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Automakers Court Private Chinese Buyers
Both foreign and domestic car manufacturers are targeting their sales efforts at private car buyers in China with models specially designed and competitive prices offered.
According to today's China Daily, the Yueda-Kia Motors Co., Ltd, a joint venture of China and South Korea, unveiled its 92,000-yuan (about 11,084 US dollars) Yueda Model in Beijing over the weekend.
Earlier, the Geely Group in Zhejiang Province, China's first private sedan car maker, announced in May that it will produce compact cars priced at 58,000 yuan.
The Japanese Toyota, which recently launched an automobile production joint venture in Tianjin City, also said that it will produce a compact car to sell for 100,000 yuan. It plans to begin production with 30,000 units in 2002.
Toyota General Manager Shinji Shimahara estimated that private buyers' demand will account for half of the total market demand for cars this year.
Car makers have staged a small-scale price war in the past year to attract private buyers, but results have been poor.
Market analysts said that few car makers catered to the Chinese private car market in the past and Chinese consumers did not have many choices for cars priced at 10,000 or under which insiders believe ordinary Chinese consumers can afford.
Besides affordability, traffic and unfair fee problems have to be addressed to stimulate private demand for cars, industry experts claimed.
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