17 Million Units Still in Sight for 2019 - Media Group Online · viewability and audiences commensurate with auto brands’ investments. TVision’s research also revealed luxury

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NOVEMBER 2019 www.mediagrouponlineinc.com

The highly respected National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) was one of many sources that predicted at the first of year the industry would end its run of consecutive years of 17 million or more units sold.

Although sales have been soft throughout the year, October’s sales, despite the UAW strike against General Motors, were sufficient for many analysts to state 2019 will be the fifth consecutive year of surpassing the 17-million mark.

Of course, it’s difficult to judge accurately as GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Tesla didn’t officially published their sales numbers, now doing so only quarterly. Without them in the sales results, Automotive News’ best educated “guess” is a 1.8% decrease for the entire industry during October. The UAW strike at GM led to an estimated 12% decrease, with Ford -1.9% and FCA US, -2.8%.

Nonetheless, the other 60% of the industry that did report numbers achieved a 2.5% increase. Of those, Honda Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor America reported increases of 7.6% and 11.3%, respectively.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. continued their red numbers from September, declining 1.2% and 5.8%, respectively, and October was Nissan’s fourth month of the last five in the red.

Boosting October sales slightly was one extra selling day and bigger discounts; however, the average new-vehicle price of $34,000+, reportedly the largest ever, made it difficult for some consumers to afford a new vehicle.

THE FIAT CHRYSLER-PEUGEOT MERGER CREATES THE WORLD’S FOURTH-LARGEST AUTOMAKERAs the auto industry confronts an almost total evolution to a future of electric and autonomous vehicles, consolidation to develop and afford those technologies are inevitable and necessary.

Such was the driving force behind the October 31st announcement that Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot (parent company, Groupe PSA) have merged, becoming the fourth-largest automaker in the world.

The estimated $50-billion deal combines two companies that sold 8.7 million vehicles during 2018, and had total revenues of just less than $190 billion. In addition to more capital for a robust R&D effort, Peugeot will have the added capability to market and sell its Opel and Vauxhall brands in the US, which it announced it would do during early 2019.

17 Million Units Still in Sight for 2019

FCA AND GROUPE PSA BRANDS, OCTOBER 2019

FIAT CHRYSLER AUTOMOBILES GROUPE PSA

Chrysler Peugeot

Dodge Citroën

Jeep DS

Ram Opel

Fiat Vauxhall

Alfa Romeo

Maserati

Fast Company, October 2019

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MARKETING FORWARD

SUBARU IS FIRST IN TV VIEWABILITY BRAND RANKINGSIn its latest report on the automotive industry, TVision, which analyzes TV viewability and audience size for hundreds of TV programs, ranked Subaru first. The other top 5 brands were Lincoln, Mazda, Volvo and Cadillac. (TV viewability is calculated as the percentage of TV ad impressions when a viewer is in a room with a TV for 2 or more seconds.)

Among the programs it studies, TVision found Fox’s The Passage and late-night shows, such as those Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert host, generate high viewability and large audiences.

Conversely, the NFL and College Football, where many auto brands spend their TV ad dollars, are not providing the viewability and audiences commensurate with auto brands’ investments.

TVision’s research also revealed luxury auto brands’ had the highest TV viewability, at 73.5%, several points more than the average for all auto brands of 70.0% and considerably more than truck brands, at 67.2%. SUVs’ viewability average was 70.9%.

THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY ACHIEVES HIGHEST REPUTATION SCORE, PART 1Reputation.com reveals in its 2019 Automotive Reputation Report, which analyzed online data of more than 16,000 US auto dealerships, that the industry has the largest reputation score, based on a “69% response rate to negative feedback compared to other industries.”

Considering the historical transformation the automotive industry is and will face throughout much of the 21st century, generating and maintaining a good to excellent reputation is essential.

This is particularly crucial with the migration of much of the car-buying process to the Internet: 95% of vehicle buyers use digital sources for research and 60% of automotive searches happen on a mobile device.

Although the automotive industry was first in reputation scoring, it is always difficult to maintain such a lofty position, especially given how quickly the car-buying process has evolved, and continues to change. Part 2 of this article, scheduled for the December 2019 Automotive Update Report, will explore the reputation-score results for the largest US brands.

