New Survival Rules of China’s Automobile Market

China Economic Weekly Issue 22, 2019

In 2018, the sales volume of passenger vehicles in China was 23.71 million, down 2.8 percent year-onyear; in 2019, the decline was even worse, down 9.7 percent year-onyear in the first 10 months. The downward trend began in July 2018, which was the first time in over 28 years that China’s passenger car sales had declined. By October 2019, China’s car market had been in a downward spiral for 16 consecutive months.

It is generally believed that the continuous decline of the current market is the overlying result of market and macroeconomic factors.

After a period of adjustment, China’s automobile market will still have room for growth in the future. The key is how to find the right development path in this adjustment process. In both the increment dimension and the stock dimension, consumers show strong potential demand. “The slowdown of China’s car market is only a shortterm challenge, strong demand of Chinese consumers shows that the future is still promising.”

“Now most participants in the industry have realized that it will be difficult for China’s auto market to have continuous high growth in the short term, and market adjustment will lead to more sales volume by top enterprises,” Chen Xueqin, Secretary General of Chongqing Automobile Business Association told China Economic

Weekly, adding that the new reality will force businesses to find new survival rules.