Beijing Auto Show is over – the show in review
From the first public day on April 25th until the last day on May 2nd, over 800000 visitors swept past the six halls of the Beijing Auto Show making it the biggest in terms of actual visitors in the world over the period of the show. The peak day on May 1st saw 145,000 visitors go through the entrance gates in a single day, only slightly lower than the Shanghai Expo in terms of visitor numbers?.
A spokesperson for the Beijing Auto Show revealed that the scope and size, as well as new car launches has already eclipsed foreign auto shows. With 89 new cars having their world premier in Beijing, as well as over 1000 production cars and 65 concept cars, its not hard to see why it is now the biggest.
A China car market specialist was quoted as saying that although China only has 30 cars per 1000 people, it appears that there is a large market in China still to develop a taste for cars.
The biggest surprise of the auto show was Huatai, their concept cars (which are nearly production cars) were both surprising in their design and their quality. The obvious shocker was the new Huatai SUV, which had strong Porsche overtones at the front end, however their sedans were amazingly good quality. Huatai was once a first tier producer in China, but slipped back towards the second tier with slightly antiquated models that came from their former Hyundai joint venture. However it seems that Huatai are radically improving their line up and do plan on entering niche markets such as the diesel sedan market, which has so far been off limits to other manufacturers. Huatai bought in their technology from Hyundai, ZF (gearboxes) and VM for engines, all of which they have been improving on over time for their own usage within China, and abroad as well.
Another strong contender at the Beijing Auto Show was Greatwall, whose continual diversification should be considered a text book case for any automaker who wishes to diversify their line up to meet market conditions in a short time frame. Greatwall motors appeared to understand from an early stage that continuing to produce SUV’s and trucks in a market that was quickly turning against gas guzzlers was not the best path of expansion, ultimately Greatwall took the very wise decision to branch out into small cars and then sedans at this years show, with their sedans being on show and alarmingly close to production under the Voleex brand.
For big premium car brands like Bentley and Porsche, the Beijing Show was akin to shooting fish in a barrel with all of the premium brands being able to target the right crowds. Forty luxury cars were sold in total, the biggest prize of the day being a Bugatti Veryon 16.4 Sports model which cost an impressive 38 million RMB. Maserati had six cars on display, and sold five of them during the show, which makes for easier transportation costs back to Maserati China HQ at least. Porsche sold eight models within 3 days, with the most expensive costing over 2 million RMB.
Beijing and Shanghai Auto Shows continue to increase in international prominence every year with major automotive media rushing to cover the show, although these shows claim to call themselves international shows they do lack a good media office for Western media to liaise with, which is a major short coming.
Beijing and Shanghai Auto Shows are considered among the biggest auto shows in the world, but as China’s auto market continues to explode in such a hot way, it wouldn’t be overly surprising if they were the worlds biggest auto shows within the next couple of years in terms of visitors and new car launches.
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This is not even close to the most people at a show, the New Delhi show had over 2 Million visitors last January…
“already eclipsed foreign auto shows. With 89 new cars having their world premier in Beijing”
The majority of the models won’t be sold outside China so to claim this is the biggest and best global motor show is crazy! 90% of the cars are of no interest to anyone outside China.
How is it crazy?! So what if they won’t be sold outside of China? This just shows the dominance of being the world’s number one market. If you are going to attend a show in the world’s largest market, then of course you would want to introduce models that will appeal to its people. It is the same with a majority of other “international” auto shows, and NOTE it says world premier, not China premier.
Premier of a China-only model cannot be considered a real “world premier”. They make it sound like launching China-only cars at a Chinese show somehow gives it international prestige!?! These cars wouldn’t premier anywhere else! Existing international shows premier cars sold around the world and there is real competition and prestige in getting the best new cars on display.
A China premier is a world premier when China pretty much owns the world. I may be exaggerating, but it is true. They only counted “world-premier” models, and launching a car in a country with a population of over 1.3 billion(1/5 of the world’s population) and a market that is still expected to see very strong growth is not your average premier. So let’s just put it this way, a lot of them are world premiers of China-exclusive models.
Welcome the informative summation of this year’s Beijing show outcome. I wonder if China can sustain the two big city shows?
“….Huatai was once a first tier producer in China, but slipped back towards the second tier with slightly antiquated models that came from their former Hyundai joint venture….”
I don’t think little Huatai was ever a first tier producer.
It does stand out as privately owned company however, and there seems to have been an injection of capital from somewhere recently. Has it finally come to its senses and abandoned that new but unbecoming name of Hawtai of about a year ago?
Apparently not. I think it sounds terrible; Korean almost.
They redesigned their website:
http://www.hawtaiautomobile.com.cn/
Not only that, they make no secret of their Bentley aspirations.
Huatai does not sound Korean. The name is fine.
Huatai doesn’t, but Hawtai does.
Is Hawtai another name for Huatai? Why?
I agree it sounds terrible but nothing close to sounding like Korean.
“… it sounds terrible; Korean almost.”
Analyst,I think you our out of line with this comment. And your comment shows that you know nothing about the Korean language.
Indeed, I know very little about the Korean language.
I don’t mean any offense, but I just saw it as a Chinese company trying to pretend to be something they aren’t.
Analyst, just because you weren’t satisfied with some Chinese company’s action ain’t no excuse to offend the Korean language.
They are not trying to be Korean, why would they be?
@Ed
WHAT? I NEVER SAID they were trying to be Korean! It was Analyst that commented about the Chinese company name sounding terrible, that it sounds Korean when he knows little to nothing about the Korean language. Korean sounds nothing like the Chinese language (Whether you think Korean sounds better than Chinese or vice versa is a subjective matter and has nothing to do with this site).
Comments like that hurt the credibility of the commenter. Its really funny how you guys are quick to point out China-bashers and yet there are many who are quick to dismiss and belittle Korean automaker.
I will agree China is different from Japanese and Korean car makers and their future will not, and should not, necessarily follow the foot steps of their predecessors. But I find it beguiling that some think Chinese automakers success is inevitable, as if this is just a matter of time. Hyundai for example, worked their assess off the get where they are now. Chinese auto makers have a long way to go to prove to the world that they can produce quality cars. The burden is on them. In the mean time lets put our subjective derogatory comments off this site. You can always go to ChinaSMACK for that.
I find it odd that you say it’s derogatory. Well, it wasn’t meant to be. I just pointed out that it sounds terrible and it doesn’t sound Chinese (these two things not being necessarily related).
Success is not inevitable. The vast majority of Chinese automakers will either fail or be bought by other automakers. They need to consolidate. How long that’s going to take and what will come out of that is anybody’s guess.
Analyst
I said it’s derogatory because you associated sounding terrible with the Korean language. If you would have said it sounds Korean and left it at that I would have politely disagree, but I wouldn’t have gone as far to say it was derogatory.
I believe Chinese automakers should come up with better names, for both company and models. I was never fond of the name Hyundai even though the meaning of the word means modernity. And most non-Koreans butcher the pronunciation. The Japanese have less of an issue here because their language is easily romanized and easy on the non-asian tongues.
Sorry, my comment was for Analyst, but somehow it became a reply to you.
OK Analyst we can accept that it was just a slip of the tongue.. but then in response you might have whacked me for my inability at English, i.e. using our instead of are. But no, you are a gentleman, and don’t need to retaliate.
That said, let’s get back to the cars…..