LONDON: Ford has found that more than four out of five Millennials believe that the sport utility vehicle (SUV) has shed their gas-guzzling ways and one in four are willing to buy one.
This was the findings of the American car maker which conducted a survey on 5,000 people aged 17 to 34 who own a car or are intending to buy one in the next 12 months in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
To this, the company is will be introducing an all-new fully electric SUV, capable of an estimated range of at least 480km, allowing owners to drive from London to Paris on a single charge.
Last year, Ford introduced three new SUVs in Europe and the new zero-emission model will be one of five arriving by 2020.
According to the company, Ford’s SUV sales in the UK for the compact EcoSport, medium-size Kuga and full-size Edge – are up 320% over the last three years and grew 31% in 2016 compared to 2015 in Europe.
Industry SUV registrations were up 21% across Europe in 2016, accounting for more than one quarter of all the new vehicles registered.
Furthermore, data gathered by the company has shown that it’s not only younger drivers that are defying expectations with their vehicular choices.
In fact, the data shows that the average age of customers buying hot hatchbacks – high performance versions of small and medium sized cars, has increased by more than 10% between 2010 and 2016.
Last year, Ford's performance car sales such as the Fiesta ST, Focus ST and Focus RS and the Mustang grew by 60% for the second year in succession.
“SUV sales are rising faster than any other type of vehicle in Europe, and eco-conscious Millennials are a driving force behind growing SUV demand,” said Ford of Europe vice president (Marketing, Sales & Service) Roelant de Waard.
