国内汽车市场世界第二，超越小日本
Why Chinese won't drive junkDate: April 25 2008
- v3 R8 u4 E5 Q* ^
( X3 y/ V" f! z3 ^8 ]Keith Bradsher Shuang Miao, China( u; d4 b+ m: D! e- `6 H9 e' K2 n
8 U$ p. A$ y9 o' n8 d5 v/ Q
WESTERN attention to China's growing appetite for automobilesusually focuses on its link to mounting dependence on foreign oil,escalating demand on natural resources like iron ore and increasingemissions of global-warming gases.
/ O( c6 h' Y, `3 h3 {But millions of Chinese families, like millions of American andAustralian families, do not make those connections. For them, a car issomething both simpler and more complicated.1 l/ e) o' b. l \: w- X
5 l5 u8 k4 F+ y- k' m- AInternational marketing firm J. D. Power and Associates calculatesthat four-fifths of all new cars sold in China are bought by people whohave never bought a car before - not even a used car. The number hasremained unchanged for each of the past four years. By contrast, lessthan a 10th of new cars in the US are purchased by people who havenever bought a new car before, and less than 1 per cent of all new carsare sold to people who have never bought a new or used care before.
/ r; p7 Y4 |& F3 z/ T
/ ^6 H4 w6 y: t/ UChina's explosive growth in first-time buyers is the driving forcebehind the country's record car sales, up more than eightfold since2000. It is the reason China just passed Japan to become the world'ssecond-largest car market, behind the US.5 t! n2 t1 t* o% U
! u1 ?. I% } y& K) WOne change in Chinese attitudes is already clear and likely to havebroad implications worldwide: even first-time buyers are becoming moresophisticated and want better cars.2 }9 S4 A( ^" y8 K
5 s K+ z, Q. JChina's domestic car makers like Geely and Chery, once feared byDetroit and European automakers as eventual exporters to Westernmarkets, have watched their sales gain modestly, stagnate or drop inthe past year - even while the overall Chinese market has continued togrow roughly 20 per cent a year.* g2 ?: |; {0 {. b3 k' C8 S' W
: t: T; A" m3 _- u2 E, t
The beneficiaries have been the joint ventures of multinationalsthat sell cars here that are designed overseas, like the Buick Excelle,Volkswagen Jetta and Toyota Camry. Practically every auto expert hadexpected the multinationals to lose market share rapidly to low-costdomestic automakers.
4 F: B+ T3 j4 `# [' a+ Q, f3 B& h3 o5 A% u* }% |) n9 M" Q ?
Instead, Chinese car buyers, including first-time buyers, havebecome more discriminating about the comfort, styling and reliabilityof the cars they buy. Instead of planning to conquer overseas markets,local manufacturers are having to redouble their efforts.
; ^" a; o. w! R6 x
: h' R' C5 E# p, A( |"Customers are moving up; they want the bigger, more establishedbrands," said Michael Dunne, the managing director for China at J. D.Power. "They'd rather wait, save and buy higher on the ladder insteadof buying a smaller car."; x5 a8 W4 u1 T( h: A/ k( m
The New York Times
