Fresh models attract car buyers to showrooms and command higher prices. Without them, dealers are left pushing aging designs while automakers race to churn out new models—meanwhile using retro throwbacks, special editions and six-figure status symbols to keep buyers coming.
Fewer new models are hitting the market than at any time in recent history. Automakers are expected to redesign just 9% of their lineup on average across the 2026 through 2028 model years—well below the 20-year average of 14%, according to a report by veteran automotive analyst John Murphy. That figure, which factors in sales volumes, would be even lower if not for General Motors’ redesign of its top-selling pickup trucks.
STELLANTIS
The dearth of new models is a direct hangover from the industry’s massive shift to electric vehicles and its abrupt pullback. The billions bet on EVs diverted time and money from the types of models that buyers crave today, from hybrids to V8-powered trucks.
New entries are sparser now than in the years following the Covid pandemic, when the auto industry ground to a halt, and in the aftermath of the auto industry crisis of the 2007-09 recession. It will be at least another year or two before car companies start churning out new models at their usual pace, analysts say.
“We’re in a total stall for new products,” said Murphy, a former Bank of America analyst.