Automotive News Canada - September 2017 - v2 - 19

19

* S E P T E M B E R 2017

Ride sharing doesn't speak to luxury buyers, Lester says
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PA GE

positions away from just being
a combustion-engine producer
to being electrical. It's not just
going to be a brand like Tesla
. . . there will be other mainstream brands.
"Moving forward,
[zero-emissions mandates]
might be a challenge for manufacturers all around the world
and in Canada [they are] right
now. But I think it'll quickly tumble, and more and more
provinces and national governments will get behind it.
"The one catch or trick is
where the electricity comes
from. This is the one elephant
in the room that people don't
necessarily talk about. Quebec
is a unique environment based
on its power sources, but I
think the rest of the world is
not necessarily ready to handle that on their grid."

luxury end, people buy [vehicles] because those objects represent them, their success,
their status. I joke around all
the time that you don't buy
a fancy watch because it just
tells better time than your
phone or whatever you have
on your wrist. It represents
something. We have perfect
atomic timekeeping in our
phone already.
"Cars are going to be no
different. Strong brands will
continue to be strong brands
down the road, and companies will continue to have to
build and curate their brands.

But brands that are strong
today may not ultimately be
the strong brands of the future
if they don't evolve, and that's
the risk.
"But people who have
money and disposable income
won't just go toward ride-sharing because, 'Oh, this is super
convenient.' It doesn't speak
to their status or the ability to
own a car."

ON WHY THE CANADIAN
NEW-VEHICLE MARKET GROWS
WHILE THE U.S. DECLINES:

"There are a lot of differences between Canada and

the U.S. One fundamental difference just in the car market
itself, and I debate and discuss
with my colleagues a lot about
this, as a percentage of our
current population, we have
a massive amount of immigrants coming into the country, thankfully, every year.
All of those people are coming
into a country that is not wellknown for strong public-transit infrastructure. Regardless
of what the [Toronto Transit
Commission] says, I don't
think people would debate that
too much. They need cars.
"The folks that are com-

ing here also tend to be coming to the country from better means because Canada is
such a high-demand area. So
we're adding vehicle sales just
through those means alone.
"And Canadians have tended to be more conservative
financially, fiscally, and I think
we're seeing some of that erode
a little bit. There's maybe a little bit more consumerism and
a less conservative approach to
consumer debt, so people are
having two to three cars per
household, where previously
they may have had one car per
household." - ANC

ON HOW QUICKLY EVS
BECOME MAINSTREAM:
"I don't think this is a question for manufacturers so
much as it is for consumers.
By that I mean how quickly
are we able to exchange the
current infrastructure of driving our cars and our parking
lots and our driveways and
everything else to be able to
handle electrification in such
a way that you don't feel compromised on the experience?

But the people who have
money and disposable
income won't just go
toward ride sharing . . .
It doesn't speak to their
status or ability
to own a car.
STEPHEN LESTER

Former Infiniti Canada
managing director
"I liken it to us knowing
exactly how many litres of
gasoline are in your car. The
Number One reason people
would cite for not purchasing
an electric vehicle is that they
believe in such things as range
anxiety and that they would
know at all times how much
range they have. We don't
know exactly how much gas is
exactly in our car, not because
we don't look at it, not because
we don't actually know. It's
because we inherently don't
care because we know there's a
gas station and a Tim Hortons
around every corner here in
Canada. This is how we were
brought up. You just filled it
up and it didn't matter.
"When we have places
for power storage and quick
power download, I think those
things will quickly evaporate
and go away."

AN AUTONOMOUS FUTURE
AND LUXURY BRANDS:
"We'll have to separate
between the luxury end and
the mainstream end. On the

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