Senior Nissan executive Andy Palmer has told an auto industry forum in London that the Chinese OEMs are set to grab a big slice of future growth in the world’s automotive market.
“I suspect most of us couldn’t list the names of more than a handful of Chinese auto companies. But this will change,” he told delegates at the SMMT International Automotive Summit. “Already there are dozens of players, all with very serious ambitions to be playing at this table.”
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Palmer pointed out that global vehicle sales are forecast to rise by around 30m units between now and 2020, topping the 100m units-a-year mark for the first time in history.
“This growth will be very different to the patterns that defined our business to date,” Palmer said. “Half of the growth will come from the top-six global OEM groups. The other half will come from around 100 other auto companies. Half of those will be Chinese.”
Palmer also told delegates that China is Nissan’s largest single market, accounting for over 20% of the brand’s 5m annual global sales and that new consumers in places like China have different tastes from previous generations.
“The ‘B’ and ‘R’ of that BRIC are Brazil and Russia. Both are relatively mature markets, with only 15% of customers buying a car for the first time. In the ‘I’ and ‘C’ – India and China – the figure is 60%.
“These 60% are the most interesting. They’re buyers called the ‘Empowered Youth’. They are highly educated and have access to a variety of global information. Unlike the previous consumers in these countries, they don’t want to flaunt their wealth with obvious ‘bling’. They want quality for sure but their tastes are more restrained and they’ll seek out individual features which fit in with their lifestyles.”
He also told delegates that by 2050 there will be 2.5bn vehicles in the world, up from less than a billion today, driven by continued motorisation in places like China.
“For the millions of consumers who are joining the middle classes, a car is the first thing they purchase,” he said. “In the United States, there are about 800 cars per 1,000 residents. In Russia, it’s already 280 per 1,000. In China at large, it’s 50 – although in Beijing it’s already at 180. In India, it’s 15.
“Does anyone believe that consumers in these countries – the engines of growth in the 21st century – will accept a level of personal mobility less than that of an average European country – and that’s around 500 cars per 1,000 people.”
See also: UK: Nissan global VP sets out vision at auto summit
