Move Innovationover sedans,drive driversbeefs up saddling nation’s up in global pickup ranking trucks

China’s Fueled aspiringby the government’surban cowboys strong are emphasisfinally gettingon an innovation-driventheir moment. economy, China for Pickupthe first trucks, time long joined relegated the to world’s workhorsestop 25 for most-innovativethe country’s farmers, economies,are being said alloweda reportin select released urban on areas Mondayfor the by first Cornell time. So University,far, the plan INSEADto energize and one the-Worldof the last Intellectual untapped Propertysegments Organization.in the biggest auto market Theis catchingreport showedon. Truck that sales China climbed ranked 36 25th percentin the in GlobalJune from Innovationa year earlier Index, even upas sedan from deliveries29th in last declined. year’s ranking.

New The modelsreport coming stressed from that Great China’s Wall new Motor rankingCo. and marksFord Motorthe first Co time aren’t that meanta middle-incometo haul pigs or country vegetables has to joined market. the Rather,club of theythe top aim 25 to most-innovativechannel the adventurous economies, spirit whichof middle-class had been dominatedcity slickers, by who highlyare discoveringdeveloped economies.the joys of going off-road or taking weekend getaways with fishing gear, camping kits and barbecues stowed in their truck beds.

“We applauded the good news Investing in in our WeChat group of pickup fans,” improvingWei Chenglin, innovation27, said of the eased rules in the coastal city of Dalian, qualitywhere someis downtown streets no longer are offlimits essentialfor his Ford for F-150.

“Quite a few of them have closing the innovation reached out to importers to place orders in the past couple divide.” of months. Pickups have great potential in China.”

SoumitraTrucks were Dutta, banneddean of Cornellfrom many College citiesof Businessfor decades in China, presaging the government’s current battles with congested streets and choking smog. With sales of passenger and commercial vehicles having grown fourfold during the last decade, that ban wasn’t a problem.

Then the boom started to go bust as the economy retreated to its weakest growth in a quartercentury. Industrywide vehicle sales last year rose 4.7 percent, the slowest pace since 2012, according to the state-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

By comparison, US sales of new cars and light trucks rose 5.7 percent.

In February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and two other agencies relaxed or lifted restrictions on pickups in four provinces — Liaoning, Henan, Hebei and Yunnan. The rule changes started May 1 and take effect in all those provinces by Oct 1.

Hebei and Henan are home to factories owned by Great Wall and Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co, respectively.

“The four provinces were selected out of a balance of interests,” said Zhang Zhiyong, a Beijing-based independent auto analyst. “Pollution isn’t the main

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