DETROIT, Jan. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — As Martin Luther King Jr. Day was recently recognized and the country educates and celebrates his great dream of a vibrant and united multicultural nation, a first ever Diversity Volume Leadership Awards ceremony showed the tremendous impact that ethnic car buyers have on the economy and brought awareness to the lack of diversity that still remains present in the automotive industry.

“30% of new vehicle purchases are made by multicultural consumers but only 6% of dealerships are minority owned,” said NAMAD President, Damon Lester. “That means 18,000 dealerships exist in the USA and 1,100 are minority owned.”

With ethnic car buyers growing at rapid rates, the dealer body is still lacking accurate representation from minorities. The National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD) and IHS Automotive, partnered to celebrate brands that are driving sales leadership with ethnic consumers while also addressing and educating the industry about the necessity of dealer ownership increasing to reflect a diverse population during the Diversity Volume Leadership Awards (DVL Awards) on January 10, 2016 in Cobo Center. The private ceremony was hosted by Dariany Santana and brought together over 200 of the top automotive executives including Perry Watson, Chairman at NAMAD, Drew Slaven, Chief Marketing Officer at Mercedes-Benz, Marc Burt, Assistant Vice President of Inclusion & Diversity at Honda, and Bill Faye, Group Vice President and General Manager at Toyota.

Winners of the prestigious DVL Awards demonstrated the highest new vehicle registrations with ethnic, women, and millennial consumers. This year’s awards were based on an analysis of more than 13 million personal new vehicle registrations.

“Minorities are changing the course of events in the automotive industry,” said Watson. “This is the first of many initiatives to inform ethnic consumers which automotive brands are helping and which are not.”

This year, National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers and IHS Automotive honored Toyota Motor Sales with the “Top Overall Ethnic Vehicle” DVL Award. “Top Overall Ethnic Vehicle” is the most sought-after Diversity Volume Leadership honor for automotive brands dedicated to driving sales leadership with Asian, Native American, Hispanic and African American car buyers. Toyota also took home 10 of 20 DVL Awards earned that night. It is not by coincidence that Toyota’s sales leadership with ethnic consumers is also reflected in the amount of minority owned Toyota dealerships that exist. Bill Faye, Group Vice President and General Manager at Toyota, Alva Mason, Diversity Strategy, Corporate Communications at Toyota and Jim Colon, Vice President of African American Business Strategy at Toyota were present to accept their awards.

NAMAD and IHS Automotive also presented awards for sales leadership in the following categories: Ethnic Volume Leaders by IHS Automotive Regions, Volume Leaders with Millennials and Women, and Volume Leaders by Ethnic Consumer Group.

“What if the automotive industry kept up with ethnic growth?’ said Bland. “There would be an incremental value of $20 billion.”

The best automotive brands that have dedicated marketing resources to ethnic consumers and are focused on capitalizing on the rapid growth of the industry were in attendance to collect their awards. It is important to note that several of the nominees that did not receive awards were still extremely competitive contenders. Those who did not receive an award now have the insight and motivation to develop an improved strategy for 2017.

Winners of the 2016 Diversity Volume Leadership Awards are as follows:

The Diversity Volume Leadership Awards would not be possible without the generous sponsorship from the following organizations:

Connect with DVL Awards:
Hashtag: #DVLawards and #DVLawards2016
Website: www.namad.org and www.ihs.com/automotive
Twitter: twitter.com/NAMAD_USA
Facebook: facebook.com/NAMAD_USA-468806139894019

About The National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers
The National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers’ (NAMAD) objective is to pursue the meaningful presence and participation of minority businesses and diverse employees across all aspects of the automotive economic sector, including:

• Increasing the number of minority-owned dealerships in communities across America.
• Advocating workplace and supplier diversity in the automotive manufacturing environment.
• Supporting minority engagement in the automotive retail sales and service sectors.

We are committed to developing strategic relationships and advocating for the advancement of business policies and practices that ensure diversity and economic parity remain a priority in all aspects of the American automotive industry.

NAMAD is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area. For information on National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers visit: www.namad.org