Never before has there been such a variety of car models on the international automobile market but despite globalization Europeans, Japanese and Americans have distinctly different taste when it comes to cars.
The major car manufacturers have learned to adapt their vehicles to different national tastes and regulations. Only the premium car market is unaffected.
"A Lexus is admired all over the world. BMW, Mercedes or Audi can sell the same car anywhere and need only change a few nuances," says the marketing chief of Nissan Europe, Mario Canavesi.
"There are niche markets for instance for convertibles or SUVs where the car can be sold on all markets," according to Canavesi.
But the volume is low. If manufacturers want to sell a car to the masses they have to adapt to regional taste.
Nissan in its global portfolio has more than 40 car model ranges with only about a dozen being offered in Europe. In Japan and the US the models are not always offered at the same time.
While there are same similarities between European and Asian models the automobile taste in the US is simply different, according to Canavesi.
Fuel consumption and space still play an insignificant role in the US which means that the cars sold there have a size and fuel consumption that would never sell in Europe.
Automobile researcher Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer from the High School of Gelsenkirchen points out that the limited space in Japan requires compact cars.
The luxury car segment does not produce extra cars for the US or Japan. But adapting the exhaust and lighting system to local regulations is not enough. Audi spokesman Udo Ruegheimer says that the different fuel quality has to be taken into account and the engines adapted accordingly.
BMW spokesman Alfred Broede says that diesel engines are not actively marketed in Asia and North America. The chassis is also adapted to poor road conditions in some countries. BMW and Mercedes sell their luxury S-Class or 7-Series on several continents only in versions with a long wheel base.
Significant regional differences are apparent when it comes to color and extras.
Only three of 100 Cayennes sold in Germany are white. But the figure is nine for Japan, 11 for Latin America and 30 in the Middle East.
Waiting for extras abroad can mean that the car has a long delivery time.
"Customers in the United States are impatient. Nobody there is prepared to take into account long waiting periods," according to BMW spokesman Broede.
"The customer buys the car as it stands in the showroom."
Station wagons generally are only popular in Europe, Broede says. On other markets, especially in Asia, it is an absolute niche product.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
RSS