Millennials have quickly become the biggest generation of car buyers in the U.S. In a report, J.D. Vice President for Data & Analytics Tyson Jominy said that although it is common for each generation to eventually catch up with the previous one, millennials born between 1977 and 1994 have done it at an “astonishing” rate.
“Demographic information moves very slowly, but last year, Millennials took over in April during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. We thought it was kind of a blip, but it’s only increased since then,” he told CNBC. “It shifted overnight, and it has gotten faster every month.”
Most significant for the current U.S. market is that millennials will become the biggest buyers of full-size, midsize, and heavy-duty pickups for the first time this year. The segments are called light-duty trucks. They accounted for 2.85 million sales or 20 percent of the U.S. new-vehicle market last year.
With the spread of coronavirus in 2020, millennials outperformed sales of larger pickups to baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). This year, they are poised to surpass gen X buyers (born between 1965 and 1976) as the biggest buyers of compact and mid-sized pickups, as per J.D. Power.
“It’s a coming-of-age story for millennials and maturing and getting promoted in their jobs and coupling and procreating and moving to the suburbs and all that normal stuff,” Jominy said.
The rapid growth of millennials to become the biggest demographic for U.S. car buyers corresponds with a different generational shift, in the words of Jominy.
While Gen Xers at the age of 50 typically purchase the Mustang Mach-E, J.D. Power has reported that millennials are the biggest purchasers of EVs. They’ve contributed 35 percent of all new EV buys this year compared to baby boomers with 29 percent and Gen X with 26 percent.
Although Millenials are the most popular buyers in 17 out of 27 segments of vehicles, baby boomers are still the most popular in the more expensive luxury vehicle segments.
“The higher the price the vehicle, the more likely we are to see Boomers in it,” Jominy said.