You might not have guessed this.
It’s no secret the automotive industry is in a state of flux at the moment, meaning quite a bit of uncertainty is on the horizon for automakers. Considering about half the population in the US is female, car brands that appeal to women can enjoy a competitive advantage. It was with this in mind the S&P Global Mobility studied which mainstream automotive brands are most appealing to females and the results are pretty interesting.
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To determine which brands were most appealing to women, S&P looked at personal new vehicle registrations, measuring how many were for female owners. Coming in at a commanding first with a solid 55% was Buick. We honestly wouldn’t have guessed that was the top brand for women.
Second place also went to a surprising choice: Mitsubishi. The Japanese automaker boasts 51.4% female registrations. After that is Mini at 51.1% (a brand we expected to see in the top five) then Lexus at 50.4%.
Infiniti, Mazda, and Kia round out the top five brands at 49.6%, 49%, and 49% respectively (those three tied for fifth). The one thing we can find as a commonality among all of the above-mentioned brands is they offer quite a few small vehicles, including crossovers. We know plenty of women hate driving larger vehicles, especially a body-on-frame truck.
As pointed out by S&P, women are supposedly more brand-loyal than men, although not by a huge margin. Still, that means automakers can benefit from drawing them in and ensuring they come back again and again for new vehicles.
We’re not too surprised at the bottom five brands for female buyer representation: Dodge 33.9%, Tesla 33.1%, Ford 31.1%, GMC 28.7%, and Ram 17%. With the exception of Tesla and Dodge, those brands rely heavily on truck sales and most women aren’t registered as the owner of trucks. When it comes to Dodge, it’s mostly selling muscle cars, another segment women aren’t flocking towards.
Leaving percentages behind and looking at raw numbers, S&P Global calculated the brands with the highest volumes of registrations among women, with interesting results. Toyota was by far the leader at 606,985. Trailing at a distant second was Honda 363,799 registrations and then Chevrolet 340,999. Bringing up the rear was Ford 313,477 and Hyundai 294,380.
Images via Mini, Mitsubishi, Kia
