China has been the 'one to watch' in the automotive industry for some time, having already established itself as the largest car market in the world ahead of the USA. However, now the central government plans to implement a new policy to encourage consolidation and to push Chinese-brand passenger vehicles into the mainstream.
According to an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information technology, it is hoped that Chinese-brand passenger vehicles will comprise "at least" half of vehicles sales by 2015 and that saloon cars made by domestic automakers will comprise around 40 per cent of the nation's car market.
Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that 4.58million Chinese brand passenger vehicles were sold last year – around 44.3 per cent of the total – and sales of domestic saloon cars hit 2.22million units, around 30 per cent of the segment.
The policy aims to accelerate consolidation between car manufacturers in the country and could lead to reshuffling according to industry insiders. There are currently more than 130 car manufacturers across the country, most of which are just small enterprises with sales below 10,000 units a year. Indeed only five had sales exceeding one million units in 2009 with the country's top 10 manufacturers making 11.89million vehicle sales and accounting for 87 per cent of overall sales.
The leading car manufacturers in China include SAIC Motor Corporation, FAW Group, Chang'an Motor and Dongfeng Motor. Meanwhile the second tier is made up of the likes of Guangzhou Automobile, Sinotruk, Chery, Geely and Beijing Automobile.
