Asian Makers Harden Grip on U.S. Cars as Detroit Does Trucks
Asian Makers Harden Grip on U.S. Cars as Detroit Does Trucks
(Bloomberg) -- The Detroit auto show -- or pickup show, as one could flippantly call it this year -- ushered in a swarm of fresh mid-size and full-size trucks for a U.S. market that keeps trading up for bigger wheels. But you wouldn’t know it watching most Asian carmakers’ reveals.
While Detroit rivals stormed into the city’s annual show with even more of the hefty haulers that have recaptured America’s attention, their overseas competitors reinforced their stranglehold on the U.S. market for passenger cars, revealing several new or refreshed sedans, coupes and compact cars at a time when small-scale models are generally falling out of favor.
“The Asians and the Germans look to the North American car market for volume growth, lower costs and exports,’’ said Alan Baum, an independent auto analyst in West Bloomfield, Michigan. “When it comes to passenger cars, the Detroit automakers are looking overseas for all these things.’’
As the truck and sport utility vehicle craze intensified in the U.S. last year, passenger-car sales dropped 11 percent. But it was the Detroit automakers who largely lost these sales, not their global competitors. In 2017, overseas-based automakers captured more than three-fourths of U.S. car sales, data from Autodata Corp. show.
This dominance in the U.S. car market could intensify further when such stalwarts as the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Altima arrive for the 2019 model year with all-new designs. Honda Motor Co.’s Accord, the 10th iteration of which was rolled out in July, was named on Monday the 2018 North American Car of the Year. No cars from Detroit nameplates earned enough votes to even qualify as a finalist.
“When the U.S. market shifted so dramatically toward SUVs, the people still interested in buying cars gravitated back toward the tried and true,’’ said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with car-shopping web-site Autotrader. “In passenger cars, that’s Toyota and Honda.’’
As the Detroit show saw General Motors Co. reveal an all-new Chevrolet Silverado pickup, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV introduce a new Ram 1500 and Ford Motor Co. revive the Ranger, Japanese and South Korea automakers showed off a series of smaller family haulers at the flagship North American auto event. Here are some of the car models to take the stage:
Kia Forte
Kia Motors Corp. chose the Detroit show for the global debut of its redesigned Forte compact car. The model is based on engines and mechanical underpinnings, called the K2 platform, which Kia shares with its corporate stablemate Hyundai Motor Co. This global scale provides the cash the automakers need to keep even modestly priced cars like the Forte equipped with the latest technology, said Orth Hedrick, Kia’s vice president of U.S. product planning.
For even the cheapest Fortes introduced Monday in Detroit, this includes an eight-inch touchscreen display for navigation and infotainment that’s up to twice as big as those on competitors’ vehicles, Hedrick said. The car comes with a sportier design and updated engines and transmissions that boost combined city and highway fuel economy almost 10 percent to 35 miles per gallon, he said.
Toyota Avalon
Full-size sedans have had a tough decade, but Toyota’s looking to change that with the introduction of an all-new Avalon. The fifth-generation model, which will be assembled in Kentucky, ups the sportiness factor while making a suite of safety features from steering assist to pedestrian detection standard.
A seven-inch display shows vehicle information including turn-by-turn navigation, and the car’s exterior is longer, lower and wider than before. The Avalon comes with two new powertrain options: a 3.5-liter V-6 or a four-cylinder hybrid system -- the only full hybrid vehicle in the segment.
“If you create a great product, great products sell even in a decreasing market,” Jack Hollis, group vice president for North America at Toyota, told reporters at the show.
Hyundai Veloster
The South Korean automaker’s 2019 Veloster -- the second iteration of the asymmetrical three-door coupe designed specifically with millennial drivers in mind -- brings a lower roofline for a sportier coupe feel and a standard seven-inch color LCD display. The carmaker is also releasing a Turbo version, plus a high-performance Veloster N model with a larger 2.0-liter, direct-injected engine with up to 275 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque.
“Now it’s time to add more kick to the recipe,” North American design chief Chris Chapman said in a presentation Monday.
The 2019 Veloster begins production in March in Ulsan, South Korea, arriving in U.S. showrooms in the second quarter of 2018.
Bonus Crossovers
Just because Asian carmakers are keeping one foot firmly in passenger cars doesn’t mean they’re skipping out on the SUV craze. Overseas automakers also revealed several crossover and utility concepts in Detroit aimed at America’s fastest growing segment.
Toyota showed a vision for an over-the-top, potentially six-figure SUV for its Lexus luxury division called LF-1 Limitless, while Nissan Motor Co. offered design hints for a compact SUV -- Xmotion Concept -- that could one day arrive as an update for the Rogue, currently the company’s top-selling U.S. vehicle. Honda offered an all-new RDX prototype, the second-largest seller for its Acura luxury division.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Lippert in Chicago at jlippert@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Anne Riley Moffat, Kevin Miller
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