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Trade Cycle Management in Automotive: How It Works, a UK Case and U.S. Figures for 2026

Monika Stando
Monika Stando
Marketing Campaigns Team Leader
Table of Contents

What is trade cycle management in automotive?

Trade cycle management (TCM) in automotive is a strategic approach that synchronizes buying, owning and getting rid of a car: the purchase, the regular maintenance and warranty work that follow, and the trade-in that starts the next cycle. Capital markets use the same term for an unrelated process, the trade lifecycle.

In the U.S., only 54% of owners of vehicles under 2 years old returned to their selling dealership for service in 2025, down from 72% in 2023, according to Cox Automotive.

On top of the car purchase itself, the two critical parts are maintenance and the trade-in, in Tomasz Bogacki’s framing, and managing them together is one way to get predictable revenue streams. The finance mechanism and the campaign case below come from the UK; U.S. figures for 2025-2026 follow.

An infographic presenting the automotive trade cycle management (TCM) framework. It outlines four core pillars: TCM definition, financing engine, 3S outreach approach, and data analytics. It also displays four implementation phases—from data integration to transaction—and key performance indicators, including a 75% customer retention rate and an average trade cycle frequency of 3.5 years.

How does residual value financing set the timing of the next car purchase in the UK and the U.S.?

Residual value financing sets the timing of the next purchase because the agreement fixes a future value for the car at the start, so the end of the term becomes a known point at which the customer may hold equity. In Bennett’s account, trade cycle management is built around this kind of financing, known in the UK as personal contract purchase (PCP).

Under a UK PCP agreement, the customer pays a deposit and monthly payments calculated against a Guaranteed Minimum Future Value (GMFV) set at the start of the contract, according to the Finance & Leasing Association’s guide to personal contract purchase. At the end of the term, the customer can pay the GMFV and own the car, hand the car back and walk away, or put any equity above the GMFV toward a deposit on a new agreement.

The difference from conventional credit is what creates the timing:

Question Conventional hire purchase or installment credit Residual value financing (UK PCP)
When does the customer own the car? Only after the last payment, for example after 48 or 60 months Only if the customer pays the GMFV at the end of the term
Who carries a fall in the car’s market value? The buyer The finance company, which predicts the car’s future value from its knowledge and historical data

For the customer, in Bennett’s description, the deal amounts to a guaranteed trade-in price for the car, based on the contracted mileage and given when the car is driven away; in the example he showed, the plan ran for 36 months.

Because a good chunk of the vehicle’s value is deferred to the end of the contract, monthly payments go further and customers can choose a bigger or better car. If the car is then worth more than the value set at the start, the customer keeps the difference and can use it as a deposit on a new car.

Car finance, and PCP in particular, is widespread in the UK:

Indicator Value Period Geography Source
Private new car purchases funded by member lenders of the Finance & Leasing Association Almost nine in ten First half of 2026 UK Finance & Leasing Association (checked September 17, 2026)
PCP share of motor finance agreements in the Financial Conduct Authority’s Cost of Living consumer credit data collection Over half Reported October 2025 UK Financial Conduct Authority
Typical term of motor finance agreements (PCP, hire purchase, conditional sale) Two to five years Reported October 2025 UK Financial Conduct Authority

A UK PCP customer can also end the agreement early. Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, a customer with a PCP agreement can return the car to the finance provider once they have paid half of the car’s cost, or make up the difference to half, which MoneyHelper, the UK government-backed guidance service, calls voluntary termination. That halfway point is a second predictable moment for a dealer or lender to talk to the customer.

A finance agreement can also be fashioned around the period in which the car stays within the manufacturer’s warranty, so that the customer avoids losses. In the U.S., all new cars come with a warranty that provides at least three years or 36,000 miles of coverage, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 guide to car warranties (see also automotive warranty software).

In a U.S. vehicle lease, the leasing company sets what the vehicle will be worth at lease end, known as the residual value, and that value is used to calculate the monthly payment, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). With a purchase option, the residual value is also the buyout price at lease end; a typical lease runs two to four years, according to CFPB guidance last reviewed September 12, 2023.

The end of a U.S. lease plays a similar role: a date known in advance at which a dealer or lender can prepare the next offer. Ending a lease early may bring early termination charges that can be very expensive, according to the CFPB. The main product types of residual value funding are described in a separate article on residual value funding in automotive.

