The bright red car doing a very good impersonation of a Mercedes CLK Cabriolet with a strongly BMW-influenced badge at the Shanghai auto show last week might be amusing to western eyes for now. But to dismiss the massively growing Chinese market and one of its key homegrown motor shows on the evidence of a few domestic copycat products would be a mistake, writes Guy Bird.
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China became the second biggest vehicle market in the world last year leapfrogging Japan to 7.2 million annual sales (of which 3.8m were passenger cars). With a rise of some 25% year on year and much more to come, it looks highly plausible the Chinese market could surpass current number one market the USA (with 16.5m annual sales) well before 2020.
Of course, much of the Chinese automotive sales growth is made up of foreign carmakers selling and making their cars in China as part of joint ventures with Chinese carmakers. But domestic carmakers – like Geely, Chery, Nanjing and SAIC – are learning fast.
Chinese brands have nearly 30% of the domestic passenger car market already and while some – like the effort from the Build Your Dreams (BYD) brand mentioned earlier – are pale imitations of Western models at best or near copyright-infringing fakes at worst, others are hiring in the personnel needed to fast-track that learning curve or buying the company with that expertise outright.
Nanjing gaining the assets to MG and SAIC selling old Rover 75s as Roewe 750s are just two examples. Many of these firms have designs on markets well beyond China in the future too.
Against this backdrop, the 12th Auto Shanghai – opened last Friday 20th April and running until this Sunday 28th – as the earliest international auto show in China and now one of the top two alongside Beijing, takes on considerably more importance.
This year a record number of 1,300 carmakers and parts manufacturers from 20 countries were invited to attend with over 60 passenger carmakers taking up residence in the six car-related halls.
With another two halls devoted to parts makers, plus a large overspill outside including stands for commercial vehicles, motorbikes, tyres and audio, the 140,000 square metres of exhibition space has been put to good use.
Organisers estimate 500,000 visitors will have swarmed through the show doors by the time the event ends. It’s nowhere near as many as established global big-hitter shows like Paris (1.4 million) but not far off arguably the most influential global show of the lot – Geneva (with 740,000 visitors). Shanghai’s desire to be considered as an international A-list show would seem hard to ignore.
It wasn’t just about numbers either – an easy game to play in a country with a population of 1.3 billion.
Quality global unveils included the BMW CS – heralding no less than the German marque’s new design direction; the Audi Cross Coupe – which revealed heavy clues to the forthcoming small 4×4 Q3 car that shares its underpinnings with the VW Tiguan; and the stylish Buick Riviera – that suggests future design possibilities and ways for the US brand to lower its average customer age in a market which is already extremely fond of the marque on account of the old Chinese emperor once driving one.
Chinese carmakers also chose Shanghai to make in many cases very professional vehicle unveils which could soon be driving in countries far away from their domestic market.
One of the most impressive was the SAIC’s new Roewe brand rising out of the ashes of Rover. Outside of the main exhibition entrance a poster drape for Roewe covered the whole side of the nearest office building some 30 floors high.
Can you imagine Rover’s old top brass signing off a cheque for something as dramatic? Once inside, a large and slick Roewe stand played host to a trio of key cars, from the 750 – a heavily facelifted Rover 75 with a stretched wheelbase and the old 75 V8’s Audi-like deep grille that’s just gone on sale in China; an internally-produced hybrid version of the 750 that could make production by 2008; and the well-resolved Rover 45-sized W2 concept saloon that will hit Chinese showrooms in a similar form later this year. The production W2 could well be sold back to Europe within a few years too as Roewe is aiming for a five-star EuroNCAP safety rating and to meet all the relevant European pedestrian impact legislation and EU4 emissions standards.
With sexy Western and Chinese models draped over the cars set against a visual backdrop of Big Ben, stately homes and a soundtrack of Coldplay and Freddie Mercury’s “I was born to Love you”, the whole presentation was far more impressive than any Rover event I can remember and somehow genuinely non-cheesy. The only duff note was the poor female Chinese stand attendants forced into wearing white ‘jodhpur-plus’ outfits with riding helmets.
Across the concourse in another busy hall, MG also played the English card with the same basic car – branded the MG7 here – unoriginally launched with the same Coldplay soundtrack but this time mixed with some classical Wagner and a bunch of people wearing Busbies – which on the hot 20 degree-plus press day can have been no fun at all.
While it all looked a little familiar – its PR said that in China alone the Nanjing-owned brand is looking to sell 100,000 units a year. It all smacks of ambition, investment and a ‘can do’ attitude in a market on fire.
Of course with that fire comes the possibility of overheating. Many industry watchers wonder just how long China can keep up such massive growth – not just in car terms – but anecdotal evidence from both Chinese and Westerners repeatedly talked of a massive determination to succeed in China from the general population coupled with a Government which, though bureaucratic, seems able to almost literally ‘make things happen’ overnight if it so chooses (consultations seeming to be a little thin on the ground).
The environment is also a massive issue as huge vehicle growth causes equally huge pollution – smog over the otherwise impressively vast skyscraper-covered Shanghai skyline was tangible most days of the show – but China is already at Euro3 emissions standard on most new cars with Euro4 not far off. Given this, they may just find a solution to cleaner cars quicker than the West because in terms of sheer size and speed of vehicle ownership take-up they have the greater need to. And if, or more likely when, they do, don’t be surprised if the car gets unveiled at the Shanghai show first.
Guy Bird
