Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 16

16

* OCTOBER 2017

How a loss becomes a gain
In the face of
a shrinking sedan
market, Subaru
sees an opportunity
for Legacy
ByJOHN IRWIN

TORONTO BUREAU

CLARINGTON, ONT. -
Subaru is doubling down on
the Legacy sedan, aiming
to gain market share even
as buyer appetite for midsize family cars continues to
shrink.
Legacy sales in Canada are
down 20 per cent to 1,809 units
through September this year,
putting it well on pace for an
annual sales decline following
2016's 11 per cent gain.
Canada's sedan market will
not make things any easier for
the Legacy, which received a
significant refresh for model

year 2018 and is due for a
redesign for 2019. According
to DesRosiers Automotive
Consultants, Canadian sedan
sales are projected to fall to
67,715 units by 2021, down 60
per cent from 2012 and 43 per
cent from 2016.
"It seems like bad news
for a midsize sedan," Subaru
spokeswoman Julie Lychak
said in September. "But for
the Subaru Legacy, that's actually not the case. Although
the market is shrinking, we're
going to lose fewer sales than
our competition, which represents a growth opportunity
for the Legacy."
DesRosiers projects the
Legacy will increase its market share in Canada to 3.7 per
cent by 2019, from 2.5 per cent
in 2016.

LOYALTY TARGET
Subaru sees the Legacy as
key to winning over new customers and building brand

Subaru's midcycle freshening of the Legacy sedan included
a wider grille, redesigned headlights and improved
aerodynamics. ( P H O T O : S U B A R U )

loyalty. Lychak said that while
about one-third of Canadian
Subaru buyers are returning
customers, about 56 per cent of
Legacy customers buy another Legacy.
Subaru's North American
unit sees strong opportunity for the car in the United
States, as well, where the
Legacy was one of just three
midsize sedans to report a
year-over-year sales gain in
2016.
The refresh for 2018
brought a sportier look to the
exterior as well as interior
upgrades.
Key exterior upgrades
included a wider grille, redesigned headlights and new
door mirrors that Subaru says
improve aerodynamics and
cut wind noise.
There's a redesigned
steering wheel and an overhauled infotainment system,
which now comes with Apple
CarPlay and Android Auto as
standard equipment. The infotainment display is larger,
coming in sizes of 6.5 inches or
8.0 inches.
Subaru no longer offers a
manual transmission for the
Legacy due to a shrinking
market for manual gearboxes.
Just three per cent of Legacy
buyers in 2016 bought one with
manual transmission, down
from 12 per cent in 2012.
The refreshed Legacy,
which arrived at Canadian
dealerships this summer,
starts at $26,645, including
$1,650 freight. - ANC

TOYOTA MIRAI:

HOW IT WORKS

Nickel-metal-hydride
batteries (not lithium-ion)
store the power that the
hydrogen creates because
it's not in direct proportion
to how it's used by the car
at any given time.

Two hydrogen tanks are Fuel cell converts hydromade of carbongen to electricity. Smaller,
fibre-reinforced plastic.
cheaper and more efficient
Hydrogen is stored at
than previous efforts.
10,000 p.s.i. and provides a range of up to
152-horsepower
500 kilometres.
electric drive motor

( I L L U S T R AT I O N : T O Y O TA , A U T O M O T I V E N E W S C A N A D A )

Quebec ZEV policy
fuels hydrogen push
Automaker seeks
to get 'ahead of the
curve' on ZEV law
By JOHN IRWIN
TORONTO BUREAU

TOYOTA MOTOR CORP.,
the federal government and
province of Quebec have been
cozying up to each other as
the sides sort out how exactly the province's zero-emissions-vehicle (ZEV) mandate
will work.
Toyota Canada and
Transition Energetique
Quebec said in September
that they would work together to study building a province-wide hydrogen-fuel-cell
infrastructure. The announcement came just days after
Toyota Chairman Takeshi
Uchiyamada met with
Navdeep Bains, Canada's minister of innovation, science
and economic development,
in Quebec City to discuss the
same issue.
Quebec is scheduled to
begin mandatory quotas for
sales of plug-in electric vehicles, with a 3.5 per cent minimum for model year 2018.
Toyota's collaborative
approach with the governments is part of a larger strategy to get ahead of the curve on
electrification as Quebec rolls
out its ZEV mandate and other
provinces potentially follow,
Toyota Canada Vice-President
Stephen Beatty said in an
interview.
"I think [the governments]
have done a good job of bringing people together," he told
Automotive News Canada.
"The question is, with all that
stakeholder input, whether
you can take all of it and make
sense of it all."
Developing and rolling
out infrastructure for electric vehicles throughout the
province in a relatively short
timeframe could be daunting.
A network of chargers would
need to be rolled out throughout Quebec - and perhaps the
nation - by 2020, when ZEVs

would have to account for 15.5
per cent of sales in Quebec, to
make electric vehicles more
attractive to potential buyers.
Beatty said it is crucial for
Toyota and other automakers to make sure early buyers
of EVs are supported through
infrastructure. By doing so,
EVs could be more attractive
to other buyers as word of
mouth spreads, and EVs would
become more practical as the
infrastructure expands.

GROWING A BACKBONE
"The way that we approach
this is to ensure that the
early adopters are supported,
that we have the infrastructure in place to support their
lifestyle," Beatty said. "By
encouraging that early-adopter
community, you begin to
create the backbone for the
broader consumer."
Collaborations with governments will be important to
that effort, particularly when
it comes to building a hydrogen infrastructure, Beatty
said. Toyota is betting big on
its fuel-cell technology in vehicles such as the Mirai, which
can be refuelled in as little as
three minutes.
"I think, as a society, we
underestimated the impact
that charging stations for
electric vehicles will ultimately have," Beatty said.
"Substantial investments have
to be made."
Beatty said the issue of electrification has forced Toyota
to rethink the way it sells cars,
and its relationships with competitors. Toyota, for instance,
is in a coalition with Hyundai
and Honda to enlist the services of Fasken Martineau, a
Canadian business that provides strategic advice in government relations, to lobby the
government to invest in its EV
infrastructure.
"It was a whole lot easier
when it was just about getting
somebody to buy your new
Corolla," Beatty said. "Now
you need to think about things
in broad, connected terms."
Greg Layson contributed to
this report. - ANC


http://joeverde.com/can

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - October 2017

Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - Intro
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 1
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 2
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 3
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 4
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 5
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 6
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 7
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 8
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 9
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 10
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 11
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 12
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 13
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 14
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 15
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 16
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 17
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 18
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 19
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 20
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 21
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 22
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 23
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 24
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 25
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 26
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 27
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 28
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 29
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 30
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 31
Automotive News Canada - October 2017 - 32
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