Beijing Auto Show in review
This piece was written by Ash Sutcliffe of CCT for Just-Auto.com:
This year’s Beijing Auto Show was most notable for its lack of notability – at least in the sense that Chinese auto shows used to be jaw-droppingly notable.
The weirdly wonderful or eye-catching obvious doppelganger has been replaced by something quite a bit more sophisticated. Chinese car manufacturers have seriously brought their car designs up to global design standards and have been keeping the offices of Bertone, Pininfarina, and Ital Design Studio seriously busy throughout 2009.
The awkward looking designs of yesteryear have largely disappeared from the Beijing Auto Show, which ultimately serves as a giant window into the world of the Chinese Automobile Industry.
On the first day of the show big-hitter car company CEOs were present, including Daimler’s Dieter Zetsche and Renault-Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn. Domestic auto leaders were also evident, including the charismatic Geely leader, Li Shu Fu. The on hand Big Wigs certainly reinforced the rising sense of global prominence for the Auto China show.
Perhaps the most notable point of the first two days of the show were the grim faces of Western and Japanese auto executives – easily spotted by their company logos on their lapels. They went from stand to stand looking grimmer each time they reached a Chinese auto stand.
In previous auto shows they posed with broad self-satisfied grins on their faces, standing against awkwardly designed and clearly inferior Chinese cars. It was reminiscent of colonial hunters posing next to their dispatched big game prey. This time, however, they understood that Chinese cars are better and edging closer to entering their main Western markets.
The only happy looking Western automotive executives we saw were the ones that are in the business of selling luxury cars. Ferrari, Aston Martin, Bentley, Land Rover, and Jaguar all appeared to be doing sterling business and attracting massive crowds to their relatively small stands.
Both Chery and Geely signalled high ambitions with a surfeit of cars on massive all encompassing stands. Their respective ranges appear to have quite a bit of overlapping cars with both of them producing several MPVs, small hatchbacks, and coupes.
By contrast, Brilliance and BYD appeared to be showing a more conservative hand with only one car in each segment; although Brilliance have yet to launch an SUV and BYD are ahead in that segment,
Great Wall Motors broke away from its usual SUV oriented line-up with a range of sedans that were both impressive and well designed.
Beijing Auto wheeled out its latest line of SUVs. Some 20 years after BAIC’s joint venture with Chrysler began, Beijing Auto is actually making very good looking SUVs of its own. And Beijing Auto’s own version of the recently brought in Saab looked good, too.
A major theme at the past Chinese auto shows has been electric and hybrid cars. At past shows they’ve always been window dressing concept cars. This time it was remarkably different with all Chinese auto manufacturers bringing production ready vehicles to the show.
The only delay now is the lack of charging infrastructure within China. Now that the cars are ready, the government is likely to have a major push on electric charging stations. Watch that space.
Whilst hybrids and electric vehicles are gaining traction, there appears to have also been a big jump to small but powerful turbo-powered engines this year on the back of government taxes and incentives to encourage smaller displacement engine sales. That shift in the market helped by turbochargers will continue.
If China’s auto industry ambitions were underlined by the exhibits on show, it is perhaps also worth mentioning the A-list credentials of the Beijing venue.
The expansive new exhibition centre is well built with two clear wings (easily split into east and west wings) that make it easy to go from hall to hall; it is easy to walk around. It is quite a contrast to the Shanghai exhibition centre, which is essentially laid out in a gigantic V-shape, making it a long long walk back to the beginning when you’ve got to the end of a row of halls.
But there is still a problem in Beijing. Getting there and out again is no piece of cake.
The downside to the new auto hall is that public transport to the facility is terrible, and necessitates reliance on taxis. Be warned: they will only take you if your destination is far enough to make it worth them driving you. Less than 20km, and it appears they’re happy to let you walk.
This year’s auto show takes place in what is expected to be a massive sales year for the Chinese market. As China bounces away from its early 2009 minor blip of a recession at a massive pace, the Chinese car market is likely to continue to hit new heights.