When should a dealer or lender contact the customer? The 3S approach

A dealer or lender should contact the customer when a specific message can reach a specific individual at a specific time. That is Bennett’s 3S approach, built around an offer hyper-personalized to each customer.

In practice that means reaching a customer with 12 payments left and offering a new or newer car for the same or a very similar monthly payment, with no additional deposit. For a manufacturer, he said, a revolving database in which part of the portfolio is always approaching that point gives a recurring revenue stream.

The opposite is the reactive approach. Before digital tools spread over the 15 years to 2025, car finance was a pen-and-paper process in which the customer got a welcome letter and heard nothing more as long as payments were made. Then a letter arrived 90 days before the contract ended, telling the customer they had three payments left and suggesting a visit to the dealer.

The timing matters, he explained, because most people nearing the end of a finance contract are happy for it to end and plan to redirect the payment to other debt built up over two, three or four years. Without technology, the numbers cannot be crunched fast enough to reach customers at the right time.

Tomasz Bogacki pointed to IT tools as what helps automakers and dealerships here: an ecosystem in which OEMs, their captive or external finance providers and dealers use the same platform, so that information is exchanged systematically.

He also named AI as a way to predict market trends, residual values and the best time to offer a trade-in to a given customer.

The moment of contact depends on three pieces of data that often sit with different parties:

  • the remaining term of the finance agreement, held by the lender;
  • the estimated equity position, which depends on the residual value in the agreement and the car’s market value;
  • the service history, which the dealer holds when the customer services the car there.

What did a UK trade cycle campaign by a carmaker’s finance company achieve?

In one UK campaign Paul Bennett described, 882 of the 1,260 customers in the campaign (70%) were given an appointment, 388 bought a replacement car and 329 trade-ins qualified for the dealer to keep and resell.

This is a single, anonymized campaign: it shows where customers drop out when the timing is right, not what results to expect in the U.S.

The data came from a large manufacturer’s finance company whose name Bennett could not disclose for non-disclosure reasons. Over three months, retailers contacted the customers using a third-party platform.

Stage Customers Conversion
Customers in the campaign 1,260
Given an appointment after a telephone contact 882 70% of 1,260
Attended the showroom appointment 485 A little over half of the 882
Bought a replacement car 388 80% of 485
Trade-ins that qualified for the dealer to keep, recondition, remarket, resell and refinance 329 85% in Bennett’s figure, which matches 329 of the 388 buyers if each buyer traded in a car

The counts and percentages are Bennett’s, except the share of the 485 against the 882, calculated here.

An infographic detailing the strategic approach to automotive trade cycle management. It explains the TCM framework, the financing engine based on residual value contracts, the proactive 3S customer engagement strategy that replaces outdated 90-day mailers, and core supporting technologies such as Cloud CRM, predictive analytics, customer portals, and DMS integration

Many customers with appointments dropped off because they had not been followed up, Bennett said, and he called the result a “gold mine” reachable only by using data strategically, which cannot be done manually.

The case has clear limits. It covers one finance company in one market, the campaign dates were not disclosed, and the figures come from a slide shown in 2025, not from a published report. It does not support a market average for the UK or for the U.S.

Why do carmakers manage the used car cycle, not just new car sales?

Carmakers manage the used car cycle because the same car can return to their network and be sold and financed again. Residual value arrangements are one reason they can: the arrangements make sure that cars sold one, two or three years earlier come back to the used car pool of the same brand and dealership instead of being sold without the manufacturer’s involvement.

What happens next is a second sales cycle. A car traded in at the end of a residual value contract returns to the dealership to be reconditioned, remarketed and refinanced, and a documented history such as two years, 25,000 kilometers and servicing from new makes it a compelling used car offer.

One very large German manufacturer planned three life cycles for each imported vehicle, in an example Bennett gave from his own work:

  1. a residual value product for two or three years, sold as a new car
  2. a second residual value product for two or three years after reconditioning
  3. a four-year conventional credit plan, by which time the car was 10 years old

The same planning protects used car prices. A manufacturer has to sell as many new vehicles as possible while managing the used car market carefully, because too many returns sent to auction houses at once can depress prices. The discipline this requires is what Bennett called “starting with the end in mind”: managing the ownership and the vehicle cycle, not just selling a vehicle and gaining market share.

