DETROIT — The common age of passenger autos on U.S. roadways climbed to a file this 12 months, as automobile house owners maintain on to their autos longer amid low provides of recent autos and sky-high costs.

The common age of a light-duty automobile on U.S. roads rose by greater than three months — the best year-over-year enhance for the reason that Nice Recession in 2008-2009 — to 12.5 years as of Jan. 1, in accordance with a brand new report Monday from S&P International Mobility. That features a 3.8% enhance for passenger vehicles to 13.6 years and a 1.7% uptick in vehicles, SUVs and crossovers to 11.8 years.

Rising automobile ages are excellent news for aftermarket elements suppliers like AutoZone, O’Reilly Automotive and Advance Auto Components. It can also profit seller service facilities, however it does not bode effectively for brand spanking new automobile sellers and gross sales.

“The aftermarket and the restore market as a complete is certainly a winner as the common age continues to develop,” stated Todd Campau, affiliate director of aftermarket options for S&P International Mobility. “The extra older autos which are on the highway, the extra repairs they want.”

In whole, S&P International Mobility experiences there are greater than 284 million autos in operation on U.S. roads. That is up barely from 283 million final 12 months.

S&P experiences the common automobile age final 12 months skilled upward stress initially resulting from provide constraints that triggered low ranges of recent automobile stock, after which by slowing demand as rising rates of interest and inflation diminished client demand within the second half of the 12 months.

New and used automobile costs have been elevated for the reason that begin of the coronavirus pandemic, as the worldwide well being disaster mixed with provide chain points triggered manufacturing of recent autos to sporadically idle. The prices and shortage of stock led customers to purchase extra used autos, growing these costs as effectively.

As well as, the Federal Reserve’s strikes to boost rates of interest 10 occasions since March 2022 haven’t assisted new automobile gross sales.

Cox Automotive experiences the common listed value of a used automobile was $26,799 in April — the best value level this 12 months. The common transaction value for a brand new automobile was $48,275 in April, up 3.7%, or $1,744, from a 12 months earlier.

A part of the pricing enhance is as a result of automobile combine, swinging away from passenger vehicles to utility autos.

The variety of passenger vehicles on the highway will fall under 100 million for the primary time since 1978, in accordance with S&P, as U.S. customers demand bigger autos that automakers are fortunately constructing at greater revenue margins.

“Pickup vehicles have stayed wholesome. … They’ve stayed fairly constant,” Campau stated. “The actual driver right here is the crossover utility automobile that basically has displaced the passenger automobile for many households.”

In 2022, S&P experiences 78% of all new autos registered within the U.S. final 12 months had been crossovers, vehicles or SUVs.

Battery electrical autos, or BEVs, is one other rising subsegment of recent autos. S&P experiences new BEV registrations jumped 58% 12 months over 12 months, to just about 758,000 models in 2022.

Of the practically 2.3 million BEVs registered within the U.S. from 2013 to 2022, S&P experiences about 2.12 million are nonetheless on the highway as we speak. That equates to a mean age of three.6 years for lively autos.

The rise in EVs comes as automakers spend billions of {dollars} to extend the variety of new all-electric vehicles and vehicles amid tightening authorities emissions rules globally.

For instance, President Joe Biden set a nationwide goal in 2021 for electrical autos to characterize half of all new auto gross sales by 2030.