Millennials And Auto Trends Report - Will Millennials Drive The Automotive Industry Forward?

Given that 2.4 billion people were born between 1980 and 1996, according to Bloomberg, it's a question that's likely keeping some auto industry executives up at night-and there's some anecdotal evidence behind it. Millennials prefer public transportation, ride-hailing, biking/scootering and even walking to driving their own cars-at least that's the conventional wisdom.

However, we wanted to go further than conventional wisdom. In a survey of 2,150 millennials from around the globe, we obtained real numbers for what millennials, a generation that currently makes up nearly one-third of the world's population, will do when it comes to buying automobiles in the years ahead.

Will Millennials Buy or Lease Vehicles Over the Next 10 years? (Hover over colors for regional level data)

selfself/-/media/assets/images/publications/mergers-and-acquisitions/automotive-report-2019/thumbnail/will-millennials-drive-automotive-industry-forward-160-180.ashx The survey's results indicate that common assumptions about low car ownership should be tossed out along with tired millennial stereotypes like poor work ethic, a sense of entitlement and bad attitudes.

Stereotypes aside, the results were surprising given that a higher percentage of millennials live in cities1 (with access to myriad public transportation options) relative to other generations, and millennials tend to be more environmentally conscious.2 However, it's clear that millennials actually do value car ownership, and a high percentage expect to make another car purchase in the next five years. This is good news for automotive companies currently facing headwinds for the first time this decade.

Our survey was performed online with the goal of obtaining responses from men and women between the ages of 23 and 38 (born between the...