Hurricane Michael Could Destroy Up to 20K Vehicles

The amount of vehicles Hurricane Michael is set to destroy is roughly half of what was destroyed by Hurricane Florence, according to Jonathan Smoke, Cox Automotive’s chief economist.

He forecasts that there will be 10,000 to 20,000 vehicles lost as a result of this hurricane.

The sheer destruction of Hurricane Michael is separate from its impact on the auto industry, however. Hurricane Michael ravaged through Mexico Beach, Fla. where it made landfall just short of a Category 5 hurricane.

Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia were also affected by the hurricane.

But, due to the areas affected being less densely populated than cities affected by recent hurricanes such as Florence, Irma, and Harvey, the impact on the auto industry will be less severe than those hurricanes.

“As both new- and used-vehicle inventories are relatively low, our team is expecting temporary upward pricing pressure in the areas most impacted by the storm, particularly on the used-vehicle side,” said Smoke. “Any vehicle loss is a tragedy and hardship for someone … in this case at least, loss volume will be relatively low.”