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Customer LoginsToyota and Asian buyers lead the way with gas and electric hybrids
Unlike their ethanol flex fuel peers, Americans have been slow to accept the hybrid gas and electric vehicles. The gas electric hybrid market represents 2.6 percent of the personal new volume year-to-date through November 2010. The current share represents a .3 percentage point reduction from the prior 2.9% share for the same time period in 2009. To keep everything in perspective, Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota and Lexus) dominates this market with 72% of the new vehicle volume. The closest competitors are Honda and Ford with 14% and 9% share of the gas/electric market, respectively.
In my last blog, I questioned, "Why is the Asian community slow to adopt the E85 flex vehicles?" The answer could be that Asian consumers prefer the gas and electric hybrid vehicles. Asian consumers dominate this market with 5 of every 100 vehicles purchased by this community being a gas/electric hybrid. This is twice the industry rate of 2.5% and nearly 3 percentage points higher than both Hispanic buyers (1.9%) and African American consumers (1.8%).
When you look at the top 25 make model list (adjacent), two things are consistent regardless of ethnicity, as follows:
--The Toyota Prius is the 1st choice in the gas/electric vehicle class.
--The Honda Insight is the consensus 2nd choice based on volume.
Another observation is the Lexus and Mercedes gas/electric hybrid models rank higher with the Asian community than African American, Hispanic and the industry overall.
So why are so few African American and Hispanic consumers purchasing vehicles that get 30 miles per gallon or more? Taking it up a notch, what needs to be done to get the industry share on par with the Asian share at 5%? Could one answer be the need for additional ads and campaigns focused on specific communities to highlight the benefits of owning a gas/electric hybrid that addresses their unique needs?
The above are my thoughts on the gas/electric hybrid market. I welcome any and all comments on this topic.
Posted by Marc Bland, Product Strategist and Multicultural Marketing Lead, Polk (02.22.2011)