Crossover car market overview in China
It
has been a long time that possessing a car symbolized social status and wealth
of the owner in views of Chinese customers. Therefore for a fairly wide span of
time, the sedan almost dominated the passenger car market.
The
Crossover (跨界车) car, a free mixture between sedan, SUV, MPV and pick-up truck, is
becoming the new favorite of Chinese customers. As the development of
urbanization and advancement of people’s living quality, the viewpoint of
owning a car transformed; the functionality of the vehicle, instead of the
show-off purpose, is more and more concerned. Many middle class families has
already owned a sedan, they are willing to have another type of car. The 80’s
and 90’s, a group of people who have more personalized and varied demands in
vehicles, are becoming the main consuming power, which provides great outlook
for the crossover manufactures. The general types like passenger car, SUV, MPV,
etc. cannot meet the diversified demands of Chinese customers, which indicates
the large potential of crossover in Chinese market.
The
rate of growth of the young type of car’s market share increases rapidly. The
first 6 months in 2012, the volume of sales is 301,000 with the year-on-year
growth up to 29.1%, while the increase rate in the whole industry is 2.9%.
As
the crossover car can not only meet the demand of common people for both comfort
and multi-functionality, but also can satisfy some part of businessman with
their business purpose, the range of the target customer of the crossover car
varies from entrepreneur of SMEs to family members, from middle-aged people who
have the consuming ability to afford another car, to the young people
advocating pragmatism and regard comfort as the first concern .Demands of
different customers varies. For the wealthy who have already had more than one
car and don’t care much about prices, the personalized and fancy design is more
concerned, while for some lower income families, they will weight how highly
cost effective the vehicle is, which asks for a lower price and roomier
interior space. The differentiation among the customers indicates that the
manufactures should have a penetrating customer insight and employ
differentiation strategy in accordance with the need of target customers.
In
nowadays’ Chinese crossover market, the class varies from high grade to low
grade. The main players in high-grade crossover market is Infiniti and BMW. As
for the medium and lower class crossovers, which are more popular in China’s
market, something like Crosstour（歌诗图）, SUBARU （斯巴鲁）XV, Qashqai, MINI （迷你）Countryman, POLO Cross is mentioned frequently between middle income
buyers. What is worth boasting is the performance of domestic manufactures. Aiming
at the lower income group, the products of domestic company like Chery（奇瑞）, Great
Wall Motor（长城）, Rely（瑞麟）, mostly under RMB100,000 sells well in tier2, 3 cities in China. Not
like other products of those companies, which have almost no comparative
advantages when competing with the international tycoons, the share of domestic
crossovers in the crossover market is soaring-from 9.6% in 2009 to 32,0% in
2012.
There exist both opportunities and challenges in the Chinese crossover
market. Although it is a market with a rapid growth, the share of crossover in
the whole passenger car market is still tiny, about 5% in 2012, indicating its
“minority” destiny. Its multi-functional attribute is regarded not exquisite, which
drive off numbers of “face oriented” Chinese customers. However, the trend of
crossover car is upwards, as mentioned above, and it is widely believed as a
blue ocean with large potential. In general, the opportunities more than the
challenges.
There will be a crossover boom in 2014 car market. Companies like Adam, Citroen,
Volvo, etc. are going to launch their crossover car, among which Qoros (致观) is also an
influential players. At the Beijing International Motor Show, Qoros presents a
five-door crossover - the Qoros 3 Cross Hybrid Concept - that features a
compact hatchback body, enhanced traction properties and an advanced hybrid
drive（混合动力）.
This concept illustrates how the design themes introduced in the Qoros 3
Sedan may be applied to its future model range. It also offers a glimpse ahead
to the brand's future technological developments with a pioneering hybrid drive
that not only enhances efficiency but that also provides an exceptional
all-wheel driving experience.
The intelligent Qoros modular vehicle
architecture is a key factor in ensuring that new models can be introduced
quickly and efficiently, and the Qoros 3 Cross Hybrid Concept is based on the
same vehicle platform as the Qoros 3 Sedan.
Source:
http://auto.qq.com/a/20120827/000292.htm