Can service contracts keep customers returning as EVs need less maintenance?

Prepaid maintenance plans can keep customers returning to the dealership as electric vehicles need less maintenance, Bogacki argued, while J.D. Power’s director of automotive retail tied return visits for customer-paid work to the service experience. How electrification changes aftersales revenue more broadly is covered in a separate article on the impact of electric vehicles on aftersales.

In his account, the rapid increase in electric vehicle sales poses a threat to automakers, European and Chinese alike, because an electric vehicle requires significantly less maintenance than a vehicle with an internal combustion engine. His answer to it was to get the customer to sign a prepaid maintenance plan, which makes them return to the dealership even if nothing breaks.

He makes the same point about bundled plans in general: paid for in advance, they make sure customers return for periodic maintenance and create a platform to interact with the customer.

How much less maintenance do battery-electric vehicles need?

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates the scheduled maintenance cost of a light-duty battery-electric vehicle at 6.1 cents per mile, versus 10.1 cents per mile for a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle, in a 2021 comparison of scheduled maintenance costs. That is about 40% lower for the battery-electric vehicle.

In Norway, battery-electric cars took 95.9% of new passenger car sales in 2025, according to OFV. Norwegian dealers report 30% fewer hours sold and 50% lower parts revenue for routine maintenance, including oil changes, according to a February 2026 column by ICDP managing director Steve Young published by Motor Trader.

Do prepaid maintenance plans bring customers back for paid service?

In the press release for J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. Customer Service Index Study, published in March 2025, John Tenerovich, director of automotive retail at J.D. Power, said complimentary maintenance programs drive strong retention, while intent to return for customer-paid service depends on the service experience the dealer delivers (see also automotive aftersales services).

What do U.S. service, loyalty and finance figures for 2025-2026 show about the trade cycle?

U.S. franchised dealerships’ share of service visits fell between 2018 and 2025, and a larger share of new-vehicle loans ran longer than six years in Q1 2026 than a year earlier; both trends matter for the timing of a trade cycle offer. Brand loyalty rates from three studies range from 49% to 53.4% as of September 17, 2026, but they cover different periods and methods and are not combined here.

Service revenue and retention at U.S. franchised dealerships

U.S. franchised dealerships’ share of vehicle service visits fell from 33% in 2018 to 29% in 2025, according to Cox Automotive’s 2025 Service Industry Study. In the same study, owners who had returned to a dealership for service in the past 12 months were 74% likely to buy their next vehicle from that dealership, versus 44% of those who had not; the figures measure stated likelihood, not purchases.

Cox Automotive reported the greatest dealership decline among vehicles five years old or less: for vehicles under 2 years old, the dealer share of service visits fell from 68% in 2018 to 55% in 2025.

The National Automobile Dealers Association’s annual financial profile of franchised new-car dealerships gives the weight of service and parts in dealership sales, and an older NADA figure gives its weight in gross profit:

Indicator Value Period Geography Source
Service and parts department share of total sales dollars at the average franchised new-car dealership 13.3% (13.2% in 2024) Full year 2025 U.S. NADA Data 2025 (checked September 17, 2026)
Service and parts department share of combined new-vehicle, used-vehicle and service/parts department gross profit at the average franchised dealership About 47% Calendar year 2016 (historical figure) U.S. NADA figures relayed by WANADA; calculated from the dollar amounts

U.S. brand loyalty in three studies

Study and publisher Brand loyalty rate Period Geography
J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Automotive Brand Loyalty Study, all nameplates and segments 49% (51% in the 2024 study) Transactions September 2024 to August 2025, published September 24, 2025 U.S.
S&P Global Mobility, industry-wide brand loyalty rate 51.1% (down 1.4 percentage points from the same period in 2024) January to June 2025 U.S.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions mid-year 2026 Automotive Brand Loyalty Study, new vehicles 53.4% January to June 2026 (checked September 17, 2026) U.S.

The three rates come from different studies and periods, so the table does not show a trend and the values should not be averaged.

