Cabin Air Filter Market Expected to Double

Filter manufacturers can expect the U.S. motor vehicle cabin air filter market size to double by the year 2005, according to research by the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA).

The most recent issue of Market Analysis, MEMA’s bimonthly research newsletter, notes that the wholesale U.S. cabin filter market is expected to exceed $650 million by 2005, while the retail market will exceed $1 billion.

“U.S. carmakers are increasing the number of automobiles and light trucks equipped with cabin ventilation filtration media,” said Frank Hampshire, MEMA director of research. “Currently, the estimated number of new cars sold in the United States with cabin air filtration systems tops 50 percent. Leading filter manufacturers predict that up to 80 percent of the cars sold in the United States in 2005 will have cabin air filters installed as standard equipment,” he said. European carmakers have installed cabin air filters on the majority of their products since the late 1990s, Hampshire said.

Repair shops – particularly the fast lube industry – are raising awareness of the need to regularly change automobile cabin air filters, Hampshire said. The latest operator survey by National Oil and Lube News shows that more than 20 percent of responding establishments offered cabin air filter replacement as a service, up from 3 percent in 1999. Although the organization did not study Canadian cabin air filter usage, typical estimates of the potential are as high as 10 percent of the US figures.