US: Demand For Sporty Vehicles On The Upswing

While GM’s Mark Reuss may not see the business case for the company to build a small coupe, the market is shouting otherwise. The trend is clearly visible in the US, but it’s also characteristic for other regions, according to Dave Pericak, the director of Ford Performance.

Pericak explains that doing performance cars is a very desirable thing to do for any automaker. These projects not only attract younger buyers, but they also offer good profit margins and give the brand a certain sporty allure it otherwise may have lacked.

In the US, the demand may not be for really small sporty cars, but larger stuff like the Dodge Hellcat cars are flying out of the showroom so fast that they’ve had to suspend orders; they apparently can’t keep up with demand.

Sales of those models are reportedly up 90 percent for the Challenger and 95 percent for the Charger (pictured) compared to 2014…

In fact, nearly all sporty cars sold in America and especially the domestic brands, have recorded some sort of sales boost, even if it is in the single digit percentages, like the ageing Nissan GT-R from Japan, sales of which went up by 16 percent in 2014 over 2013.

Proof that a sporty sub brand and good performance cars bring in buyers is the Ford ST story in the US. According to Pericak, “Over 65 percent of ST customers come from outside the Ford brand;” he was also keen to note the affluence of many buyers whose yearly income is well over $100,000 (around 30 percent of them).

We wonder why more manufacturers aren’t jumping on this train, because according to Dave Sullivan, manager of product analysis for industry research firm AutoPacific, “It’s very inexpensive to develop a performance model. The development time and the cost of tooling is far less [than the rest of the vehicle]. It’s too easy to not do, too easy to ignore.”

That’s a general statement that most likely just refers to upgrading existing models to turn them into sports cars, and not something like what BMW did with the i8. That car is a great marketing tool as it looks good and concept-like, it’s respectably fast and greener than anything out there that also uses a petrol engine and can match it for performance.

Via Automotive News