LAS VEGAS: Fiat Chrysler, the automaker, believes that "smart is the new sexy" when it comes to building vehicles which will successfully attract millennial consumers.
Ashley Edgar, an Advanced Engineering Project Manager at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), discussed this subject at CES 2017, an event organised by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).
More specifically, she helped reveal the company's new "Portal" concept vehicle, which was designed "by millennials for millennials", and highlighted some of the major findings from FCA's extensive, long-term research with this demographic.
"For this audience it's not about zero to 60 speeds or high horsepower … For the people interested in this car, smart is the new sexy," Edgar said. (For more, read Warc's exclusive report: Fiat Chrysler's formula for success with millennials.)
"In the next ten years or so, millennials will equal one-third of the driving population. Based on biological, fundamental probabilities, we can easily predict, eventually, [that] they'll need to seek their own version of a family vehicle.
"They could also engage in car-sharing situations, start a life with someone who already has kids, build a business [and] develop interests that requires pickup, delivery or hauling capability."
The Chrysler-branded "Portal", in fact, hosts a distinct range of features, like seats that can be added and removed as needed, an internal camera allowing the occupants to shoot videos as they travel, and even technological readiness for autonomous driving.
"It is designed to scale up and down as needed, offering lasting value by adapting to their changing needs, changes in the world around them like autonomous driving capability," Edgar said.
"It's socially-connected, making it easy to create and share content. It's environmentally-responsible, with a small carbon footprint, and yet it grows in capability right along with the owner."
Blending such "features and ideas" seamlessly together can make a vehicle suitable for the "evolving millennial lifestyle", which will be increasingly important for FCA and its rivals going forwards.
"We summed up our vision this way: People spend a lot of time in the 'third space' – the place between home and work, and other destinations," Edgar said.
"We need to make that third space a vital and pleasant part of their lifestyle – a 'portal' that transports them to wherever they want to be [and] enables all the things that they want to do."
Ashley Edgar, an Advanced Engineering Project Manager at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), discussed this subject at CES 2017, an event organised by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).
More specifically, she helped reveal the company's new "Portal" concept vehicle, which was designed "by millennials for millennials", and highlighted some of the major findings from FCA's extensive, long-term research with this demographic.
"For this audience it's not about zero to 60 speeds or high horsepower … For the people interested in this car, smart is the new sexy," Edgar said. (For more, read Warc's exclusive report: Fiat Chrysler's formula for success with millennials.)
"In the next ten years or so, millennials will equal one-third of the driving population. Based on biological, fundamental probabilities, we can easily predict, eventually, [that] they'll need to seek their own version of a family vehicle.
"They could also engage in car-sharing situations, start a life with someone who already has kids, build a business [and] develop interests that requires pickup, delivery or hauling capability."
The Chrysler-branded "Portal", in fact, hosts a distinct range of features, like seats that can be added and removed as needed, an internal camera allowing the occupants to shoot videos as they travel, and even technological readiness for autonomous driving.
"It is designed to scale up and down as needed, offering lasting value by adapting to their changing needs, changes in the world around them like autonomous driving capability," Edgar said.
"It's socially-connected, making it easy to create and share content. It's environmentally-responsible, with a small carbon footprint, and yet it grows in capability right along with the owner."
Blending such "features and ideas" seamlessly together can make a vehicle suitable for the "evolving millennial lifestyle", which will be increasingly important for FCA and its rivals going forwards.
"We summed up our vision this way: People spend a lot of time in the 'third space' – the place between home and work, and other destinations," Edgar said.
"We need to make that third space a vital and pleasant part of their lifestyle – a 'portal' that transports them to wherever they want to be [and] enables all the things that they want to do."
Data sourced from Warc