U.S. auto finance: leasing, lenders and loan terms

Indicator Value Period Geography Source
Leasing share of new vehicles 23.75% (24.04% in Q2 2025) Q2 2026 U.S. Experian (checked September 17, 2026)
Loan share of new vehicles 59.57% (57.45% in Q2 2025) Q2 2026 U.S. Experian (checked September 17, 2026)
Shares of total vehicle financing: banks, captive finance companies, credit unions 27.15%, 26.26%, 20.38% Q2 2026 U.S. Experian (checked September 17, 2026)
Captive finance companies’ share of new-vehicle financing 52.39% (60.74% in Q2 2024) Q2 2025 U.S. Experian (checked September 17, 2026)
Average loan term for used vehicles 67.86 months Q2 2026 U.S. Experian (checked September 17, 2026)

In Q1 2026, 35.55% of new-vehicle loans in the U.S. ran longer than six years, up from 30.83% a year earlier, and in Q2 2026 the average new-vehicle loan term was 69.46 months, according to Experian.

What does trade cycle management look like in the U.S.? Equity mining and lease pull-ahead programs

In our reading, the closest U.S. counterparts to trade cycle management are equity mining at dealerships and lease pull-ahead or loyalty programs at captive lenders. The mechanism stays the same, a known point in the finance agreement at which the customer can move into a new vehicle, while the product and the name change (see also automotive digital retailing).

The approach is not new to the U.S. market. About 25 years ago, Paul Bennett worked on a team, with a U.S. company, that transformed how Ford Credit operated finance products built around trade cycle management in Europe, several other markets and the U.S.

Equity mining

In U.S. dealer practice, equity mining is the sales strategy of searching an existing customer base for owners whose vehicle is worth more than they still owe on it, and offering those owners a replacement. In a UK PCP, the matching figure is the equity above the GMFV.

Lease pull-ahead and loyalty programs from captive lenders

Some captive lenders reduce the cost of ending a lease for customers who take another vehicle from the same brand. Two programs, as checked on September 17, 2026:

Program What it waives Condition Geography Source
Toyota Financial Services Encore The disposition fee on the customer’s current lease The customer leases or finances a new or certified used Toyota through a participating dealer within 30 days before or after the current lease ends U.S. Toyota Financial Services (checked September 17, 2026)
Volvo Car Financial Services Lease Pull-Ahead Up to six remaining monthly lease payments and the standard vehicle turn-in fee The customer leases or finances a new 2026 Volvo through Volvo Car Financial Services at the same time U.S. Description by an authorized Volvo dealer, April 2026 (checked September 17, 2026)

The two programs illustrate the approach and do not describe the whole U.S. market. The size of leasing and captive finance in the U.S. new-vehicle market is shown in the finance table in the previous section.

Where does trade cycle management break down?

Trade cycle management breaks down when the customer has no equity, when residual values miss the market, when contact comes too late, when loans run long, when drivetrain preferences shift and when competing brands attract a customer lost at the trade-in point:

  • Negative equity. In Q2 2026, 29.6% of U.S. trade-ins toward new-vehicle purchases carried negative equity, and the average amount owed reached $6,884, the highest for a second quarter on record, according to Edmunds (checked September 17, 2026).
  • Residual values set for a different market. Bennett said residual values set three years earlier, around 2022, had assumed orderly market conditions that did not materialize; an owner who financed conventionally absorbed the loss, while a residual value plan left it with the finance company.
  • Late or missing contact. A letter that arrives 90 days before the end of the contract, and the customers in the UK campaign who dropped off because nobody followed up, are both cases of contact that comes too late or not at all.
  • Long loans. More than a third of new-vehicle loans in the U.S. ran longer than six years in Q1 2026, according to Experian, and a longer loan pushes back the point at which positive equity is likely to appear.
  • A shift away from electric vehicles. The propensity of U.S. households returning to market with an EV to acquire another EV dropped 24 percentage points from September to November 2025, a shift S&P Global Mobility (May 2026) linked to the end of the federal EV tax credit in September 2025 (checked September 17, 2026).
  • Competition for the customer who leaves (Europe). Tomasz Bogacki warned that a customer lost at the trade-in point can easily be attracted by Chinese brands with appealing prices, design and technology; Chinese brands alone took 9% of EU battery-electric car sales in 2025, according to ACEA’s May 2026 fact sheet citing S&P Global Mobility.

The concept of managing the customer ownership cycle holds regardless of where the car is manufactured or who its final owner is, Bennett said. In our reading, negative equity changes two of the three S’s: the customer reaches positive equity later or not at all, so the specific time and the specific message of the offer have to change with it.