Auto China 2010 in Beijing revealed an industry growing in self-confidence, its domestic market zipping along nicely while the more mature Western markets languish. Western makers should take note that the Chinese are learning fast and that their automotive products are not the joke they once were.
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I sincerely hope that the maturation process we are seeing in the Chinese industry does not push the designs into overly conservative styles. This market has been a breath of fresh air in a world market that has grown stale. Designers were willing to experiment freely and the results were often interesting if not practical. Having said that, we know this industry’s first obligation is to put the Chinese people into cars. The needs of mass production require more practical, easy to to manufacture vehicles. I guess I’m just being selfish in saying that I’ll miss the spark that this emerging industry generated. Nothing tops the enthusiasm of youth!
Funniest thing:
I just saw this AP poll (March 2010), and question 13 asks:
“In general, which country produces the best cars?”
China is at 3% , up from 2% in 2006. South Korea remains at 1%.
Seeing how much success Hyundai and Kia have seen here in spite of that, the Chinese better set up shop and start selling here (LOL). Again, people are clueless as to where they come from…
Analyst: How about a “what if”. We know that the Saturn dealer network is being shut down. Penske Automotive Group tried to get a deal together selling Renault-Samsung vehicles through a number of the Saturn stores, but couldn’t make it work. What if SAIC’s plan for Roewe-MG was farther along to the point where they had US spec vehicles ready for sale. The Saturn network would have made a great entry point for Chinese cars into the US market. With Saturn dealers emphasis on customer service and the backing of the Penske Group, consumers would have been willing to give the new products a try. As you said, people are clueless to where most vehicles come from. Penske+Saturn would have the customers deciding to purchase based only on the merit of the products themselves. If only the timing was right, the first chinese cars could have been slipped in under the nose of the average American.
The average American is clueless. If the Chinese are to succeed in the American market, they’ll have to get around the prejudice and against them just because they are Chinese; especially after all the garbage the media has been feeding the American public ad nauseum (lead in toys, toxic drywall, etc.)
So yes, I think if they took over Saturn it would be a good start. But they better have cars that can actually compete in the American market. And I’d strongly suggest they do the best job they can to hide their Chinese origins.
Yes, it may become an impossible mission. I have a friend in California who is open to becoming a dealer for a Chinese brand, but the more time that passes, the more he has second thoughts about the plan. The American public may reach the point where they just won’t except the Chinese brands at all.
SAIC might make some headway using the MG brand, but as you stated, the emphasis of origin would have to be the UK not the PRC.
They also need to watch out for the media grabbing the age of the platforms and engines. If the media pushes they are using old parts it won’t go over well at all. Everyone needs to think they are brand new cars designed from the bottom up recently.
There are Chinese cars with brand new platforms, technology, and engines. The media is really the one to watch out for.
Yes there are but are there any cars out there that can really put out the performance side by side with the popular cars in the States or in Europe and the answer still is no. Someone needs to have a car that really can turn heads with performance. Great looks would be a but if you are lower priced than most others it isn’t as important. Reliability is a must or forget it.
Actually, cars like the MG6 and the Geely GT are quite capable, and a British(?) magazine found the MG6 more fun to drive than a Ford Focus.
How can the GT be “capable” if there are no words on its motorization?
Great article. As with everything else, China learns 2-4 times faster than everyone else. Soon, they will surpass the rest of the world.
Good article Ash
I have been looking at the American media coverage given to the Beijing Show, and have found it to be generally positive. I’m disappointed that AutoWeek did not even mention the MG Zero, since many of their readers are familiar with the MG brand. However, when one takes the time to read the comments posted by readers, the bashing of the Chinese industry is almost non stop. Some of the comments are down-right nasty. With all of mighty Toyota’s recall problems, it seems that no one would even consider trusting a Chinese vehicle right now. “Courageous” will be the Chinese company that sets up shop first in America, but I feel that if they come with reliable electric technology they just might succeed. Americans are really starting to warm up to electric cars. Just a thought.
and it’s not even fair because Toyota has nothing to do with China’s car makers.