Polk: Asian-American Market Ahead of Overall 2010 Pace

After another firm recently gave dealers a glimpse of trends in the Hispanic market, on Wednesday Polk rolled out analysis showing new-vehicle registrations among Asian-Americans grew at a faster pace than the overall market last year.

Polk discovered 2010 new-vehicle registrations among Asian-Americans grew 10.4 percent above 2009’s total and accounted for 438,430 vehicles, signaling a slight improvement in market share among this demographic. The Asian-American automotive market accounted for 5.1 percent of the overall market in 2010, according to Polk analysis.

For reference, analysts pointed out overall market growth in 2010 was 7.8 percent over 2009.

Citing U.S. Census forecasts, Polk said that the Asian population in the U.S. will increase 26.3 percent over current levels by 2020, and even more so later, with 134.7 percent growth by 2050. By that time, officials think Asian-Americans will account for 8 percent of the total U.S. population.

Furthermore, this segment is expected to grow faster than both Hispanic and African-American populations through the 2050 time frame, which Polk insists demonstrates a significant opportunity for automotive marketers.

Top Brands for the Asian-American Market

Polk’s analysis showed that Toyota and Honda collectively represent nearly 50 percent of the Asian automotive market with 27.7 percent for Toyota and 20.7 percent for Honda.

Analysts noted Nissan is a distant third with 6.8 percent of this market.

“It’s not surprising to see Toyota and Honda holding the top two spots with the Asian-American population in the U.S.,” explained Marc Bland, product strategist at Polk.

“We have seen Asians turn to different brands during the recession, and as a result, we are seeing growth with U.S. Asian buyers with a different set of brands than we have in the past,” Bland continued.

Overall, Polk determined five brands account for 65 percent of the Asian market.

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Brand Performance Among Asian-Americans

Polk determined Lexus led the import luxury brands, though it didn’t grow as much with Asians as the brand did overall in 2010. 

Analysts mentioned Buick, Hyundai, Cadillac, Land Rover, Kia and Volkswagen showed significant growth with Asian-Americans last year. Notably, they said Volkswagen’s growth with this demographic was significantly higher than its growth in the general automotive market.

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“The traditional domestic automakers have a significant opportunity with the Asian-American audience as they have started to broaden their consideration set for new-vehicle purchases based on the economy,” Bland said.

“The domestic automakers may not have paid as much attention to the Asian-American market in the past because they have tended to be very import-oriented and represented a relatively small vehicle buying population,” he declared.  

“However, as Asian-Americans begin to seriously shop for other brands and represent an increasing segment of the U.S. audience, domestic brands have an opportunity for growth with this market segment,” Bland went on to say

Projections for Growth Among Asian-Americans

Polk calculated Asian-Americans currently represent a larger share of the new-vehicle market (5.1 percent) than they do of the overall population in the U.S. (4.6 percent). 

“If the Asian market continues its current pattern of automotive purchases, and looking at the forecasted population growth, we expect exponential growth in the Asian-American market in 2020 and 2050,” Bland projected.

“We’re working with customers to help them track, measure and reach this important and growing market with our automotive ethnic solutions, so they can be ahead of this growth curve,” he added.