Questions a dealer or lender can check in its own finance and service data

The conditions above translate into questions rather than benchmarks:

  • For each active finance agreement, do you know the remaining term and an estimated equity position?
  • Does the first offer reach the customer earlier than a letter 90 days before the contract ends?
  • When you plan an offer, can you see whether the customer has serviced the vehicle at your dealership?
  • Does the offer for a customer with negative equity differ in message and timing from the standard trade-in offer?

What does implementing trade cycle management on legacy systems involve?

Implementing trade cycle management on legacy systems involves a sequence of phases from planning to go-live, and the time frame depends on the legacy systems in place and the end goal, according to Tomasz Bogacki.

The phases are:

  1. planning
  2. assessments and blueprints
  3. system integration with the legacy systems
  4. development
  5. data migration
  6. testing
  7. go-live and documentation

The time frame also depends, Bogacki said, on how robust and how current the legacy systems are, how many changes need to be implemented, the resources available and the deadlines the customer wants to achieve.

Bennett concurred with that time frame, calling the work a “crawl, walk, run” approach.

On duration, Bogacki put such an implementation at anywhere between six months and a year and a half; six months would be very optimistic, though still doable with robust legacy systems and few changes to implement.

How do subscriptions and used-car lending fit into the trade cycle?

Bennett places subscription among financial products: a variation on daily rental or short-term leasing that sits in between, with a place of its own.

Subscription customers without a long-term commitment typically pay some euros more per month for something similar in exchange for flexibility, Bennett said, adding that he did not think subscription was “something to be scared of” and that retailers can benefit from it in some cases.

In his example, a dealer facing oversupply can put cars on one-, two- or three-month subscriptions and earn revenue before selling them with a few thousand kilometers instead of delivery mileage, though subscription had yet to establish itself.

Bennett also sees a largely untapped opportunity in trade cycle management for finance companies specializing in used cars, with major European banks showing considerable interest in retaining their used car customers.

Market figures cited in 2025, updated with data published through September 2026

Most of the market figures cited in 2025 held up against data published by September 17, 2026. The share of China-made cars in EU battery-electric car sales, given then as a forecast, did not reach the projected level, and some later data use different definitions, as noted under each table.

EU-China trade in battery-electric cars

Bennett cited data from ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. ACEA’s fact sheet on EU-China vehicle trade in its May 2026 edition gives the 2025 values:

Flow Webinar (Paul Bennett, 2023 figures) ACEA June 2024 edition (2023) ACEA May 2026 edition (2025)
EU to China About 11,500 electric vehicles exported from Europe, worth EUR 852 million 11,499 battery-electric cars worth EUR 852.3 million 1,936 EU-made battery-electric cars worth EUR 116 million
China to EU 438,000 electric vehicles exported to Europe, worth EUR 9.7 billion 438,034 battery-electric cars worth EUR 9.7 billion 430,526 Chinese-made battery-electric cars worth EUR 6.3 billion

The May 2026 edition counts EU-made and Chinese-made cars, a qualification the June 2024 edition does not use, so the 2023 and 2025 values are not a like-for-like series and no change between them is calculated here.

Share of China-made cars in EU battery-electric car sales

Bennett put electric vehicles manufactured in China as “setting to reach a quarter” of EU sales. The same share appears as a forecast in a March 2024 analysis by the environmental advocacy group Transport & Environment (T&E), which estimated that 19.5% of electric vehicles sold in Europe in 2023 were made in China and projected a share of 25% in 2024.

T&E also projected in March 2024 that Chinese brands could reach 11% of the European EV market in 2024 and 20% in 2027.

ACEA’s May 2026 fact sheet, citing S&P Global Mobility, gives the published shares for the EU:

Year Cars made in China, any brand Chinese brands
2021 19% 2%
2022 20% 5%
2023 22% 8%
2024 23% 8%
2025 20% 9%

Cars made in China accounted for 23% of EU battery-electric car sales in 2024 and 20% in 2025, according to ACEA’s May 2026 fact sheet citing S&P Global Mobility; T&E’s own tracking put the share at 17% in Q1 2026, down from a peak of 22% in 2024 by the same tracking.

