They say you always want what you can’t have, and that appears to apply to Subarus in 2021.
The Japanese carmaker, like most in the automotive space, is struggling through the vicious cocktail of a global pandemic and the ongoing semiconductor shortage.
As such, its inventories across the US have started to dwindle at a rate much faster than demand. Because of this, the number of Subaru cars on backorder has now surpassed the number of cars the company delivered in November.
According to a report by Automotive News, Subaru has a backlog of more than 45,000 cars, which far exceeds the number of vehicles it delivered last month.
The massive rise in cars on backorder is because of the low vehicle stock Subaru has at dealers across the US, the report says.
Where Subaru would traditionally have 45 days worth of supply in the US, a variety of factors mean that this inventory has plummeted to just enough to cover around five days.
Automotive News suggested that the decline in stock and subsequent rise in the backlog was as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Because of this, the number of vehicles on backorder is now rising at around 10,000 cars every month.
As a result of the sizable backlog, Subaru CEO, Tomomi Nakamura, told the site that it would potentially take a year to rebuild inventory back up to the level it was at before the global pandemic.
It looks like this backlog isn’t helping Subaru’s sales team ahead of the festive period. In fact, the Japanese automaker reported that US sales were down 35 per cent in November in its latest filings.
Across the US, Subaru reported sales of 33,045 vehicles for November 2021 – a 35 per cent drop compared with the same period last year.
Subaru said it continues to face supply chain shortages, which has contributed to a three per cent drop in its year-to-date sales of 532,664 cars.
So far this year, the Subaru Outback is the brand’s most popular car in the US and sold more than 141,000 units. The SUV is closely followed by the Forester, which sold 140,000 cars so far in 2021.