AUTOMOTIVE Blog Articles

Advan Miles driven index monthly

The Dawn of Elastic Gas Demand

July 21, 2022

Historically, gas demand has been pretty predictable for any given time of the year, so the supply has been what mostly determined the pricing we see in the pumps. With the advent of remote working and as a result the ability to commute less, however, Americans have at least one lever to reduce the...

Advan Miles Driven vs Gas Price

Unprecedented Gas Demand And High Prices At The Pump

November 18, 2021

Advan has been flagging an unprecedented demand in gasoline as early as February 2021. Unsurprisingly, gasoline prices have been following traffic (ie demand) at the gas stations in lockstep, since we have started tracking gas station traffic in 2016.

The graph below shows gasoline prices...

Toyota - Ford - General Motors employees

TOYOTA (TM): Immune to Shortages and Supply Chain Headwinds

November 11, 2021

Automotive is one of the industries that has been struggling with chip shortages, supply chain issues and labor shortages for months now. But do all the carmakers struggle at the same level? To answer the question, we employed Advan’s foot traffic data for two US automakers and one Japanese: Ford...

Deere employees

How Many Replacement Non-Union Workers is Deere Using?

November 3, 2021

Workers at Deere & Co. (DE), the world’s top agriculture equipment manufacturer, walked out of its factories to demand better pay and health benefits, a move that had not be seen in over 30 years, and while the company is on track for its most successful year ever. The strike started on Oct. 14...

Employee traffic

Ford In Worst Position Among Its Peers Due To Chip Shortages

July 14, 2021

Automakers have been struggling to produce cars due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips first occurred in the early months this year. Fiat/Chrysler, General Motors and Ford and other big names in the industry announced they would reduce the pace of production to tackle this challenge. It...

Miles Driven vs Gas Prices

Gasoline prices are through the roof: no surprise for some traders

June 8, 2021

Gas prices and futures (contracts to buy gasoline at some point in the future) have been up massively over the last few months, to the extent that some traders are betting on the return of $100 oil/barrel before the end of the year (Options Traders Bet on Return of $100 Oil).

It was reasonable...

Miles Driven US

Does Memorial Weekend behavior point to renewed interest in travel for Americans?

June 2, 2021

The answer is: Yes and no. Road trips are back but air travel is slower to recover.

Using our latest traffic pattern data, some interesting new travel trends emerged over the Memorial Day weekend (MDW) - the unofficial beginning of the summer season for many Americans on the go. We believe this...

RROB Gasoline index yoy

Trading Gasoline Futures

May 4, 2021

One of the largest moves we have ever seen in our data is that of gas station visitors and miles driven. Americans drive more now than they ever did, pre-pandemic and all.

What is the best way to trade this data? According to the analysis below, Gasoline Futures. This is the RBOB Gasoline front...

Traffic at US airports

New Demand For Car Rentals And Rising Airfare Searches Are Signaling Americans Are Traveling Again

April 14, 2021

After a year of virus-related travel restrictions and with Covid vaccinations picking up steam nationwide, Americans are feeling more comfortable to get out of town, fact that is causing a surge in post-vaccination travel. Using our proprietary geolocation data, we can see the sudden increase in...

Employee traffic

Ford Says Chip Shortage Forcing Production Halt at Several Plants

April 1, 2021

Following the recent news that Ford is expected to halt production for two weeks in April due to chip shortages, and given our recent study on this exact subject few months back we wanted to take a closer look and quantify how the largest US carmakers and the industry as a whole is currently...

Miles driven US

America is hitting the road

March 18, 2021

One year after the initial lockdowns and stay at home orders across the groble, Americans are now driving a lot more, as measured by our miles driven index. More specifically, the last three weeks Advan’s miles driven index captured an increase in traffic as high as 40% nationwide compared to the...

Ford, GM and Fiat/Chrysler

Carmakers are facing a new challenge: Chip Shortages

February 5, 2021

After the lockdown last spring that forced manufacturers from all sectors to halt production, auto makers now have to face another challenge: the global chip shortage due to the high demand on consumer electronics (laptops, gaming consoles, TVs etc.). The increased need for the technology devices...