It’s a great time to be in the aftermarket auto- corridor business. Just check out how effects are going for Advance Auto Parts, whose business covers every niche and fissure of this request.

When Advance blazoned its Q3 2021 earnings in November, CEO Tom Greco reported rising earnings and each- around sanguinity for the chain, which operates nearly,000 stores in theU.S., substantially in the Northeast and Midwest. Advance has two primary buyers consumers who fix their own buses ; and private form shops that install corridor like thickets, belts, tires, and transmissions.

But Advance takes effects much further It has an extensive corridor roster business, an academe for training automotive technicians, and a technology arm furnishing software and multimedia systems like robustness that show consumers how a form will be done. Its website and ecommerce operations are ultramodern and mobile. And, as needed of any business related to power and socket wrenches, Advance guarantors contending events and challengers.

Let’s take a quick look at three reasons why the near- term outlook for the automotive aftermarket assiduity outlook is bullish, using Advance as an illustration.

Cars on the Road Keep Getting Older

Buses and light exchanges are staying on the road longer than ever. The Wall Street Journal reported that the average age ofU.S. buses and light exchanges hit an each- time high of12.1 times in 2021. also, numerous of those buses are outside of bond but not yet ready for the scrapyard.

These are the kinds of buses that DIY mechanics fix and maintain on their own. The less- mechanically inclined would presumably calculate on independent garages. These are high requests for Advance Auto Parts and its counterparts in the aftermarket business.

Used Cars Look Like an Attractive Alternative

The average list price for new buses in theU.S. exceeded$,000 in July 2021, according to Kelly Blue Book( KBB). And buyers with impunity to sticker shock face another challenge The global deficit of computer chips is pinching new- auto supplies.

KBB notes that while used- auto prices hit all- time- highs in the summer of 2021, the normal of just under$,000 was still far more provident than buying new. Frugality- inclined drivers frequently change their own oil painting. Those handy with tools frequently feel comfortable replacing belts and slice boscage pads. And they ’re less inclined to pay full retail for visits to the dealer’s form shop.

The Mass Market in Electric Cars is Far in the Future

What about the brewing shift to electric vehicles? Yes, electric motors have far smaller moving corridor than internal combustion machines, taking lower conservation and smaller repairs and reserves.

But mass relinquishment of electric buses is times in the future. Data from an Advance strategic planning document from April 2021 predicts that in 2030, internal- combustion/ mongrel vehicles on the road will still outnumber their electric- powered relatives by a factor of 20- to- 1.

It’s true that the current bus part aftermarket chains face significant competitive challenges. Amazon and Walmart are n’t going down, for case. Indeed so, there’s substantiation that these titans ’ raids into the aftermarket has run out of brume — primarily because chains like Advance have risen to the challenge and started retrieving lost request share.

Indeed without a mass request in electric vehicles, it’s looking like there will be plenitude of electricity in the aftermarket assiduity in the coming decade.