Canadians open their wallets to get out of the cold

Heated seats and steering wheels have moved out of the premium space and into the realm of expectation for Canadians.

Automakers are coping with this in myriad ways and several interesting case studies are emerging as product planners work to push these features far and wide across their brands' offerings.

The Scion iM launched last year true to the former Toyota sub-brand's mono-spec tradition. However, that spec didn't include heated seats; they were available only as a dealer-installed accessory. Sales since launch have been lackluster compared to competitors.

This year, as the product is rebranded as the Toyota Corolla iM, a hatchback sibling to the Corolla sedan, it receives heated seats as standard. Even with a $1,375 bump in price, Toyota is hopeful that the rebranding and the addition of heated seats will bring a boost in sales.

"Our customers have told us they love the added comfort of heated front seats to combat cold Canadian mornings," said Cyril Dimitris, vice-president, Toyota Canada Inc. "We're also proud to offer the available heated steering wheel on the 2017 Corolla sedan, exclusive to Canadian buyers."

This latter point – an ability to offer winter-oriented features not available in the United States – demonstrates autonomy to a degree that Canadian product planners haven't always had.

At Nissan Canada, this has extended all the way to having custom seats created for the upcoming 2017 Rogue, the brand's highest-volume vehicle in the country, to push availability into lower price points.

"We've moved heated seats all the way down to being standard on the vehicle," says Bert Brooks, senior manager of product planning for Nissan Canada. "That did require the global product development team to create a unique Canadian seat.

"Had the car been developed only for the U.S. market then heated seats may have been bundled with power features and maybe even leather. But if you bought the base vehicle that has a cloth seat and no power accessory then you wouldn't have any chance of getting heat.

In general, he said, the customer demand for the heated feature is much higher (in Canada) than the demand for leather. "That necessitates the development of a heated cloth seat."

That shift in expectation for heated seats paired with cloth upholstery is echoed by Ken Maisonville, national manager of product and corporate strategy for Hyundai Auto Canada.

"Cloth is probably a bigger percentage of heated seats than leather in our case," he says, citing the example of a 25 per cent take rate on leather in the Elantra compact car line where heated seats are now standard across the board.

Hyundai has been working to make heated seats standard equipment on as many product lines as possible for several years and has achieved it in many: along with Elantra, they're also standard on all CUVs as well as the Veloster hatchback and Sonata mid-size sedan. The Elantra, which launched a new generation this year, adds in a heated steering wheel sales rate of 80 per cent.

"It's really gone en masse," Maisonville says. "I'd say 85 per cent of our customers are getting heated seats on the car they're buying.

"Luckily, Hyundai Auto Canada reports directly to Korea, so we don't have to follow the U.S. as much as some other OEMs. So, we really focus on trying to get some Canadian-specific content in our cars."