The Bullish 2009of Chinese Auto Market

　　In the yeas of 2009, the automobile production and sales volume of China have reached 13 million units and motor vehicles registered in Beijing have topped 4 million. Facing these two strong figures, I find it just so difficult to give an accurate description of Chinese auto market over the past year. While Chinese football team always disappoints us, Chinese auto market remains exciting. Chinese consumers are purchasing dreams rather than cars. Have the sales records of car manufacturers automatically been broken by market shortage? I am even thinking that maybe I should take the title from the popular movie Crazy Stone to describe the 2009 China auto market as “Crazy Cars”

　　All descriptions seem to be right, but not accurate enough.

　　I have skimmed through numberless sales reports at the end of the year. Citing an undisclosed source from Auto Finance weekly, during the first three quarters, Volkswagen’s sales in Chinese market have exceeded 1.33 million and for GM, that is 1.63 million. Even Audi, whose sales were hard to top 100 thousand previously, has easily reached 130 thousand till November, and the others, Beijing-Hyundai 510 thousand; Chery 450 thousand, BYD 40 0thousand; Geely close to 300 thousand. No matter JV models or self-owned brands, no matter low-end models charged 30-50 thousand Yuan or premium brands with a price high to millions Yuan RMB, no mater Geely, Alto, or Bentley, Audi, any brand in Chinese auto market sold well last year. The sales of two luxury brands Mercedes-Benz and BMW have reached 60 thousand and 90 thousand respectively.

　　These boring but telling numbers have made China the most important market for multinational auto giants. China is the largest market of BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class globally. China is also the largest overseas market of Volkswagen, Audi and GM. In 2009, these numbers also made the monthly sales in Chinese auto market got close or top one million. Presently, China has already taken over United States and Japan, becoming No.1 in the whole world. Even Citroen and Peugeot, which traditionally performed poorly in Chinese auto market, have gained a strong growth in 2009. The sales of DFAC-Citroen and DFAC-Peugeot have undoubtedly both reached 110 thousand in 2009. It is now apparent that any auto brand entered into China market had a good year in 2009 globally, instead, they suffered a really tough time. Take Fiat for an example, being such an admirable auto giant, it has sold out only 1 million units, which was nearly the same as the JV SAIC-GM-Wuling. And Chrysler seemed cut down its arms and legs after broke up with its Chinese partner. I even noticed a detail in its global performance disclosure Volkswagen describes China like this: “Chinese auto market has been the most prosperous one, even though the growth of European market will continue to be slow next year……”

　　Such a prosperous market also contributes to the rise of independent domestic brands such as Chery, Geely, BYD, Beiqi-Foton and Great Wall Motor. The passenger car sales of independent domestic brands have reached 4.0924 million, accounting for 44.35 % of the total sales while sedan car sales have reached 1.9541 million, accounting for 29.39 % of the total sales. To put it simply, domestic brands occupies one third of the market share. Apart from excellent sales, Geely acquired Volvo, Chery set up 15 overseas plants, BAW acquired Saab, all these make it possible for Chinese auto to going out to the international market.

　　What makes Chinese auto market the global No.1? Personally, I believe government policy is the booster. Auto industry has been incorporated into the revitalization plan long before. The preferential policy to halve the purchase tax has greatly encouraged consumers’ buying behaviors.

　　What is more important, the rigid demand for car is the key factor of this crazy growth. According to one survey, 765 among 1,000 people in the United States own a car, in Japan, the number is 543. However, it is no more than 50 in China. This is actually the source of such remarkable growth.

　　Chinese people’s cognition comes from “Jiao-zi” a means of transportation in the old times. This is why Chinese people name passenger car as “Jiao-che”. And this can also explain why I said “Chinese people are purchasing dreams rather than cars”.

　　(Translator: yalong/ Jessie)

　　See original Chinese report Please click:

　　http://auto.sohu.com/20100225/n270422019.shtml