The 2018 AADA Auto China Study Tour to the historical City of Beijing will be a highlight of the Australian automotive calendar. The Chinese auto industry is the fastest growing vehicle market in the world, and there is much for Australian Dealers to learn.

The Greening of the Chinese Auto Industry

Beijing Electric Vehicle Co says that it expects to see a more than 160-fold increase in its sales of new-energy powered taxis and ride-hailing cars in the next five years, attaining a firm foothold in the country’s booming new-energy vehicle market.

Zhang Yong, general manager of the company – the NEV arm of state-owned automaker Beijing Automotive Industry Corp, said the company plans to launch 500,000 NEVs for the taxi and ride-sharing sectors in 1,000 cities by 2022.

The charging stations, developed by the company, Shanghai-based Aulton New Energy Automotive Technology Co Ltd and Shanghai Dianba New Energy Technology Co Ltd, have shortened charging times for new-energy taxis to less than three minutes, making charging for NEVs as convenient as fossil fuel cars.
According to Li Yixiu, BAIC BJEV’s head of marketing, the company’s sales of NEVs is expected to reach 100,000 this year, almost doubling the amount from 2016.

CADA predicting 20 percent annual growth in used car sales

CADA statistics show that 1.05 million used cars were sold in China in August, a 21 percent increase from the same time last year. It was the third consecutive month that used car sales were over 1 million.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates, used car sales will hit 20 million vehicles in 2020, doubling the 2016 level.
Despite its boom, China’s used car sector has a long way to go compared to developed markets. A total of 7.89 million used cars were sold from January to August, 45 percent of total new car sales in the same period. Used car sales are usually more than double those of new cars in developed markets (triple in Australia).

China embraces parallel imports

In the first eight months of the year, auto parallel imports in China surged 47.2 percent to 110,000 units.
This was up from 16.3 per cent growth in 2016, which saw the total number of cars imported using the parallel imports scheme at around 133,000 for the whole year.