Study projects that small cars will be the biggest segment in the coming years
If you have €1,000 burning a hole in your pocket you could pick up a copy of a new report from Research and Markets about the future of the car market. Or you could look at the rising price of oil, traffic patterns in places like New Delhi and Beijing and come to the same conclusions yourself. The study projects that small cars will lead the global car market in the next decade. Given that sales in North America have been stagnant for several years and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, growth is obviously going to come from developing markets like India and China. Those two countries already have huge problems with congestion. China, as we know, also has a bit of an issue with air quality. Everyone, including the U.S., will have to deal with increased costs of fuel. All that adds up to small, more efficient vehicles taking an increasingly large share of the market and very likely to become the biggest segment globally. Remember, you could go buy the report that says all this with figures and charts; your choice.
[Source: The Auto Channel]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 8:58AM (3/31/2008)
They needed to do a study to learn that the more gas costs, the smaller cars get?
I know, let's get a government grant to do a study to see if the closer you hold an object to a fire, the hotter it gets. It should ONLY cost about $500K. What a DEAL!
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TX CHL Instructor 9:08AM (3/31/2008)
In other news, the sun is probably going to continue rising in the east, and setting in the west. Thank you, you can send your $1000 for that report to my PayPal account.
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Dave 10:25AM (3/31/2008)
hahahHAHAHHAH I'll bet taxpayer dollars went to this study...
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Charles S 11:29AM (3/31/2008)
Actually, report or not, if the people were asked if they'd buy small cars, most of the time people will say NO. This was still the case even when gas hit $3/gal in 2005.
Sales of small cars in US today is still relatively small in comparison to the rest of the market. The news may quote a huge increase in that market segment, but (example) 30% increase of a 6% market is really just an additional 2% to the whole market. Don't quote the numbers above, it was just for illustration. I'm sure most here do not care how well small cars sells in US.
Purchases of luxury vehicles and SUVs are usually the typical behavior of a growing economy. Places like China could really go either way: people could choose smaller cars in fear that government would drastically raise fuel prices. On the other hand, if people can afford it, then they'd likely buy more "prestigious" vehicles despite higher fuel prices.
Reports like this are like any automotive predictions, it's pretty much irrelevant for most of us. It's up to the heads of the automotive companies to decide if they want to sell small cars in US or the rest of the world.
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eddy 3:03PM (3/31/2008)
Yeah but there will be some small green luxury cars in the US in the next years:
Volvo C30 Recharge, Audi A1 PHEV, Alfa-Romeo Mito, Fiat 500, different Minis and a small Prius-gen3-based Lexus. That would be prestige with good mileage. And I definitly will buy one of that cars (Most likely the Audi A1 or the Volvo).
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kevin 6:32PM (4/01/2008)
Why would i pay that much money for a stupid book. The relationship to gas prices and the cars themselves are very clear . The more the gas prices go up , the smaller more efficent the cars get.
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