The Chinese MPV market has never raised car makers hopes too much. In 2005 and 2007, the FAW built VW Caddy and Changan-Ford S-MAX were launched in China with great ambitions, but reality they were flops. The 2 MPVs were the most unsalable products of 2 successful car makers, the Caddy subsequently fell out of production but is expected to make a come back in 2011 with a new generation of product.
However, large-sized business purpose MPVs have a better market. Shanghai GM had a more farsighted choice in 1999: to convert American family purpose Pontiac Montana into the Chinese business purpose MPV Buick GL8. Even today, GL8 and GL8-based Firstland are also top-sellers in China. Moreover, GL8`s smaller opponent Guangzhou Honda Odyssey, from 2nd generation to 4th generation also has a good market share.
In addition, some MPVs, such as the JAC Refine, which is more akin to a light-duty bus rather than a car-based vehicle, is more welcome than small family use MPV’s, largely due to the fact that they have more seats and lower price (less than €17,000).
We can draw the conclusion that in the high end Chinese MPV segment only large sized business MPV’s are welcome, these generally fall into the 150,000rmb to 400,000rmb price category, although smaller family use MPV’s fall into this price category also they do not seem to be gaining the same amount of traction with business users.
This seems to be a paradox. Chinese families need a multi-purpose car, since they always have only one car for any occasion, but they have not accepted the concept of MPV. Because in their mind, cars and SUVs can save face but smaller MPVs can’t – the latter ones are not appropriate for formal occasion.
More and more joint ventures have understood this paradox. The business purpose MPV market welcomed some fresh faces recently. This month, FAW-Mazda introduced the Mazda 8, rather than Mazda 5 to to local production, fighting with the Buick GL8. While the all-new Buick GL8 hit the market, but the old one is still in production, aiming at lower business market. Additionally, imported Toyota Alphard, Hyundai H-1 and VW Multivan are available now, as are the Mercedes Benz range as domestically made products produced via the Benz-Fujian Motors tie up.
The high-end family purpose MPV market still faces dim situation. Except facelifted Touran (just front-end is changed to European New Touran) and Toyota Verso, no heavyweight production is expected in 2011. Mazda 5, Citroen C4 Picasso, Renault Scenic, etc. are unlikely to be China-made soon
The future of small MPV’s is uncertain. Although acceptability of MPV’s is growing, newcomers still face challenges. First, growth rate of MPV market may be not very high as SUV`s. Second, MPV market doesn’t welcome everyone. For example, Ford S-MAX, which is too big, too expensive for families and too sporty for business, cannot find a suitable market positioning. Will Mazda 8 face the same challenge?
