On the eve of Press Days for the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD) and IHS Markit presented the Second Annual Diversity Volume Leadership Awards (DVL Awards), co-sponsored by Black Enterprise and other automotive and media entities. The ceremony showed the tremendous impact that ethnic car buyers have on the economy and brought awareness to the lack of auto industry diversity that still remains present.
According to Damon Lester, president of NAMAD, “Some 30% of new vehicle purchases are made by multicultural consumers but only 6% of dealerships are minority-owned. That means 18,000 dealerships exist in the U.S. and just 1,100 are minority-owned.â€
Through the DVL Awards, NAMAD and IHS Markit partnered to celebrate brands that are driving sales leadership with ethnic consumers. The awards ceremony brought together scores of top automotive industry executives.
“The Diversity Volume Leadership Awards were designed to educate the entire auto industry including manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and automotive media,” said Marc Bland, vice-president of Diversity and Inclusion, IHS Markit.
Winners of the DVL Awards demonstrated the highest new vehicle registrations with ethnic, women, and millennial consumers. This year’s awards were based on an analysis of more than 13 million personal new vehicle registrations from IHS Markit.
This year, NAMAD and IHS Markit honored American Honda with the “Top Overall Ethnic Vehicle DVL Award. “Top Overall Ethnic Vehicle is the most sought-after Diversity Volume Leadership honor for automotive brands dedicated to driving sales leadership with Asian, Native American, Hispanic, and African American car buyers.
NAMAD and IHS Markit also presented awards for leadership in the following categories: Ethnic Volume Leaders by IHS Markit Regions, Volume Leaders – Millennials and Women, and Volume Leaders by Ethnic Consumer Group.
The automotive brands that have dedicated marketing resources to ethnic consumers and are focused on capitalizing on the rapid growth of the industry were in attendance to collect their DVL Awards. Overall, GM and its brands received five DVL Awards; Honda-seven DVL Awards, Toyota/Lexus-seven DVL Awards, Ford-three DVL Awards, Nissan-three DVL Awards, and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles-one DVL Award.