Trucks, electric cars take starring roles at auto show
Even as big vehicles take a larger share of the market, manufacturers that tap battery power are looking for sales to rise in urban areas
J ERRY Funderburk lost two Mercedes-Benz cars and a Ram pickup truck last summer when Hurricane Harvey flooded his Kingwood home with 5 feet of water.
For months, the small-business owner got by with a company car as he and his wife worked to rebuild their home and lives. With car insurance money in hand, Funderburk ventured down to the Houston Auto Show on Wednesday to check out candidates for replacement vehicles.
“I’ve been to this show every year, but this is the first year I’ve been carless,” he said.
Funderburk is one of more than 100,000 Houstonians who are expected to stroll through NRG Center in the coming days for the 35th annual expo, organized by the Houston Automobile Dealers Association. Nearly 40 manufacturers are exhibiting more than 700 models, including recently revealed vehicles like the new Jeep Wrangler, Ford Mustang
Bullitt and Subaru Ascent.
Pickups and SUVs, to no one’s surprise, are front and center at this year’s show.
Fiat Chrysler Automotive unveiled the all-new Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn on Tuesday night to hundreds of industry and media professionals. The Texas-inspired luxury truck features a class-leading 12-inch touchscreen, 19 Harman Kardon speakers with a combined 900 watts, four cameras offering a 360-degree view, and leather reclining front and rear seats with 41 inches of rear legroom. Pricing for the vehicle has not yet been released.
FCA saw a 4 percent increase in Ram sales in the Houston area during 2017, including a 9 percent increase in pickup trucks, Ram division head Jim Morrison said.
“We wanted to save this truck for Texas, the heart of truck country,” Morrison said of the Laramie Longhorn debut.
Chevrolet, which celebrates its centennial this year, showcased a wide range of SUVs and pickups, including the 2019 Silverado featuring 4G LTE, OnStar navigation and an 8-inch infotainment system with smartphone integration.
Auto manufacturers sell more trucks in Texas than any other state, and Houston and Dallas regularly duke it out for the No. 1 market. SUVs and crossovers are also hot sellers, with one out of every three sales made in the segment, said Bob Krapes, Chevy’s south central regional director.
In the Houston area, automakers sold more than 170,300 new trucks and SUVs during 2017, a 2.2 percent increase over the previous year. By contrast, sales of new sedans plunged 9.7 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to data from TexAuto Facts Report, published by Sugar Land-based InfoNation.
“SUVs and crossovers have replaced the passenger car as the family car,” said Steve McDowell, president of InfoNation.
While SUVs and trucks continue to steal the show, a small but growing crop of all-electric vehicles is surging in the so-called energy capital of the world.
Nissan touted its all-electric Leaf next to a “Star Wars”themed Titan pickup display. Sales of the 2018 Leaf began this week, and already, the Japanese automaker has netted 13,000 reservations to purchase the under-$30,000 vehicle.
The new Leaf has a 40 kilowatt-hour battery with a 150mile range. It charges using a regular household outlet, but a half-hour at a fast-charging station yields an 88-mile range. Next year, Nissan plans to introduce a Leaf model with a range of more than 200 miles.
Although Texas lags the West and East coasts in electric vehicle sales, Nissan spokesman Jeff Wandell said he expects Leaf sales to pick up, particularly in urban areas. Nissan has sold more than 114,000 Leaf vehicles in the U.S. since the model made its debut in 2010.
“It’s a niche market in the state of Texas, but we expect interest and demand for electric vehicles to grow,” Wandell said. “We see them doing well in Houston, Dallas and Austin.”
Chevrolet also showcased its Bolt all-electric vehicle, which has a range of 238 miles and starts below $30,000 with federal subsidies. The manufacturer, which sold more than 50 Bolts in Sugar Land since July, has committed to offering more than 20 fully electric models by 2023.
Other manufacturers, like Jaguar, are expected to offer allelectric vehicles this year. Tesla, possibly the most prominent electric vehicle manufacturer, is not present at the Auto Show since the company doesn’t sell vehicles through dealerships.
Funderburk, the Kingwood resident flooded in Harvey, doesn’t plan to purchase a pickup or an electric vehicle. Instead, he spent Wednesday perusing luxury car offerings from the likes of Jaguar, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz.
He hopes to purchase a new replacement car soon, but he’s waiting on one more post-Harvey project to wrap up.
“I’ve got to get a garage first,” he said.