EV battery makers’ global share

The battery makers’ shares cited in 2025 were CATL “just shy of 40%”, BYD at 17%, LG at 10% and another Chinese company at four and a half percent. SNE Research data for 2024 match those values, and the January-July 2026 figures show CATL gaining and BYD and LG Energy Solution losing share:

Company Webinar (slide) January-December 2024 (SNE Research, released February 11, 2025) January-July 2026 (SNE Research, released September 7, 2026; checked September 17, 2026)
CATL Just under 40% 37.9% 39.9% (38.0% a year earlier)
BYD 17% 17.2% 14.7% (16.9% a year earlier)
LG Energy Solution 10% 10.8% 8.3% (9.6% a year earlier)
Fourth supplier Another Chinese company, four and a half percent CALB, 4.4%, in CnEVPost’s report on the release Not reported in this release

In January-July 2026, CATL held 39.9% of global EV battery usage and seven Chinese suppliers in the global top 10 held a combined 72.8%, up 3.1 percentage points year on year, according to SNE Research’s January-July 2026 battery usage figures, as of September 17, 2026.

China’s share of battery raw material refining

The International Energy Agency’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026, published in July 2026, gives China’s shares of refining and supply for battery and magnet materials:

Material China’s share in 2025 Comparison or projection Geography Source
Lithium refining output 75% 70% in 2024 Global International Energy Agency
Cobalt refining More than 75% Expected to remain broadly unchanged through the coming decade Global International Energy Agency
Battery-grade graphite supply 94% Projected 91% by 2035 Global International Energy Agency
Magnet rare-earth refining and separation 85% 90% in 2024; projected 73% by 2035 as new capacity ramps up in the United States and Malaysia Global International Energy Agency

U.S. and Norway: electrification and trade rules

Indicator Value Period Geography Source
Battery electric vehicles’ share of new light-duty vehicle sales 6% (7% in Q2 2025) Q2 2026 U.S. U.S. Energy Information Administration (checked September 17, 2026)
Hybrid, battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles combined 24% (22% in Q2 2025) Q2 2026 U.S. U.S. Energy Information Administration (checked September 17, 2026)
Hybrid, battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles combined About 22% (20% in 2024); 2025 was the first year annual battery-electric sales and share declined Full year 2025 U.S. U.S. Energy Information Administration
Additional Section 301 tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles 100%, in effect since September 2024 As of September 17, 2026 U.S. Office of the United States Trade Representative, Federal Register
Rule on connected vehicles with certain hardware or software with a sufficient nexus to China or Russia Software prohibitions from Model Year 2027; hardware prohibitions from Model Year 2030, or January 1, 2029 for units without a model year Finalized January 2025 U.S. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security
Battery-electric share of new passenger car sales 98.7%; year to date January-August 2026: 97.8% August 2026 Norway OFV (checked September 17, 2026)
Peak year of global sales of combustion-engine cars (cars other than battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models) 2017 Annual series Global Our World in Data, based on IEA Global EV Outlook data

U.S. brand loyalty: the 2025 figure and J.D. Power’s studies

Source What it reported
Webinar (Tomasz Bogacki, citing a J.D. Power study from the previous year) Some manufacturers had over 60% of customers returning to the same brand
J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Automotive Brand Loyalty Study, published September 25, 2024 Four segment leaders above 60%: Ford among truck owners (65.1%), Honda among mass market SUV owners (64.2%), Toyota among mass market car owners (62.5%) and Lexus among premium SUV owners (60.2%); Porsche led premium car owners at 57.5%
J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Automotive Brand Loyalty Study, published September 24, 2025 Segment leaders Ford (66.6%), Toyota (62.0%), Honda (62.0%), Porsche (58.2%) and Lexus (57.4%)

For U.S. readers, competition from China-made vehicles takes a different form than in the EU, because the additional tariff and the connected vehicle rule in the table above apply there; the pressure on dealer retention in the U.S. is covered by the service and loyalty figures earlier in this article.

How was this material prepared?

This material is based on the webinar Automotive Restoration: Sustaining Growth and Revenue Security in Unpredictable Times, recorded on March 26, 2025 and published on YouTube on July 7, 2026 by Hicron Software, which also publishes this material. Paul Bennett spoke as a global expert in automotive finance; Tomasz Bogacki spoke for Hicron.

Market figures were refreshed to the most recent periods published by September 17, 2026, when the third quarter of 2026 had not yet ended, and every external figure was checked against its original source on that day.

Publishers that also sell data or software to the automotive trade are cited only as the source of a specific figure.

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Monika Stando
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