Last Updated: January 25, 2021

Revisiting the 2018 automotive industry report

In recent news, after more than a century-long run, giant automakers like Ford and GM cannot adjust to market changes as they once could. The demand for traditional cars has waned due to the evolving trends by baby-boomers and millennials across the automotive industry.

“I think we have been on this path for a number of years,” GM CFO Chuck Stevens told reporters this week.

In late fall 2017, the Prevedere predictive analytics team reported on the status of the automotive industry based on global and national exogenous data. The automotive industry was beginning to see declining sales for the first time in eight years. Prevedere’s report determined what indicators were driving the new trend and the overall business forecast. Watch the full automotive industry report below.

Along with identifying a continued decline in sales throughout 2018, able to forecast growth opportunities for automakers to target consumers with disposable income to move these customers to a new price point and products. These target segments included millennials and baby-boomers.

Despite the growing US economy, the automotive industry is still in danger. Employment has never been an indicator of segment growth alone. Auto industry manufacturing is impacted by today’s fast-changing global economy and needs to look beyond their own four walls for their specific demand drivers.

With so much riding on forecast accuracy, why are so many companies still ignoring this critical component and accepting forecast inaccuracy as their foundation? It is imperative for automotive manufacturers to pivot their business to meet the market’s growing challenges.

To make appropriate informed market decisions, organizations must both gather and translate volumes of continually evolving exogenous data. Why is this important? Because there may be risks that are brewing in a particular market that may eventually affect a company’s sales in that region. We are witnessing various risk factors that have impacted the automotive industry.

Among these risks are macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions. Everything from weather patterns to the global economic factors can potentially affect supply and demand. In today’s business environment, it’s vital that companies identify all components affecting their business, not just their historical date, into consideration to remain competitive.

Review the ‘2018 Automotive Industry Outlook Summary’

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