Automotive News Canada - October 2016 - V2 - 18

* OCTOBER 2016

Québec law mirrors California's
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 1

said that the government
would invest in infrastructure to support these vehicles and reach the objective to
have 100,000 ZEVs on Québec
roads by 2020. ZEVs include
pure battery electric vehicles
(BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles (PHEVs), and hydrogen-fuel-cell electric vehicles
(FCEVs).

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
In statements issued to
Automotive News Canada,
automakers supported
Québec's initiative.
Ford pounced on the challenge, announcing a publicity
campaign starting in October
promoting its EVs - the
C-Max and Focus EV- with
zero-per-cent financing for
84 months. Ford will also put
together a promotional program for hybrid plug-ins and
EVs to go into shopping malls
across Québec.
Nissan "generally supports" such initiatives, believing them "essential" to meeting Québec's coming mobility
needs, as did Kia which questioned the need for imposing
a law; its Soul EV is already
available in 11 Québec dealerships with plans to add more
before year's end. Kia will
add the Niro plug-in to its EV
lineup before the end of 2016
and next year, the Optima EV
plug-in hybrid.

TIME TO PREPARE
By starting the ZEV percentage at 3.5 and announcing it now, Heurtel said the

government is giving manufacturers time to adapt and
to prepare for the change.
It is the same approach, he
said, as adopted by the 10
U.S. states that also voted for
ZEV laws in 2014: California,
Connecticut, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, New York,
Oregon, Rhode Island and
Vermont.
Exploiting advantages in
electric-vehicle technologies
will grow the economy "and
achieve our objectives in the
fight against climate change,"
Heurtel said.
"We are on the road to the
new 21st century economy, a
prosperous lower-carbon economy, and the vehicles that will
get us there will be zero-emission vehicles," said Heurtel.

PART OF A BIGGER PLAN
The 3.5 per cent ZEV standard is one part of a set of
measures provided for under
the 2015-'20 Transportation
Electrification Action Plan to
help increase ZEV numbers in
Québec and make them more
accessible to consumers.
The government also wants
to assist in the creation of
2,000 new jobs in the electric-vehicle industry. - ANC

A promotional program
by Ford will put its EVs in
Québec shopping malls.
The province wants 100,000
EVs on the road by 2020.
(PHOTO: FORD)

M-B and likely other automakers helpless
as they're pulled into the vortex of VW's scandal
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"Even our E-Class. With every
'17 model vehicle, whether diesel
or gas, there have seen delay,"
Fulton said. "It's taken an extra
month [or] couple of months
to get the cars certified and get
them into our dealerships."
Volkswagen was caught last
year installing devices on millions of its diesel-fueled vehicles
that allowed them to pass emission tests. Investigators found
that the cars released toxins such
as nitrogen oxide at levels more
than 40 times higher than current regulations in the United
States allow.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and
California Air Resources Board
(CARB) reacted by tightening
their testing regimes.
In Canada, an investigation
was launched by Environment
and Climate Change Canada, the
country's environment regulator.
Volkswagen sold about 100,000
diesels equipped with emissions-fixing software in Canada
between 2000 and 2015.
Natural Resources Canada
often adopts similar procedures
as its U.S. counterpart which has
led to increased stringency and
delays in certifying new models
for sale here.
The cloud over VW diesels has not hurt demand for
Mercedes diesels, though, Fulton
said.
"If anything, the demand from
a customers standpoint is as
strong now for Mercedes diesels

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as it's ever been," he said.
The problem is perhaps the
only cloud over M-B Canada's
impressive performance. It has
been Canada's No. 1 luxury
brand in terms of sales the last
two years, with a market share of
16.1 per cent.
Fulton expects to duplicate
that sales performance this year,
despite the softening in oil- and
gas-producing centres such as

If anything,
the demand from
a customers standpoint
is as strong now
for Mercedes diesels
as it's ever been.
BRIAN D. FULTON

Mercedes-Benz Canada President
Alberta. Strong dealer performance, solid product and customer loyalty have softened that
edge.
"Yeah, we've hit a little bit of
a rough patch in Alberta, as has
everybody, but we'll get through
it," he said. "We're not pressing any panic buttons, that's for
sure."

STICK TO BASICS
Mercedes-Benz has more than
100 model variants for sale in

Dealers match advertising
method to the clientele
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that 60 per cent of his advertising budget is currently going
online while roughly 30 per cent
remains in print and 10 per cent
in radio.
From the east coast, the picture paints similarly.
"We're definitely spending
the bulk of our money in radio
and print," says Todd Clements,
General Manager at Cape
Breton Hyundai in Sydney,
Nova Scotia. "I think our customers largely look in the newspapers for our ads because they
do mention it pretty often."
Dylan Gage, General Sales
Manager at Grande Prairie
Mitsubishi in Northern Alberta,
says that maintaining relationships in radio keeps the potential open for occasional remotes
at his dealership, which helps
to bring prospective buyers
through his front door.
"Once a month or so we do
that," he explains. "It drives lots
of attention."

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Canada. Fulton said there are
no plans to trim the sedan offerings in the face of Canadians'
growing embrace of tall wagons
and trucks. August was the first
month wagons and trucks surpassed 50 per cent of total sales
for M-B Canada.
"If anything, you'll see [commitment to passengers cars]
deepen over the next couple of
years," Fulton said.
Fulton hinted that M-B
Canada could add the A-Class
compact hatchback to the
Canadian lineup. Its currently
only sold in Europe and parts of
Asia.
"But stay tuned," he said.
Fulton became M-B Canada
president and CEO in May,
succeeding Gareth T. Joyce as
President and CEO, and spent
most of his career in financial
services, first at Ford Motor
Credit, then Toyota Motor
Credit. He joined M-B Canada's
financial services arm in 1994
as an assistant regional manager and held various senior positions in the United States and
Asia.
Previously, Fulton was
President and CEO of MercedesBenz Auto Finance China where
he was responsible for the overall financial services operations for China and Hong Kong.
Fulton has also served as the
President and CEO of MercedesBenz Financial Services Canada
where he was responsible for
the Mercedes-Benz Financial
Services and Daimler Truck
Financial portfolio. - ANC

Dave Sambrook, VicePresident of Operations for
Pfaff Automotive Partners, sees
the situation from many sides
in his role overseeing dealerships spanning mainstream and
ultra-luxury brands in urban
and suburban areas across

Southern Ontario. He said
that even within Pfaff's sphere
a variety of approaches are
required.
"The only place we would
do (traditional advertising)
is in the outlying areas," he
says. "We have a Toyota dealership in Orangeville and we
have an Audi and Volkswagen
dealership in Newmarket. We
would do a little bit of traditional advertising in those smaller
communities."

EVENTS TRANSLATE INTO SALES
On the other hand, high-end
luxury buyers are a far-flung
community unto themselves,
and Sambrook says that Pfaff
approaches them differently.
"We do a lot of events," he
explains. "If it's a McLaren
event or a Porsche event, we're
very conscious to make sure
that it's held at an appropriate
venue that would be fitting for
that type of clientele. Smaller,
more focused events really seem
to work well, where you invite
your customers and then you tell
your customers to bring one or
two of their friends. It helps us
get into that market because it's
a very hard group to tap into.
"If you have 100 people it
becomes 100 customers with 100
prospects. That seems to be very
effective," said Sambrook.
- ANC

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - October 2016 - V2