Automakers pointed out on Guangzhou Auto Show that the period of rapid growth of China’s automobile market has gone, and now the downward economy has steered the automobile market to a slow growth period.
Though famous brands all show poor expectation toward Chinese market, Su Weiming, VW’s CEO in China said that the market in 2016 would perform better than this year. And VW would bring more models, especially MPVs, to China, out of the purpose of motivating the market.
Automakers has foresighted the downturn of Chinese automobile market at the beginning of this year. They all said that Chinese market would enter a new normal stage where, unlike before, the development of market will not spurt or soar. Therefore, most of they has suspended the expanding strategies presented last year. Under this circumstance, it is necessary for automakers to speed up technical innovation so as to attract more customers in virtue of advanced technology and excellent fuel-efficiency.
The market downturn has also attracted the close attention of China’s government. In order to stimulate the market, China’s government has launched a series of rescue plans recently, including 70% purchase-tax cut, which turns out to be respite for manufacturers and franchisers.
Meanwhile, automakers have adopted lots of measures to adapt to the new normal of Chinese automobile market. FAW Toyota will expand its marketing network to small and medium-sized cities, because the sales of new models in large and medium-sized cities have been close to saturation. Jiang Jun, CEO of FAW Toyota, said FAW Toyota would pay more attention to build long-term relationship with franchisers and help them reduce pressure caused by market downturn. Robert Parker, Lincoln’s CEO in China, thought that China's auto market was full of hope and would get better in 2016 based on satisfactory performance of Lincoln in the past few months.
