丰田打造Y世代车主终极座驾
|
年轻消费者，也就是营销人员口中的“千禧一代”，对汽车厂商的高管来说似乎是个谜团。多年来，他们一直认为这些年轻人追求的是最新酷车，哪怕他们还没有这个购买力。但现在，这种情况似乎正在发生变化。 从东京到芝加哥，再到柏林，这些地方的年轻人比起X世代（出生于1970年代的美国人）或Y世代（出生于1980年代的美国人）的人要晚熟得多。现在他们离开家门，找了份工作，也需要买辆车了。他们用来表达个性的手段是手机、电游、纹身和服饰。据维亚康姆公司（Viacom）咨询部门的分析师斯克莱齐称，美国的千禧一代，也就是那些生于1981年或之后年份的年轻人，与他们的长辈相比，拿驾照的可能性要低六倍。 对买车、开车缺乏热情到底是说明没兴趣、不认同还是可能对新车型感到厌倦呢？在丰田汽车（Toyota Motor）的总裁丰田章男看来，应该是后者。他交代自己的工程师和设计师们，如果年轻人不买丰田的车，那就是“我们自己的问题”。 丰田GT86跑车以赛恩（Scion）FR-S的名义在美国发售，它的设计理念显然是为了激发年轻人的兴趣，如果还谈不上激情的话。这款车底盘很低，配置简单，除了能播放iPod之类的装置，没有什么花哨的配备。它就是打算凭借赛车般的操控让年轻人血脉贲张，因为它尽管只搭载了一台2.0排量的引擎，却能释放200马力的能量。 FR-S的基本售价约为24,000美元。它的燃油经济性也颇为吸引人：试驾显示，在城市路况和洲际公路上它能做到每加仑油耗跑32英里。【四十年前，大产汽车（Datsun）——即现在的日产汽车（Nissan）——推出过240Z，也是一款极为流行的简配跑车。】 通用汽车（General Motors）雪佛兰分公司的发言人安娜丽莎•布鲁姆称，年轻客户“想要的是外表看起来比实际更贵的车，他们想要获得别人的认可。这个群体中多数人买不起20,000美元以上的车，所以我们必须考虑，对他们来说，什么样的车才会比二手车更好。” 但是很多年轻客户已经习惯自己父母的车了。这些车往往宽大、快速，有不少像电动加热座椅和天窗之类的舒适配置。他们肯定不会因为开上一辆经济型的简配车而欣喜若狂。 |
Young buyers -- "millennials" in the parlance of marketers -- present an enigma for auto executives. For decades, they have taken for granted that young people will lust after cool new cars -- even if they can't yet afford them. Now, that appears to be changing. Today's young, from Tokyo to Chicago and Berlin, are much slower than Gen X or Gen Y to grow up, move out of the house, find a job and, therefore, need to buy a car. They express individuality by dint of their phones, video games, tattoos and clothing. According to Scratch, the consulting unit of Viacom, millennials in the U.S. -- those born 1981 or later -- are six times less likely to have a driver's license than previous generations. Is the lack of enthusiasm for owning and driving a car a sign of indifference, hostility – or perhaps boredom with new models? Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor (TM), suggests it's the latter. He has told engineers and designers if the young aren't buying his company's cars "it's our fault." Toyota's GT86 sports car, sold in the U.S. as the Scion FR-S, was designed expressly to excite the interest, if not the passion, of the young. Low to the ground, basic, with few frills other than those meant to enable iPod use during driving, the FR-S seeks to excite with race-car handling and steering, though with only a two-liter engine that generates 200 horsepower. The FR-S's base price is about $24,000. And it's fuel efficiency is relatively attractive; a test drive showed it to be 32 miles per gallon around town and on the Interstate. (Forty years ago Datsun -- now Nissan (NSANY) -- introduced the 240Z, a wildly popular no-frills sports car.) Young consumers "wants a car that looks more expensive than it is, they want to be validated," said Annalisa Bluhm, a spokesperson for General Motors Co.'s (GM) Chevrolet division. "Most of these customers can't afford more than $20,000, so we have to figure out what will be better for them than a used car." But many young drivers are used to their parents' cars, many of which were big, fast and had lots of creature comforts like heated seats and sunroofs. They're surely not wild about having to drive econoboxes. |
