Ford and Honda are poised to take more of the U.S. auto market during the next four years, boosted by new products and refreshed showrooms.
"Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, and Honda may refresh or replace 28 percent of their annual sales volume in the period from 2015 through 2018, compared to an industry average of 23 percent," Bloomberg News reported.
Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford is expected to increase its market share by half a percentage point to 16.2 percent by 2017, compared with the end of last year, as it rolls out new products including the aluminum F-150 pickup.
The most important new offering for Ford, the truck will be about 700 pounds lighter than the steel version it will replace, improving fuel efficiency. Ford will retool two factories to make the pickup.
"That kind of improvement in that truck could create some shifts in the market share of Ford to the positive side," John Murphy, a Bank of America Corp. auto analyst, told Bloomberg News and other media at a presentation in Detroit on Tuesday.
Giving his yearly "Car Wars" report, Murphy based his projections on the assumption that buyers who are reeled in by new products will come to dealerships to purchase new vehicles.
Honda plans to roll out new models including a 2015 Acura TLX sedan, a 2016 Pilot sport utility vehicle and a new Odyssey minivan for model year 2017. The Japanese automaker's share of the U.S. auto market should increase by half a percentage point as well, rising to 10.3 percent.
More than 190 new products will come to the U.S. from carmakers industrywide for model years 2015 to 2018, Bloomberg News reported.
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