Automotive News - August 11, 2008 - (Page 36) 36 • AUGUST 11, 2008 Study: Ethnic market offers opportunity Mary Connelly mconnelly@crain.com Canada light-vehicle sales, July & 7 months Canada sales by model available online at: www.autonews.com/datacenter July 2008 July 2007 7 mos. 2008 7 mos. 2007 Amid slumping U.S. new-vehicle sales, a new study finds a bright spot: Sales to ethnic consumers are holding steady, and population trends suggest room for growth. Last year, sales to Hispanic, black and Asian-American buyers accounted for 22.4 percent of the U.S. market, says the study by R.L. Polk & Co. That share was up slightly from 22.3 percent in 2006. Polk based its analysis on new-vehicle retail registrations, which exclude fleet sales. The company is scheduled Ads for Toyota reach out to black consumers. A new study says that Toyota Division leads the industry in retaining U.S. minority buyers. Diverse market to release the study today, Aug. 11. The study’s message to automakers, said Lonnie Miller, Polk’s director of North American industry analysis: “Don’t take your eye off the ball.” Miller told Automotive News that car companies that build brand loyalty in the multicultural market will discover “there is more to come.” Mark Pauze, a senior solutions consultant for Polk, cites projections by the U.S. Bureau of the Census that by 2010, Hispanics, blacks and AsianAmericans will make up 33.2 percent of the U.S. population, up from 31.0 percent in 2005. By 2020, he says, their estimated share will be 36.7 percent. “Establishing your brand with these consumers is important for long-term growth,” Pauze says. For the second straight year, Toyota Division — including Scion — leads the industry in retaining minority buyers, the study concludes. Crafting distinct marketing messages to ethnic buyers is important, Buyers from key ethnic groups account for the following shares of the 2007 U.S. new-vehicle market.* Hispanic: 9.9% Black: 7.1% Asian-American: 5.4% Total: 22.4% *Based on new personal retail registrations Source: R.L. Polk Pauze says. Such a message is an “invitation sent to you personally so that you feel invited, welcome,” he says. Miller said the ethnic market is not “one size fits all.” He noted that Hispanic consumers return to the vehicle market more quickly than black or Asian-American buyers. That pattern creates greater opportunity for conquest sales, he said. Overall, the Polk study says, U.S. new-vehicle registrations fell 3.3 percent last year from 2006, to about 12.3 million. c Toyota to i-Real suppliers: We hear ya, we o-beya Hans Greimel hgreimel@crain.com TOKYO — Zooming around in the space-aged i-Real is so fun, I had to be pried from the high-tech wheelchair by my Toyota minder during a recent test drive. But the real story behind Toyota’s latest “personal robot” is how closely the automaker works with its suppliers to develop new technologies, even for something so offbeat. The concept is called o-beya, or “big room” in Japanese, and is key to the Toyota Way. How does it work? At the start of any project, bring into a big room engineers not only from Toyota Motor Corp. but also from all suppliers. Have them brainstorm. Then wait for ideas to bloom from the cross-pollination. That’s what Toyota does for cars. And that’s what it did for the i-Real. In the case of the latter, Toyota stalwarts Denso Corp. and Aisin Seiki Co. played a key role, says Akihiro Yanaka, i-Real project leader. The o-beya approach is often vaunted as fundamental to the collaborative relationship between Toyota and its suppliers. “We brought everyone together from the start to see what each can contribute,” Yanaka says. Denso chipped in the software and computer system that control the drive-by-wire steering. Aisin worked on the actuator that allows the i-Real to tilt into curves at higher speeds. Toyota envisions the i-Real as a future alternative to motor scooters. President Katsuaki Watanabe says he wants such personal robots to be a “core” business in the 2020s. c BMW division (D/I). . . . . . . . . . . Mini (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . BMW (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chrysler Division (D/I) . . . . . . . . Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . CHRYSLER LLC† . . . . . . . . . . . . Maybach (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mercedes-Benz (D/I). . . . . . . . . . Smart (I). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . DAIMLER AG† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FERRARI (I)*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ford division. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lincoln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mercury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jaguar (I)†† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Land Rover (I)†† . . . . . . . . . . . . Volvo (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . FORD MOTOR CO. (D/I) . . . . . . . Buick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cadillac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chevrolet (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hummer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pontiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saab (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saturn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . GENERAL MOTORS (D/I) . . . . . . . Acura (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Honda Division (D/I). . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . HONDA (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hyundai division (D/I). . . . . . . . . Kia (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . HYUNDAI-KIA (D/I). . . . . . . . . . . MASERATI (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . MAZDA (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . MITSUBISHI (D/I). . . . . . . . . . . . Infiniti (D/I). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nissan Division (D/I) . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . NISSAN (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (I). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . PORSCHE (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . SUBARU (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car (I). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . SUZUKI (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jaguar (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Land Rover (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . TATA MOTORS (I)††* . . . . . . . . . Lexus (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Toyota Division (D/I) . . . . . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . TOYOTA MOTOR (D/I). . . . . . . . . Audi (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bentley (I). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Volkswagen division (D/I). . . . . . Total car (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck (D/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . VOLKSWAGEN AG (D/I). . . . . . . . Domestic car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Import car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total car. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Domestic truck . . . . . . . . . . . . Import truck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total truck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TOTAL CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,139 501 2,200 440 2,640 1,505 12,480 3,833 4,829 12,989 17,818 1 1,806 502 1,806 503 2,309 10 17,452 605 74 – – 424 4,963 13,592 18,555 1,125 640 15,345 5,113 77 8,344 268 2,774 16,818 16,868 33,686 1,531 14,465 11,501 4,495 15,996 7,611 3,942 7,030 4,523 11,553 21 5,926 2,040 7,966 1,127 475 1,602 713 7,060 5,497 2,276 7,773 102 44 146 1,954 48 2,002 885 383 1,268 80 150 230 1,327 20,663 16,530 5,460 21,990 586 10 3,506 3,807 295 4,102 51,366 33,720 85,086 53,664 10,917 64,581 149,667 2,112 326 1,925 513 2,438 2,238 13,192 3,692 4,942 14,180 19,122 – 1,176 319 1,144 351 1,495 9 20,355 641 46 52 231 848 6,400 15,773 22,173 1,155 429 14,453 4,434 110 8,735 200 2,463 16,613 15,366 31,979 1,541 12,161 9,731 3,971 13,702 7,219 3,417 5,657 4,979 10,636 8 5,673 2,253 7,926 943 508 1,451 565 5,546 4,712 1,399 6,111 88 96 184 1,174 60 1,234 635 517 1,152 – – – 1,040 17,542 13,386 5,196 18,582 821 13 3,442 4,099 177 4,276 48,629 28,510 77,139 55,398 9,941 65,339 142,478 13,974 2,852 13,256 3,570 16,826 19,850 94,406 32,495 41,317 105,434 146,751 4 11,964 2,466 11,646 2,788 14,434 70 127,642 3,501 277 437 1,024 4,317 37,341 99,857 137,198 10,719 4,988 103,881 31,129 517 59,621 986 11,671 118,006 105,506 223,512 12,362 98,056 80,403 30,015 110,418 50,809 22,603 44,873 28,539 73,412 100 36,502 18,362 54,864 7,584 3,987 11,571 5,010 47,270 35,470 16,810 52,280 713 433 1,146 11,175 559 11,734 5,833 2,053 7,886 181 360 541 9,121 134,033 103,583 39,571 143,154 5,213 107 22,471 26,212 1,579 27,791 361,726 212,539 574,265 381,796 77,627 459,423 1,033,688 14,376 2,222 12,364 4,234 16,598 19,085 97,932 25,342 40,900 101,459 142,359 3 9,249 1,953 8,902 2,303 11,205 63 134,027 4,653 266 497 1,778 6,119 41,150 106,190 147,340 9,849 4,971 109,550 39,666 788 62,432 1,423 16,806 117,904 127,581 245,485 11,071 83,254 66,103 28,222 94,325 45,114 20,135 35,776 29,473 65,249 69 37,850 17,542 55,392 5,822 4,064 9,886 4,294 42,609 33,470 13,433 46,903 799 460 1,259 9,062 387 9,449 4,702 2,713 7,415 – – – 8,071 116,290 88,808 35,553 124,361 4,961 117 22,850 26,896 1,032 27,928 347,923 182,717 530,640 406,089 68,557 474,646 1,005,286 †DaimlerChrysler sold the Chr http://www.autonews.com/datacenter http://www.hiousa.com http://www.hiousa.com http://cbcads.com http://cbcads.com
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