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Column[U.S.] The US car life during the COVID-19 outbreak
How has the new coronavirus (COVID-19) affected the automobile society of the United States? Although the states in the U.S. have been issuing Stay at Home Orders since the end of March, restrictions on going out and resumption of economic activity began to be gradually relaxed in June. We were independently conducting an online quantitative survey (US, TH, VN, ID) in early May and online interviews (US) in mid-June. I would like to introduce some details of the survey results.
Lifestyle, Work Style Changes and Mobility due to COVID-19
Source: In-house study conducted by INTAGE Inc.
So, here are some case studies from our online interviews and we would like to show you the reasons why they stopped using trains/buses and why they want to refrain from doing so in the future.
An male respondent in his 30s who lives in California is teaching piano and guitar. He had been working on his online lessens, but when the Stay at Home Orders was enforced, he completely moved to a style where everything could be done online. Also, he used to eat out and drive to the gym every day, but during the outbreak period of COVID-19, he has only driven once or twice a week to purchase necessities. The reason of his complete lifestyle change is because he has a little daughter who is still a few months old. It was evident that he wanted to take all the precautionary measures in the situation where everyone was unsure of which information was true.
You can check out more details of the actual daily life of a male consumer living in California here .
A female respondent in her 30s who lives in New Jersey has just started her own business as a health care consultant. She and her husband both were teleworking from home during the outbreak period of COVID-19, and they were able to get their work done smoothly even in the remote-working environments. They drove out of the house once or twice a week to purchase the bare minimum amount of daily necessities, but at the same time they use online shopping sites and find it convenient. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, she used to enjoy going to beauty salons and have dinners at restaurants, and on weekends she used to drive, take trains or even fly to faraway places to have some fun. Now that she works as an independent "health care" consultant, it seems that she was willing to keep physical contact with people to a minimum, even after the COVID-19 had settled down.
The above two cases have an environment that allows them to perform their work online. They also have a certain reason that they want to prevent infection as much as possible.
How does COVID-19 change their attitudes about buying a car?
As one of those preventive measures, is there a change in what people value in their next car purchase? According to the results of the quantitative survey, 80% of respondents in the three Asian countries place greater importance on "Clean Air" in their cars, and other characteristic changes are seen.
Source: Independent study conducted by INTAGE Inc.
On the other hand, reactions in the U.S. seem to be weaker than in these countries, and the two respondents mentioned above did not see the coronavirus (COVID-19) as having any effect on their choice of their next car, except that they wanted to delay their purchase.
Both of them were cautious in stating that they would refrain from eating out, going to the gym, and weekend getaways and remain the lifestyle for a while even if the coronavirus (COVID-19) settles down, but when it came to cars, they didn't show any particular concerns even after the keywords like "air purification" and "antimicrobial materials" for cars were mentioned.
This may be due to the fact that air pollution is not as serious as in Asian countries, and the space is large enough that there is little need to be concerned about "density". In a situation where the end of the coronavirus (COVID-19) cannot be seen, there is a strong possibility that consumer awareness is changing every minute, and we need to keep a close eye on future trends in consumer awareness of air quality in the car.
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Author profile
Ms. Maho Ishikawa
Supports both consumer goods and durable goods manufacturers in their overseas marketing with both panel data and custom research. This year, I am mainly involved in online solutions, and her primary concern in raising my three children is their diet, so whenever we go abroad, we always go to the local supermarket to buy foods that are unique to that country and we all try them.
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Editor profile
Mr. Yusuke Tatsuda
Is responsible for building the Global Market Surfer website. I go out to surf in my car for taking a change of pace during COVID-19.
- Aug 17, 2020
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