Chapter 6.1: Automobile and Motorcycle Industries


Mark Norcliffe, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and Jonathan Reuvid

Market growth

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has estimated that in the period from January to October 2002 overall vehicle sales reached 2.38 million units, matching total sales for the whole of 2001 and showing explosive year-on-year growth of 33 per cent. Within this total, car sales at 803,000 registered a significant increase of 53,000 in ten months over sales for the whole of 2001.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Chinese passenger car market has multiplied from a low base of fewer than 50,000 units in 1990 to 750,000 in 2001 and an estimated 950,000+ in 2002. By the end of 2000, the PARC (vehicle population on the road) of passenger vehicles ( cars and buses) was estimated at 8.5 million.

As Figure 6.1.1 demonstrates , what was already strong growth has accelerated over the past two years . The market's main drivers for growth are

  • a rapidly increasing percentage of private buyers ;

  • a large number of new models appearing in the market;

  • continued targeting of the Chinese market by major global vehicle manufacturers;

  • gaining of market share by new indigenous manufacturers.

Each of these market drivers is examined in more detail in this chapter.

By contrast, growth in the production and sale of motorcycles is modest. Sales rose from 8.9 million in 1998 to 11.5 million in 2000 and 5.7 million new two wheeled motorcycles were registered in the first six months of 2002, up 13.2 per cent year-on-year. Sales of the traditional Chinese three-wheelers fell 7.1 per cent year-on-year for the same period to 180,000 but at the end of 2000, 4,547 million of the 37,718 million motorcycles in use in China were still of the three- wheeled variety.

click to expand
Figure 6.1.1: China's passenger car market 1990 to 2002



Doing Business with China
Doing Business with China
ISBN: 1905050089
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 648
Authors: Lord Brittan

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