Farmers taking to the road in minivans
Although these little minivans are a major pain when they clog up the roads, they are pushing the Chinese car sales along rather nicely, and still these vehicles are much safer than the motorbikes that farmers usually use.
Reporting from Chuzhou, China — Like everybody else in his farming village, Zhan Changchun used to get around on a bicycle. This month, the 29-year-old walked into a local dealership, pulled out $7,300 in cash from his leather satchel and drove away with the family’s first car: a seven-seat micro-minivan that’s jointly produced by China’s Wuling and General Motors.
The Zhans drained their life savings and borrowed from relatives, bold moves in a slowing economy.
But they couldn’t resist a slew of government incentives: a 50% sales tax reduction, elimination of hundreds of dollars in road maintenance fees, plus the biggest of them all, a 10% rebate for rural residents buying vehicles with engines smaller than 1.3 liters.
It’s all part of Beijing’s “Send Automobiles to the Countryside” campaign, an effort to speed rural development and boost domestic consumption at a time when foreign demand for China’s manufacturing exports is slumping. The government is also giving people in the countryside rebates for buying refrigerators and other appliances.
From the LATimes
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Now the whole family can climb aboard and go in to see the sights in the city. But once the kids see those bright lights, it’s gonna be hard to keep them down on the farm.
On the up side, the rural economy gets a shot in the arm, as somebody’s going to have to fuel, and clean, and repair these vehicle, etc.