Income, Affordability and Opportunity: The Hotspots of Future Autos Demand

The relationship between annual disposable income and demand for light vehicles suggests there are affordability thresholds beyond which sales take off. By understanding these thresholds and exploring the outlook for household incomes, this briefing identifies the eight markets projected to add the most unit sales by 2020. It evaluates likely scenarios in the usual suspects, but also reveals some less obvious rising stars.

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Hungary’s Consumer Lending Environment to Dictate the Pace of Recovery of the Car Market

By historical standards and even compared to most of its neighbours, demand for new cars in Hungary has been in the doldrums since 2009. Sales have remained far below what they should be when considering the number of households that have enough disposable income to be in the market for a new car. Click to tweet! Even movements in consumer confidence levels have had no impact on new car sales since the financial crisis began.

Fundamentally, sales have remained slow because of the tighter consumer lending environment and a change in consumer attitude towards debt. The new vehicle registration tax structure intended to stimulate demand will therefore undoubtedly have a limited impact in 2012, particularly in light of the 2012 hike in the top rate of VAT to 27%. That said, however, new car sales will eventually begin to climb in the coming years as long as the capacity of Hungarian consumers to take on debt improves.

Electric Vehicle Push Should Not Necessarily be Focused on Europe and the US

Analyst Insight by Neil King, Analyst- Automotive

Green Influences, a recent study by Euromonitor International's Survey Team, reveals some interesting results that challenge many preconceptions about consumer attitudes to green products and offers valuable insight into locating green car buyers. For example, country differences trump income differences, whereby even the lowest-income earners in rural areas of developing markets are much more interested in green products than the average consumer in mature markets.

A diverse set of online panelists in eight countries – the US, Brazil, the UK, France, Germany, India, China and Japan - were invited to participate in this survey, with ages ranging from 15 to more than 65 years old. Consumers' relative willingness to pay more for green products is, unsurprisingly, strongly related to their valuation of green features but there are large regional and moderate gender and age disparities in how important green features are considered to be.

Porsche Powered by the Outlook for Households With an Annual Disposable Income in Excess of US$250,000

Analyst Insight by Neil King, Analyst - Automotive

Porsche produced just 95,000 cars in 2010, a lower number than rolled off its lines in 2008 and more than 20,000 units shy of the record 107,000 units produced in 2007.  However, output increased by over 25% in 2011, smashing the 2007 record, buoyed by phenomenal demand growth in China. Tweet this! Combined with a recovery in the US, where Porsche's sales were 15% higher than in 2010, the company is understandably upbeat.

Considering the development of Porsche's output level back to 2000, it essentially tracks Euromonitor International's data on the global number of households with an annual disposable income of over US$250,000 through 2008. Tweet this! From 2000 to 2002, Porsche's output equated to 0.4% of homes with an ADI in excess of US$250,000, but as a direct result of the introduction of the Cayenne SUV there was a notable jump in this ratio in 2003, whereby Porsche's production equated to 0.6-0.7% of the quarter of a million of these households over 2003-2008. However, through the global recession, output declined much more than the number of households with an ADI of over US$250,000 would have suggested as the number stabilised in 2009 and had already recovered to a record level of nearly 17 million homes in 2010.

Introducing Passport: Automotive

In an effort to expand our growing research capabilities, Euromonitor is proud to announce the launch of Passport: Automotive - a unique look into the consumer dynamics that are shaping future automotive industry demand. 

Since existing information used by automotive industry professionals is heavily quantitative, Euromonitor created Passport: Automotive to give professionals a tool that offers greater insight and details on the consumer environment and the factors that will shape demand for cars around the world. Passport: Automotive builds on Euromonitor's data and analysis for consumer lifestyles, consumer finance, in-car entertainment and other important segments to understand the opportunities and overall environment for the global automotive industry.  

In conjunction with the launch of the system, the Automotive team at Euromonitor identified five key facts shaping the industry. Watch the video below to see the five trends and to learn more about the new Passport: Automotive system.

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Join Euromonitor International at Household 2012

Date: September 3-5, 2012
Location: Frei Caneca Convention Center, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Euromonitor International is proud to be the market research provider and give the opening conference at Household 2012, the most important event in the hygiene and domestic cleaning, institutional and auto care segments in Latin America.

The seminar is comprised of 21 lectures, and the exhibition has 45 exhibitors in 4.5 thousand square meters. It is a rare opportunity for the thousands of attendees – 5 percent foreigners – to learn about new raw materials and technologies available for the segment, as well as the world market trends and perspectives.

Held every two years by H&C Magazine and organized by Freedom Comunicação, Household 2012 provides an environment to strengthen the segment businesses. According to Luiz Alberto Bozzolo, director of Freedom, "The lectures contribute to product improvement and consumer relationship, and also provide tools for the adoption of business strategies."

For more information, contact freedom@freedom.inf.br  +55 (11) 3846-1577 

Autos Focus: The Silver Lining of Japan’s Ageing Population Cloud

Analyst Insight by Neil King.

Total passenger car sales declined over 2004-2009 in Japan but demand for standard cars has held up well and actually set a new record in 2010, even outselling mini cars for the first time ever. Given the general popularity of larger cars among older people, the cloud that is the ageing of the Japanese population appears to have a silver lining, albeit a thin one.