands originated in Germany and are among the names responsible for making the German automotive industry a global success. The graph at hand is based on a survey conducted in Germany. The people’s car Volkswagen, while remaining the most owned car brand in Germany, has been plagued by scandals in recent years. The so-called ‘Dieselgate' is perhaps the best-known. It goes back to 2015, when the company’s diesel emission test cheating was uncovered – software had been installed in VW vehicles to manipulate results to Volkswagen’s advantage. Compensation payment settlements are still being reached in other countries in addition to Germany. All the same, VW is still beating other car brands across the board by various metrics, whether in terms of new passenger car registrations or the number of electric cars produced. A driving force The automotive industry is one of Germany’s long-term industrial and economic strongholds, but both the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war are hitting hard. Brands and consumers alike face uncertain times. The average price for a new car has been increasing annually in recent years. Competition from China is also putting additional strain on an industry already under pressure.

In 2022, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate stood at 71,000 U.S. dollars per metric ton. This figure is by far the highest price for battery-grade lithium carbonate recorded in the period of consideration. For 2024, lithium carbonate price was estimated at 14,000 U.S. dollars per metric ton. Lithium is a highly reactive soft and silvery-white alkali metal. As the third element in the periodic table, it has 3 protons in its nucleus and three electrons around it. Because it is highly reactive, it cannot be found in its pure form in nature. Lithium is the least dense of solid elements and the lightest out of all metals. Lithium and batteries One of lithium’s most well-known end uses is in lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable and mostly used in portable electronics and electronic vehicles. In lithium-ion batteries, the lithium ions move from the negative electrode to positive electrode while in use, and the process is reversed while charging. These batteries are highly flammable but are also low-maintenance. They have a high energy density and a low self-discharge. Some drawbacks include the fact that they are expensive to manufacture, and that they require protection circuits to maintain the voltage safely. Lithium-ion batteries are also the single-largest end use of lithium, amounting to an 87 percent share of global lithium consumption in 2024. Lithium demand forecasts Looking to the future, lithium demand is forecast to stand at 1.4 million tons by 2025. This growth will be mainly driven by lithium-ion battery demand for electric vehicles. Demand is expected to remain the highest in China, which will consistently account for half of global lithium-ion battery demand.