Millennials overtake Boomers, Gen X as greatest patrons of pickup vans in U.S. for first time

Millennials, a era that some disregarded as not being fascinated with driving, have quickly turn into the most important era of recent automotive patrons within the U.S.

Whereas it is conventional for every era to finally overtake the earlier one, Millennials – born between 1977 and 1994 – have executed it at an “astonishing” fee, in line with Tyson Jominy, J.D. Energy vp of information & analytics.

“Demographic info strikes very slowly, however final 12 months Millennials took over in April throughout the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. We thought it was sort of a blip, however it’s solely elevated since then,” he informed CNBC. “It shifted in a single day, and it has gotten sooner each month.”

Most impactful for the present U.S. market is that Millennials for the primary time this 12 months would be the largest patrons of midsize, full-size and heavy-duty pickups. The segments are often called light-duty vans. They represented 2.85 million gross sales, or 20%, of the U.S. new automobile market in 2020.

Amid the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic final 12 months, Millennials overtook gross sales of bigger pickups from Child Boomers – born between 1946 and 1964 – and are on tempo this 12 months to beat Gen X patrons – born between 1965 and 1976 – as the highest patrons of mid-size and compact pickups, in line with J.D. Energy.

“It is a coming-of-age story for millennials and maturing and getting promoted of their jobs and coupling and procreating and transferring to the suburbs and all that ordinary stuff,” Jominy mentioned.

Millennials’ fast ascent to turn into the most important demographic of U.S. automotive patrons corresponds with one other generational shift, in line with Jominy.

Child Boomers overtook the pre-Boomers, or the Nice Era, as the most important patrons when the Ford Mustang was rising in reputation within the late-Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. Now, Millennials have overtaken them with the introduction of the primary all-electric Mustang Mach-E crossover.

“You form of have this Mustang for every era,” Jominy mentioned.

Whereas the typical purchaser age for the Mustang Mach-E are Gen Xers on the age of fifty, J.D. Energy experiences Millennials are additionally the most important patrons of EVs. J.D. Energy experiences they’ve represented 35% of recent EV purchases this 12 months in comparison with Child Boomers at 29% and Gen X at 26%.

Whereas Millenials are the highest patrons in 17 of 27 automobile segments, Child Boomers nonetheless dominate dearer, luxurious automobile segments.

“The upper the worth the automobile the extra probably we’re to see Boomers in it,” Jominy mentioned.