Media Group Online considers this such an important report for you and your automotive clients that its extensive data will be published in multiple parts in this and future Automotive Update Reports.

REPUTATION SCORES FOR MAJOR INDUSTRIES, JULY 2019

INDUSTRY SCORE STAR RATING*REVIEWS/

LOCATION*

RESPONSE RATE TO NEGATIVE

FEEDBACK

Auto dealers 607 4.4 263 69%

Hospitality 605 4.2 609 23%

Dining 584 4.0 444 66%

Real Estate 571 4.0 45 70%

Retail 552 4.2 254 9%

Healthcare 401 3.6 14 48%

Finance 367 3.0 5 15%

Reputation.com, September 2019 *during last 12 months

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Open your mind to the history of technology and you’ll come to realize that the “invention” of fire and the current development of autonomous vehicles created the exact same reaction from humans: We always fear what we don’t understand, but once we do, we salivate uncontrollably for a grilled steak.

Unsurprisingly, the 2019 Global Mobility Navigator Syndicated Study from Ipsos revealed 70% of people around the world still enjoy driving/controlling a motor vehicle and aren’t yet ready to give the controls to a new, relatively unknown and “frightening” technology.

The Ipsos study concluded, however, people will be just as interested in the autonomous-vehicle experience, once the technology has fully matured, as they did when they replaced the horse’s reins in their hands with a steering wheel.

How quickly we forget: not just the monumental advancement from a horse-drawn wagon to a motor-driven vehicle, but also when we all started placing a computer on our desks. For most of us, it required some patience, training and repetitious usage before computers were accepted and proved their worth. Approximately 40 years later, the world couldn’t operate without computerization in various forms.

Much like caring for and maintaining a horse and wagon, driving a vehicle on ever-increasingly crowded roads (and perpetually being repaired) will become a chore and not enjoyable. Fortunately, forward thinkers are currently developing the autonomous-vehicle technologies that will likely make personal transportation even more enjoyable.

AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGIES CONTINUE TO ADVANCEFor people to consider autonomous vehicles just as or even more enjoyable than driving a current car or truck, various technologies and infrastructures must be developed in tandem.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are forecast to be the first of the major changes to personal transportation and Ford announced during mid-October 2019 its FordPass Charging Network.

To be created in conjunction with Greenlots and Electrify America, the network will consist of more than 12,000 charging stations and 35,000 plugs in the US and some Canadian locations. By comparison, Tesla currently has 4,375 charging stations and approximately 15,000 plugs.

Another recent announcement could also address a major consumer concern about EVs: the amount of time required to charge them. Research at Penn State University has resulted in a technological breakthrough which would allow the lithium-ion batteries in EVs to be charged within 10 minutes for a 200–300-mile range.

Without a long dissertation about the science, charging EV batteries at higher temperatures not only decreased the charge time by 80%, but also could allow batteries to be charged 2,500 times.

