DETROIT, Jan. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The Second Annual Diversity Volume Leadership Awards (DVL 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.

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

With ethnic car buyers growing at rapid rates, the dealer body is still lacking accurate representation from minorities. NAMAD and IHS Markit 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 DVL Awards on January 8, 2017 at Cobo Center. The private awards ceremony was hosted by Kellie Aponte and brought together scores of top automotive industry  executives.

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 from IHS Markit.

“The Diversity Volume Leadership Awards were designed to educate the entire auto industry including manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and automotive media,” said Marc Bland, vice-president of Diversity and Inclusion, IHS Markit.

This year, NAMAD and IHS Markit honored American Honda 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.  

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

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. Overall, GM and its brands received five DVL Awards, Honda-seven DVL Awards, Toyota/Lexus-seven DVL Awards, Ford-two DVL Awards, Nissan-three DVL Awards, and FCA-one DVL Award. 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 and beyond.

Winners of the 2017 Diversity Volume Leadership Awards are as follows:

Connect with DVL Awards:
Hashtag: #DVLawards and #DVLawards2017
Website: www.namad.org 
Twitter: twitter.com/NAMAD_USA 
Facebook: facebook.com/NAMAD_USA-468806139894019 

SPONSORS

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

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

About IHS Markit (www.ihsmarkit.com)

IHS Markit (NASDAQ: INFO) is the automotive industry’s leading source for market-wide insight, expertise and advanced planning solutions. With a reputation of enabling better decisions and better results for nearly a century, the world’s leading OEMs, suppliers and their transportation partners rely on IHS Markit to power growth, improve efficiency and drive a sustainable competitive advantage.

Automotive offerings and expertise at IHS Markit span every major market and, the entire automotive value chain — from product planning to marketing, sales and the aftermarket. Headquartered in London, our automotive team is part of IHS Markit’s information and analytics powerhouse that includes more than 15,000 colleagues in 150 countries, covering energy, chemical, aerospace and defense, maritime, financial, technology, media and telecommunications. For additional information, please visit www.ihsmarkit.com or email [email protected].