This is definitely a case of tomayto, tomahto. For the month of May, both the Geely Coolray and the Ford Territory both claimed that they’re the country’s best-selling small/sub-compact SUV. They can’t be both right, right?
Sojitz G Auto Philippines (SGAP), the exclusive distributor of Geely in the Philippines was the first to release their figures and they’ve claimed to be the market leader in the “sub-compact 4x2 SUV segment” with a 33 percent market share.
About a week later, Ford Philippines then claimed leadership in the “small SUV segment” with a 56 percent market share thanks to the continued popularity of the Ford Territory.
Remember the terms in quotation marks. We’ll come back to them later.
Anyway, if Geely and Ford are talking about the same segment, combined they would have cornered an 89 percent market share. This is a rather implausible number given there are other entries too from at least half a dozen other carmakers, and they can’t be fighting for the remaining measly 11 percent.
So, in the interest of transparency, we reached out to both camps to settle this issue once and for all.
Let’s start with Geely’s side first.
According to Ryan Isana, SGAP’s Marketing Manager, they don’t consider the Ford Territory to be a direct competitor for the Coolray.
As far as Geely is concerned, the Territory is squarely a size bigger. True enough, when you check the Territory’s dimensions—4,580 mm in length, 1,936 mm in width, and 1,674 mm in height (wheelbase is 2,716 mm), it’s actually closer to the likes of the Geely Azkarra, Honda CR-V, and the Mazda CX-5.
By comparison, the Coolray is 4,330 mm in length, 1,795 mm in width, and 1,609 in height (wheelbase is 2,600 mm). This puts this crossover in the same space occupied by the likes of the Corolla Cross, Mazda CX-30, and Subaru XV.
This is a sentiment shared by EJ Francisco, Ford Philippines’ AVP and Head for Communications.
EJ confirms that Ford Philippines doesn’t consider the Coolray to be a direct competitor of the Territory because they compete in two different categories. In this case, “small SUV” isn’t the same as “sub-compact SUV.” It’s worth remembering that Ford is still offering the EcoSport and that’s officially their entrant in the sub-compact SUV space. The decision to use “small SUV” to describe the Territory is probably down to two things: first, they wanted to differentiate easily from their larger Everest offering. Second, this probably leaves an opportunity for Ford Philippines to slot another SUV just above the Territory in terms of size and price (hello, Escape?)
Well, there you have it. Both Ford and Geely made it crystal clear that their respective offerings compete in two different segments.
As more carmakers focus their efforts on SUVs and crossovers, expect the usual differentiations based on size and price to get mighty blurry. After all, they’ll probably see interesting niches that’ll pop up, and they’ll continue to carve up the segments moving forward.
Of course, despite both Ford and Geely agreeing that they don’t compete in the same segment, there are those who continue to lump these two together whether as “sub-compact SUV” or “small SUV.”
That begs the question: which one sold more? Well, nothing beats absolute numbers. And if we’re going to be using this as basis, there were 484 Ford Territory SUVs sold in May. This is compared to Geely’s 186 units of Coolray sold in the same month.
China #1
ReplyDeleteBoth Ford Territory and Geely CoolRay are made in China. but Territory advantage is it has identity, American Product and the assurance of Spare Parts availability.
ReplyDeleteToyota Corolla Cross is only just second to Ford Territory in terms of sales in C-Segment or Small SUV.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Campi and AVID can agree with its members how to classify their products. Otherwise in marketing each will call its segment differently and in the end everyone is #1 even if they are of similar sizes.
ReplyDeleteIt is time for Toyota Phils to improve the Corolla Cross non hybrid variant to be able to compete more against the Ford Territory.
ReplyDeleteHope the Safety Sense will also be available in the non hybrid variant.
- Mark J