The Fear of Autonomous Vehicles Is as Old as Fire

ROAD SIGNS

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RANK AUTO BRANDOCTOBER

2019% CHANGE FROM

OCTOBER 20182019 YEAR TO DATE

% CHANGE FROM 2018 YEAR TO DATE

#1 Toyota 165,644 -1.6% 1,735,395 -2.5%

#2 Honda 117,486 +8.2% 1,210,882 +0.8%

#3 Nissan 94,417 -3.7% 1,050,873 -6.0%

#4 Hyundai 57,094 +8.4% 563,450 +3.3%

#5 Subaru 55,531 +0.2% 580,860 +3.9%

#6 Kia 50,007 +10.9% 513,605 +3.3%

#7 Mercedes-Benz* 32,130 +1.3% 285,188 0.0%

#8 Volkswagen 28,072 -3.2% 306,227 +3.7%

#9 BMW 25,440 +9.4% 257,867 +3.8%

#10 Lexus 23,143 +1.9% 232,694 -1.5%

#11 Mazda 19,520 +4.5% 227,687 -10.3%

#12 Audi 19,172 +19.4% 177,643 -3.2%

#13 Acura 13,957 +2.4% 126,770 -1.0%

#14 Infiniti 9,146 -23.0% 97,080 -17.1%

#15 Volvo 8,807 +20.2% 86,239 +6.1%

#16 Land Rover 8,093 +3.1% 74,732 +2.4%

#17 Mitsubishi 7,372 -7.9% 102,943 +1.5%

#18 Porsche 5,447 +13.1% 50,509 +6.5%

#19 Mini 2,962 -6.4% 30,715 -17.8%

#20 Jaguar 2,350 -11.3% 24,782 +4.0%

#21 Genesis 1,935 +420.2% 16,844 +81.5%

#22 Lamborghini§ 232 +16.0% 2,320 +94.1%

#23 McLaren§ 180 +55.2% 1,926 +70.1%

#24 Bentley§ 169 +2.4% 1,690 +2.9%

#25 Rolls-Royce§ 110 +1.9% 1,100 +1.9%

#26 Smart 0 -100.0% 680 -35.5%

#27 Other† 328 +2.2% 3,280 +2.2%

MONTHLY AUTOMOBILE SALES CHARTNOTE: General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Tesla announce their light-vehicle sales quarterly instead of monthly. They will publish their Q4 2019 sales during early January 2020. Their brands are not included in this month’s sales table.

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Source: Automotive News, November 2019

* Includes Mercedes-Benz vans

† Includes Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lotus estimates

‡ Includes Audi, Bentley, Porsche and Volkswagen brands, but not Lamborghini

§ Automotive News estimates

Not included in table: General Motors (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC); Ford Motor Co. (Ford, Lincoln); and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati and Ram); and Tesla

© 2019 Media Group Online, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sources:Automotive News Website:https://www.autonews.com/sales/trucks-drive-honda-hyundai-oct-gains-toyota-nissan-slip?CSAuthResp=1%3A%3A740724%3A20573%3A24%3Asuccess%3AE048F3C676E58DC9C7E5F1A9F49A55A8

Fast Company Website:https://www.fastcompany.com/90424958/fiat-chrysler-peugeot-merger-heres-what-to-know-about-worlds-new-4th-largest-automaker?utm_campaign=eem524%3A524%3As00%3A20191031_fc&utm_medium=Compass&utm_source=newsletterhttps://www.fastcompany.com/90425476/engineers-have-figured-out-how-to-charge-electric-car-batteries-in-10-minutes?utm_campaign=eem524%3A524%3As00%3A20191101_fc&utm_medium=Compass&utm_source=newsletter

Hubspot (TVision) Website:https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3023204/ABM%20Vertical%20Reports/TV%20Performance%20Report%20-%20AUTO.pdf?__hstc=163863072.851bb88269b05d52833d83c9c723a5b8.1570375877754.1570375877754.1570375877754.1&__hssc=163863072.10.1570375877754

Reputation.com Website:https://d24wdr9t5wf9v7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2019_Auto_Reputation_Report_0818.pdf?x86073

MediaVillage Website:https://www.mediavillage.com/article/consumers-wary-of-self-driving-cars-didnt-use-to-trust-computers-either/?utm_source=Jim+Motavalli%3A+On+Auto+Marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl-daily

CNN Business Website:https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/17/cars/ford-electric-vehicle-charging-network/index.html

RANK AUTO BRANDOCTOBER

2019% CHANGE FROM

OCTOBER 20182019 YEAR TO DATE

% CHANGE FROM 2018 YEAR TO DATE

Toyota Motor Corporation 188,787 -1.2% 1,968,089 -2.3%

American Honda Motor Company 131,443 +7.6% 1,337,652 +0.6%

Nissan Motor Company/Infiniti/

Mitsubishi 110,935 -6.0% 1,250,896 -6.4%

Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group 109,036 +11.1% 1,093,899 +4.0%

Volkswagen Group‡ 53,092 +5.7% 538,389 +1.8%

Mercedes-Benz USA 32,130 +1.0% 285,868 -0.1%

BMW Group 28,512 +7.4% 289,682 +1.0%

Jaguar/Land Rover 10,443 -0.5% 99,514 +2.8%

TOTAL 748,744 +2.5% 7,763,981 -0.8%

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17 Million Units Still in Sight for 2019 - Media Group Online · viewability and audiences commensurate with auto brands’ investments. TVision’s research also revealed luxury